Sermons And Gubbins

This sermon was given at our Sunday morning service on Sunday 19th March, when we celebrated Mothering Sunday. The Old Testament reading was  Exodus 2:1-10  and the Gospel was  John 19:25-27 . Did you know that today is not, in fact, Mother’s Day? That sounds like the start of a sermon from someone who forgot to buy a card for their mum today, doesn’t it? Thankfully, I remembered, and my kids remembered, so I don’t need to try to cover up anyone’s forgetfulness with a technicality – I’m really not sure it would go down well at all, and I would not recommend trying it! But, it is true though. Today is Mothering Sunday – not Mother’s Day – and from the perspective of the Church, there is a difference. Mother’s Day started in the US in the early 1900s, and it was originally a day for mothers to stand together and ask that their sons and husbands would no longer be killed in war. The day took off in popularity, transforming into a day to celebrate and be thankful for moth...

This sermon was preached at our Sunday morning service on 3rd March 2019, shortly before the start of Lent. The Gospel that morning was Luke 9:28-36 , and the Old Testament reading was Exodus 34:29-35 .   I don’t know if you’ve been keeping up with the Comic Relief Kilimanjaro climb on the BBC over the past week? Nine celebrities, including BBC Breakfast’s Dan Walker, Strictly Come Dancing judge, Shirley Ballas and Pointless quiz-host Alexander Armstrong have been recreating the original Comic Relief celebrity mountain climb from 10 years ago. To all accounts, it’s been a gruelling journey up Africa’s highest mountain. There’ll be a documentary on TV on 13 th March which should make for interesting viewing! Mount Kilimanjiro I must be honest, though, there’s not many of these celebrity endurance charity tasks that gain my attention. I’m aware David Walliams did some swimming a few years ago, and there was, of course, Eddie Izzard’s marathon of marathons for S...

This sermon was first preached at our Evensong service on Sunday 26th August. The Old Testament reading that night was  Exodus 4:27-5:1 . Both our readings tonight were quite short, weren't they? Recently I’ve been getting used to an Evensong reading that takes longer to read out than my sermon does, but that’s not the case tonight! (Don’t worry – that’s not a hint that my sermon tonight is going to go on for ever!). My guess is our readers this evening thanked their lucky stars when they saw how short tonight’s readings were, and also that there were no difficult names to pronounce (though, there’s always a confusion about the pronunciation of Aaron isn’t there? – “Air-run”? “Arrun”?... I think I prefer the longer 'A' myself.) Anyway. I wonder whether our readers were praying for easy readings tonight? If so, it seems that their prayers worked! So… tonight, I’d like to think about that first Old Testament reading a bit – the reading from Exodus about Moses. Incidentally, w...

This poem was written for our Evensong service on Sunday 22nd April. It is a response to the Old Testament reading for that evening; Exodus 16:4-15 , specifically picking up the theme of bread/manna and the idea of the Israelites complaining to God. If you'd prefer to read a sermon on that passage instead, you might want to look at one I wrote a couple of years ago; The Immigrants and the Bread . Hope you enjoy! You rescued me from the den of my enemies, Brought me out of slavery and into the wilderness, Led me to safety away from my oppressors, And I complained. I have seen miracles: seen seas parted, and fiery cloudy pillars, I have been led on a journey,       travelling to start a new life in a new land filled with milk and honey I have been set free . And I complained. I was wandering in unfamiliar lands, led away from everything I once knew, I was hungry and thirsty, longing to return to my captors,     ...

This sermon was preached on Sunday 2nd August. The Old Testament reading was  Exodus 16:2-15 Our prime minister, David Cameron, caused something of a stir this week, when he referred to the number of migrants attempting to make the journey from Calais to the UK as a ‘swarm’. This use of language, comparing this group of people to insects – whether meant that way or not – was de-humanising and antagonistic. It was also sad. Perhaps, in his role as prime minister of the UK, he can little afford to show empathy here – his focus in his job, after all, is the country he governs. The same is not true for the rest of us, however. We are called to be empathetic, to put ourselves in the place of the outsider. As Christians especially, we are called to remember that we ourselves are migrants. The New Testament reminds us several times that we are in the world, but not of the world (John 15:18-19, John 17:16) – that we are strangers and exiles upon earth (Hebrews 11:...