Sermons And Gubbins

This sermon was preached at our Sunday morning service on Sunday 21st May, the Seventh Sunday of Easter. The Gospel was John 17:1-11 . I hope you enjoy reading it! Before I start this morning, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge Peter, who is leading our intercessions today. Today is a really hard week to lead the intercessions, because today’s Gospel is basically one long prayer, and so, maybe you can guess what I’m going to be preaching about! Sorry about that, Peter! Don’t change anything in what you’ve written in response to my sermon today though! Don’t worry; I’ll make that clearer later as to why! Who knew the Pope had a holy hotline? All the commentaries I’ve read on today’s Gospel passage talk about it being a model for prayer. And I think there is certainly something in that. In the other three Gospels, the disciples ask Jesus to show them how to pray, and he duly does as he is asked. “ When you pray, ” he says, “ pray like this… ” And then we get the most famous prayer ...

There's something a little bit odd about our Gospel reading today. I wonder if you noticed it? Maybe not. After all, 'odd' these days is really rather a relative concept isn't it? A bit like time.  They say that time flies when you're having fun. I think we need a new saying for what time does when you're in lockdown. 'Time melds together in a conglomerate mess when you're staying home, staying safe, and saving lives'. Perhaps I need to work on the catchiness of that.  I remember reading a meme on facebook the other day that renamed the lockdown days of the week. No longer are we subject to the linear confines of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and so on. Instead, until further notice, the days of the week are now called Thisday, Thatday, Otherday, Someday, Yesterday, Today and Nextday. I say I read it the other day, it might have been two months ago for all I know. I guess that proves the point. (Nextday, by the way, is the mythical day long...