Sermons And Gubbins

This sermon was preached at our Sunday morning service on 3rd July, when we celebrated the feast day of St Thomas. The Gospel that morning was John 20:24-29 . One of the things that makes humans so special is our ability to spot patterns. It’s one of the things that sets us apart from the rest of creation, and has allowed us to become creative beings ourselves. It’s a blessing, because it opens up the worlds of mathematics and science, and also of art and poetry. But, it’s also a curse, because we are prone to seeing patterns that are not actually there, and whilst sometimes, these can be benign – the face of Jesus in a slice of toast, for example – at other times, our incorrect joining of the dots can lead us to jump to very false conclusions. I don’t know if I’m jumping to false conclusions or not, but the pattern I’ve been seeing in the news this week is one of the stories of women. From the overturning of the Roe vs Wade abortion laws in the US last Friday, to the very different d...

This sermon was preached on the morning of 3rd July, when we celebrated the feast of St Thomas. In the news recently had been the EU referendum and the ensuing Tory leadership contest. The Gospel was John 20:24-29 . Today, we celebrate the feast of St Thomas. I have preached on him before, and I will try my best to not repeat myself today! That is difficult, though, because there is only ever one event from the gospels that is read out when we talk about Thomas; the one which gives him his nickname of Doubting Thomas , the familiar story we have heard again today where Thomas refuses to believe Christ has risen until he has seen with his own eyes. I wonder what Thomas himself would make of it? Every year, the same story being told of him, over and over? “ Not this again! ”, he might cry, “ Must they only ever talk about that moment of weakness? I was the first to take the Good News of Christ to India and converted thousands of people there! ”  And then, turning to Ma...