Sermons And Gubbins

  This sermon was written for Remembrance Sunday 2025; eighty years since the end of World War  II. Today we mark eighty years since the end of the Second World War. I remember clearly standing here only six years ago, marking one hundred years since the very first Remembrance  Day. I also gave my first remembrance day sermon 11 years ago, marking one hundred years since the start of the First World War. This is my fifth Remembrance Sunday sermon. Each year that I write these sermons, I realise that fewer and fewer of us remember.  Back in 2014, I remarked that to have met anyone who had died in World War I – that great war to end all wars, you would have needed to be at least 96 years old then. You’d need to be 107 now. There are about 130 people living in the UK who are 107 or older. You would need to be over eighty years old now to have ever met anyone who died in the  Second World Wa.  That’s about 4% of the UK population. Even with that, you’d probabl...

This sermon was given at our Sunday morning service on 26th October 2025; Bible Sunday. The gospel reading was Luke 4:16-24 . I hope you enjoy reading it!   Today, churches around the world are celebrating Bible Sunday . This is a day set aside for us to think about this book that we read from here at St Michael’s every time we meet together to worship God. I’m sure you’ve all got one – at least one – at home too. Maybe an ancient one you were given as a confirmation present? Maybe one bought as a student to aid with studying? Maybe you are in possession of a treasured family Bible, passed down from parents and grandparents, and now safely stored away in a cupboard or the loft? It probably won’t surprise you to know that – at home – we have at least twelve physical copies of the Bible, most of which are different translations. I have to be honest – this one here  is one of my personal favourites! It’s probably not that useful for when we do the readings in church, however…...

This sermon was preached at our Sunday morning service on 27th July. The Gospel was Luke 11:1-13 . I hope you enjoy reading it!   This morning, I want to talk about prayer. In our gospel this morning, Jesus’ disciples heard him praying and they wanted in. “Teach us how to pray”, they asked, and Jesus gave them a formula; a very famous formula, but one that seems a bit different from the Lord’s Prayer we pray today. It’s the TL;DR version, if you like (“too long; didn’t read”).   <at some point during the above, Miriam, my daughter, interrupts to ask for promised sweets>   Oh, I’m sorry Miriam, I did say you could have some sweets during my talk – here you go. You go back and sit down now.   <passes Miriam a sweet>   Absolutely shameless that child!   Anyway, Jesus teaches his disciples the Lord’s Prayer (though not completely as we know it). Luke’s version goes like this:   “ Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom c...