Posts

Showing posts with the label Lazarus

Dry Bones

Image
This sermon was given at our Sunday morning service on 29th March. Obviously, due to Covid 19, there was no opportunity to meet in person, so we have been experimenting with doing a mixture of pre-recorded and live services - you can check us out on Facebook - St Michael's, Flixton . If you'd prefer to see me deliver this sermon instead of reading it, there's a youtube link directly below. If you'd rather not turn your speakers on just now, then please read the transcript instead. Peace be with you!   There’s been a good deal of advice around recently about looking on the bright side of this strange situation we all find ourselves in. Sometimes, if we’re unable to find time ourselves, it is good to be forced to take a step back and evaluate, with time to sit, and think, and reflect and pray. I hope, for you, this time of self-isolation and social distancing is a time in which you have been able to do some of these things. For me, so far, it has not been. ...

For *All* the Saints

Image
This sermon was given at our All Saints service on the morning of Sunday 4th November. The gospel reading was the story of Lazarus, from John 11:32-44 . If you think about it, All Saints Day is a bit of a weird celebration for us in the Church of England, isn’t it? We’re not really that big on the whole width and breadth of saints outside of the usual suspects – you know, the ones who churches get named after. And, as for praying to the saints? Well, that all sounds a bit too much like Popery to us, doesn’t it? It doesn’t really fit with our (Church of) English sensibilities. But, if it wasn’t for All Saints Day, or All Hallows’, as it’s also known, there’d be no Halloween. And I looove Halloween. I know I probably shouldn’t – Christians more religious than I will tell you that we should avoid Halloween, due to its pagan origins and its preoccupation with monsters and the dead. But, it might surprise you to know that the Anglican Church in America does provide a...