Sermons And Gubbins

This sermon was written for our Sunday morning service on 22nd January. In the news headlines recently had been much talk of strike action across various industries in the UK . It was also the Sunday within the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity . The previous Sunday, we had had a guest speaker come to talk to us about the Inclusive Church movement. The Gospel that Sunday was Matthew 4:12-23 . I hope you enjoy reading the sermon! If you’ve been paying any attention to the news at all over recent months, you will have heard of strikes across many and various trade unions across our country. There has been worker-led disruption across many industries for the last six months or so; some taking up more headlines than others: transport strikes, barristers, and the postal service; other high profile strikes across our healthcare system; and schools and universities – but there have also been strikes across local government, the refuse industry, the financial conduct authority, and my own ...

This sermon was given on Easter Sunday 2022. The Gospel was John 20:1-18 . Happy Easter to you! I n the beginning , the very beginning, the world was without form, and darkness covered the face of the deep. God spoke something different into that formless void, into the literal chaos. God spoke a word, and the word was light . In naming it, it came into being. On the first morning of the new creation, the world was dark. The sky had turned black on the Friday, and it was still dark when Mary came to the tomb. We expect great new things to start with a fanfare ; with fireworks and a party. They don’t. Things start in the dark. That’s when most births happen – for humans as well as animals – when it is night time and the sky is black. The world may seem a dark place today. It is still Easter; Easter always starts in the dark. The light of Easter  The thing about darkness, is it hides what’s really going on. Mary got to the tomb in the dark, and – although she could see t...

This sermon was first given at our Sunday morning service on 9th February 2020. The Gospel reading for that morning was  Matthew 5:13-20 . More years ago than I care to remember I was in a school production of  Godspell . I played Father Abraham as a tiny four-foot-nothing 12-year-old with a Charlton Heston-style American accent. In my head, my voice was deep, mid-west and drawling, but – as my voice really hadn’t broken by then, I probably actually squeaked most of my way through my speech and my song!  It’s very funny how I can still remember all the lyrics and my lines – words I learnt over 25 years’ ago – but if you were to ask me to remember any of the things I was supposed to be learning and storing in my long-term memory at school, I would draw a complete blank! But the words to a musical I was in in 1991? Yup, I’ve still got them down-pat. Word-for-word. Don’t worry though – I won’t subject you to a solo of ‘ Learn your Lessons Well ’ just now...