Sermons And Gubbins

This is a  version of a sermon  I first preached in March 2016, updated for Sunday 12th March 2022. Consuming our thoughts was the ongoing war in Ukraine. The Gospel that morning was  Luke 13:31-35 . We love an underdog, don’t we? Whilst we are all – rightly and obviously – appalled and horrified by the ongoing war in Ukraine, I think we all have to admit that one of the major reasons this inv asion by Putin has caught our attention in the way his previous war crimes have not, is down to the canniness of Ukraine’s president Zelensky. Zelensky’s cabinet have outright stated that  social media is part of their war-effort , and it is clear that the Ukrainian people are winning the war of hearts and minds of the world in the virtual realm, even if they are suffering immense losses on the very physical ground. The Ukrainian people, and to a major extent, their president too, have been portrayed exactly as that underdog we all love; they are a besieged nation, and Zelensk...

This sermon was preached at our Sunday morning service on August 25th. It was my first Sunday back after my paternity leave. The sermon borrows heavily from one I gave in Oldham three years earlier , but I think that's ok! The gospel this morning was Luke 13:10-17 . Hope you enjoy... It’s lovely to be back up here in the pulpit this morning. It’s been quite a long time since I last preached, and I’m really thankful that Huw, Alex, Cath, Fi and Vaughan have picked up the extra services and sermons whilst I’ve been off on paternity leave. Thank you all! The ministry team here are fortunate to have the freedom of being in a large team that allows one of us time off when needed. Even with that, however, the time has still gone pretty quickly, though! My last sermon before Miriam was born was right at the beginning of June, and I wasn’t on the rota to do anything then until after she was born. She was 6-weeks-old on Friday, and this is my first time back in the pulpit sinc...

This sermon was my first as a guest-preacher, preached on Sunday 21st August; I was invited to preach at St Agnes and then at St Thomas in Oldham. The gospel that morning was Luke 13:10-17 . (As an aside, ignore the heading on the biblegateway link; headings (like chapters and verses) in the Bible are not original and are added by editors to help seperate the sections. Hopefully you'll see (as you read through the sermon) why I don't think the heading is the most helpful!) I’d like to start my sermon this morning with a confession, I hope you won’t hold it against me; I’m not a sports fan.   I don’t follow any football team – and that’s tricky as it’s always one of the first questions I get asked whenever people hear that I live in Manchester – are you City or United? There’s always a sense of disappointment when I answer ‘neither’, the person I’ve met has just had their conversation-starter stopped in its tracks and needs to try to think of something else to talk about. ...

This sermon was preached on the morning of February 21st 2016, the second Sunday of Lent. The readings were Genesis 15:1-12,17-18 , Psalm 27 , Phillippians 3:17-4:1 & Luke 13:31-end .   I love stories. If you ever want to capture and hold my attention, then start me off with a ‘once upon a time’. And if you want me to stop what I’m doing, tell me a story about gods and origins. A story that has been handed down through the ages, or a twist on those tales. I like that kind of tale so much, I even studied Greek and Roman literature and drama at university, and despite that, I still enjoy reading about Odysseus tricking the Cyclops, and the greed, stupidity, and pride of the Greek pantheon of gods, and the ingenuity of the people with whom they interact. I find it fascinating that different cultures have the same kinds of stories. Tales of people wandering, cast out from home; tales of heroes battling fantastic and horrendous monsters; tales of tricksters, getting their...