Sermons And Gubbins

This sermon was given at our Zoom service on Sunday 7th March - the third Sunday of Lent, a few weeks' before our planned return to our church building. The Gospel was John 2:13-22 .   It’s odd to hear today’s Gospel story – the story of Christ clearing out the Temple – when we ourselves are not in our own church building. Were a preacher giving this sermon twelve months ago, they’d probably attempt to provide comfort and reassurance to a worried congregation about to move into a year of virtual worship by preaching something along the lines of the church being the people, and not the building, and making a link back to the destruction of the temple that Christ foretells in this gospel. But we’ve been worshipping virtually for many months now, and… God willing… it looks like a return to our beautiful building is in sight. As such, we all know more than ever before that the church is the people, but even those of us who have long fervently held the belief that the ‘where’ of wo...

This sermon was first given on our Zoom service on Sunday 14th February 2021, the last Sunday before Lent. The Gospel was  Mark 9:2-9 . Today is, of course, Valentine’s Day. But, for my sermon this morning, I’d like to start off by talking about another February tradition; one less well-known in the UK, but widely celebrated in America and Canada.  The celebration of Groundhog Day takes place at the beginning of February – on the second of the month. If you’re unaware of the festival, the idea is that, should a groundhog see its shadow when it emerges from its burrow on this day, it will retreat back to its den and winter will persist. If, however, the day is cloudy, and the groundhog does not see its shadow, spring will arrive early. The day became the setting for a cult 90s comedy, starring Bill Murray, also called Groundhog Day – and it’s this film that has really brought the phrase into common parlance. The concept of the film is a man having to repeat the same day, over...

This sermon was given at our morning Zoom service on Sunday 29th November, the first Sunday of Advent 2020. It was given in the wake (watch for that word) of the 2020 US Presidential elections and also news of three vaccines to help fight the spread of Coronavirus, but also whilst the whole country was in its second lockdown of 2020, with the threat of re-strengthed tiers of restrictions for much of the country when lockdown ended, with tier 3 for Greater Manchester being very very similar to full lockdown itself. The gospel for this Sunday was Mark 13:24-37 . I think we’re all sick of it now; the waiting. You can tell when you talk to people; when you queue next to them in those queues outside shops that threaten to go on forever (the queues, not the shops), or when you see parents and children winding each other up in the park, or even when you talk to your own family and loved ones; people are getting fractious and snappy. I know I am. Maybe you’re of better temperament tha...

  This homily was given at our Remembrance Sunday service on 8th November 2020. Apart from being the first ever lock-down Remembrance Day, it was also the day after Joe Biden was eventually named as the President elect of the United States of America. The gospel was John 15:9-17 . I'm not going to preach for long today. Today's service has more than enough in it without a lengthy sermon from me too. And I think that's right, because some things are more important than words. Today is an auspicious day. There has never been a Remembrance Day like this before. In over one hundred years, the day has been about taking part in an act of public remembrance. That cannot happen today, for obvious reasons. Some people have even been unable to buy a poppy this year. No; today cannot be about a public show. Instead then, let us make it a private resolution. And I mean that word not in the sense we use it at New Year; an objective to be tried and given up as a failure within a few ...

  This sermon was preached at our Sunday morning worship within church and on Zoom on Sunday 4th October. The Gospel that morning was Matthew 21:33-46 . What is there to say about today's Gospel? It really does seem so obvious doesn't it? Centuries of Christian teaching has, it seems, cemented its clear meaning in our collective conscience. In the parable that Jesus tells us, often known as the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, we have come to know that the landowner is God, the vineyard is the kingdom of heaven, the wicked tenants are the Jewish people, and the new tenants are us Christians. Done, dusted and simple. A nice comfortable parable that helps us feel good about ourselves. But I don't think Jesus was particularly into telling comfortable parables. I think there must be something other going on here. We didn't have it this morning, but if we had heard the alternative Old Testament reading for today, we would have realised that Jesus was actually telling an...