Sermons And Gubbins

This sermon was preached on our Sunday morning service on 14th June 2026. The Gospel was Matthew 9:35-10:8 .     Did you ever – at Sunday school maybe – have to learn the names of the twelve disciples? I think, for me, it was one of the things we had to do when I was a member of the Boys’ Brigade in Scotland. To be honest, even now, I’m not sure I could do it from memory…   Let’s start with the easy ones: Simon (also called Peter), James, John, Judas Iscariot, Doubting Thomas – ok, that’s five. Seven more then – feel free to shout out! ·          Matthew the tax collector – sometimes called Levi ·          Philip ·          Andrew! (Simon’s brother) ·          Another James (son of Alphaeus, rather than Zebedee) ·          Another Simon as well – Simon the Zea...

This story was written for our Sunday morning service on 21st September, St Matthew's day. The gospel was Matthew 9:9-13 (I would post a Bible Gateway link, but it seems that site has become an unintended victim of the UK's Online Safety Act). I hope you enjoy reading the story! St Matthew from Rembrandt's St Matthew and the Angel  We never liked him. Sitting there, in his little tax booth all day. Watching the rest of us work, while he simply wrote in his ledger. “That’s a fine catch!”, he would call out, as we struggled to get the nets out of the boat. And then, as we got to the hard and dirty work of gutting and cleaning the fish, he’d saunter along, his coin purse jangling at his side. We’d try to tell him many times, how can we pay tax on earnings we’ve not yet made? But his answer was always the same. “The fish you have already caught belong to Caesar, so you need to pay your share now”. Funnily enough, he never wanted fish themselves as payment. We might have underst...