Posts

Coming Home

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This sermon was preached on Sunday 4th July 2021; the morning after the England football team qualified for their first semi-finals in the Euros in 25 years! The gospel that morning was Mark 6:1-13 . In today’s Gospel we heard the story of what happened when Jesus – after travelling throughout nearby villages, towns and cities, performing miracles, healing the sick and bringing God’s good news – much like football, came home.   Coming home (well, I had to, didn't it?) You’d think that ought to be a joyous occasion, seeing family and friends again after so long, welcomed back to a home-cooked meal and perhaps even praised as the famous celebrity preacher everyone has been talking about, but… things were quite different.   Jesus, it seems, was none too popular back home. We all know this story – a favourite of many a teenage Christian: ‘a prophet is not without honour except in their home town’. Except this is actually more than a belittling; the people aren’t just d...

Peace

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This sermon was given on Sunday 18th April at both our Zoom and our physical service. The Gospel reading was Luke 24:36b-48 . My office at home is at the back of our house. It has French doors that lead into our garden, and it's been lovely - in those times I've not been staring at my laptop screen - to look out to see the changes in the plants and trees over the last few weeks; to see signs of spring appearing and the garden bursting into life. Each day I look and see new vibrancy and colours, more birds and butterflies; new signs of life.  And it's the same in the country as a whole; as covid restrictions have gradually lifted over those same few weeks, it's been incredibly emotional to see signs of life return in our public spaces as friends and family meet again after months of corporate winter. There's been a great deal of joy as lives begin again to interconnect and the virtual becomes corporal and physical and real. But... And there is always a 'b...

The Business of Worship

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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...