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 3rd September 2017. The two New Testament readings were Romans 12:9-21 and Matthew 16:21-28 . They say you should always start a sermon with a joke. Ok then… What do you get if you cross a sheep and a kangaroo? Altogether now: A woolly jumper! Ba-doom tish. It’s an oldie, but, as they say, it’s a goodie! It’s actually one of the earliest jokes I can ever remember being told. I remember laughing at the joke as a small child, but not really understanding it; laughing because it was the conventional thing to do after you hear a joke – and also because it’s just fun to laugh – but all the while, I was thinking “ you get woolly jumpers from sheep – why on earth do you need a kangaroo in the joke too? ”. Perhaps I was also laughing at the ridiculousness of that thought. In fact – I’ll be completely honest – I was an adult before I heard the joke again and really thought about it; about the dual meaning of...

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...

O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous— therefore judgement comes forth perverted.                                                                                  (Habakkuk 1:2-4) The question has plagued us throughout the ages. Those words, from the book of Habakkuk were written two and a half thousand years ago, and yet, you can imagine them being spoken – you can almost hear the words echo – any night of the week on the news, by people all over the world being interviewed at the scene of the late...