Sermons And Gubbins

This sermon was written for our Sunday morning service on 28th December; the festival of the Holy Innocents . The Gospel was Matthew 2:13-18 . I hope you enjoy reading it! May I start this morning by wishing you all a very happy Christmas!   After this morning’s Gospel reading, that sounds a bit incongruous, doesn’t it? Herod learnt that he had been tricked by the wise men, and so set out and killed all the infants in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or younger. Happy Christmas everyone! What a way to begin our Christmas season – mass murder and infanticide.   This part of the Christmas story is one we often gloss over. It does not – for obvious reasons – make it into our nativity plays. It does not feature in our crib scenes. It does not align with the message of peace and joy and hope that comes with the birth of the Christ child. As such, it may not be one that you’re that familiar with. Let me provide a synopsis:   The magi have visited He...

Is it too late to wish you a happy new year?    I’m sure there must be some convention here to follow; a piece of good etiquette that says something along the lines of “new year’s wishes may be conferred upon others up until midday on the Feast of Epiphany, unless there was resting snow on New Year’s Day, in which case – in exceptional circumstances – you may continue to wish someone a happy new year until the first bells of Evensong on the following Sunday”. If that etiquette exists, I must confess my ignorance as to not knowing it, and so I’d like to take this opportunity this morning to wish you a happy new year. May it be kind to you. I think we could do with a kind year, don’t you? The past two years have been hard and cruel. They’ve changed us. None of us are the same people we were this time in 2019; our lives have become smaller and more insular. We’ve lost colleagues, friends and loved ones. Covid has changed our plans and rewritten our rules and – even if we have man...