Sermons And Gubbins

  This sermon was preached at our Sunday morning service on Sunday 16th August. The gospel that morning was Matthew 15:21-28 Today’s gospel is difficult. Difficult because it presents us with a Jesus who – at least at first – doesn’t seem particularly Christ-like. Jesus in this passage is parochial. His concern is for his people and his nation. He’s got a mission to the House of Israel, and that is where he believes his focus needs to be. He's not concerned about helping the Canaanite woman who begs for his aid. She is not Jewish, and she is, seemingly, not worthy. I’m sure you’ve heard it before that different Gospel-writers had different focuses. John, for example, was particularly concerned with writing a theology about Christ, and Mark was writing for the benefit persecuted Christians in Rome. Matthew – who wrote our passage today – was particularly writing for a Jewish audience. Perhaps this makes Jesus’ viewpoint here more understandable; it’s an expression of solidar...

This sermon was preached on Sunday 9th August, in the wake of Greater Manchester being placed in further coronavirus lockdown measures. The Gospel for the morning was Matthew 14:22-33 . If you'd prefer to read a less political take on the passage, then you can read my sermon from 3 years' ago on the same passage here instead. My little boy, Isaac has been trying to perform magic recently. His favourite trick is to put a toy on the table, and then cover it with his hat and then, when you're not looking, he will remove the toy from under the hat and show you that it has disappeared! It's been very interesting watching his technique change; he's progressed now from shouting " Don't look! Don't look, Daddy! " to realising that it's better to try to draw your attention elsewhere. Admittedly, shouting " Oh! Look at the bin! " is not the most sophisticated way for a magician to cover up their sleight-of-hand, but, you have to admit, ...

This sermon was written for our Zoom service on Sunday 5th July, the day after lockdown restrictions were eased in the UK, allowing visits to pubs, bars and restaurants for the first time in over three months. The Gospel was Matthew 11:16-19,25-30 . I’ve read and re-read today’s Gospel many times in the past few weeks. You have to when you’re called to preach on a passage, but, perhaps even more so than normal, this week, I’ve been stuck for what aspect of this passage on which to focus. I think it’s because it seems such a mish-mash. The more I read our Gospel today, the less I see how it all ties together. It reads more like a collection of sayings than a process of thought – and, even allowing for the fact that the gospel-writer may well have brought these separate sayings together to form one speech, it’s hard to see what point either Christ, or Matthew (as the writer) is trying to make, especially now 2000 years later. Let me start by paraphrasing the gospel: it star...