Sermons And Gubbins

This sermon was preached on Sunday 9th August, in the wake of Greater Manchester being placed in further coronavirus lockdown measures. The Gospel for the morning was Matthew 14:22-33 . If you'd prefer to read a less political take on the passage, then you can read my sermon from 3 years' ago on the same passage here instead. My little boy, Isaac has been trying to perform magic recently. His favourite trick is to put a toy on the table, and then cover it with his hat and then, when you're not looking, he will remove the toy from under the hat and show you that it has disappeared! It's been very interesting watching his technique change; he's progressed now from shouting " Don't look! Don't look, Daddy! " to realising that it's better to try to draw your attention elsewhere. Admittedly, shouting " Oh! Look at the bin! " is not the most sophisticated way for a magician to cover up their sleight-of-hand, but, you have to admit, ...

This sermon was preached at our morning service on Sunday 13th August. The gospel reading was Matthew 14:22-33 ; Jesus walking on the water. I've always found the usual interpretations of this story somewhat simplistic, so it was interesting to think upon and do some research into other potential meanings here. I hope you find it useful.   When I was a little boy, I loved playing in the local swimming pool. Now, notice how I phrased that; ‘playing in the swimming pool’. I didn’t love going swimming. I’ve never been a strong swimmer; in fact, I was in high school before I finally learnt to swim without using arm bands or a float. No – I didn’t like going swimming; I tolerated the swimming so that I could play in the swimming pool. The pool was exciting; there was a shallow area with spurting fountains you could manipulate to spray in your playmates’ direction, there were huge foam boards that several would-be-pirate children could climb onto and command at the same time,...