Sermons

(Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23) ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ Given the events of the early 2020s, many of us may have some sympathy with these words of the Pharisees and scribes. After all, it isn’t a bad idea to wash your hands […]

“He who eats this bread will live forever” In about 30 minutes time we will all receive bread and wine, the Body and Blood of Christ. Why do we do it? Partly because Jesus said we should. “Do this as oft as ye shall drink it.” We do it because we know it is Jesus […]

 The highlight of the holiday was my brother George’s 70th Birthday celebration. Many of you know George as the Auctioneer. He and his family are regular visitors to Mirfield. The meal was held at Stormont the home of the N.I. Assembly. There were 21 of us – all known to each other, all related either […]

I am the Bread of Life. John 6: 25-35 Bread. Our brother George once went to a conference on Bread and came back with three volumes of papers! There is so much that can be said about bread and so many different ways of making it. Bread means many different things, on different levels, so […]

Meeting the world with silence I’ve called this talk “Meeting the world with silence”, and in it I want to speak about what is sometimes referred to as “contemplative” prayer or simply contemplative “practice” and to say a bit about the great gift I think it is to us today. Part of the reason I […]

2024-07-07 (2 Cor. 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13)           The passage we have had today from Paul is what I think of as being stereotypically Pauline – he manages to be both moving, while at the same time slightly irritating. He says that he isn’t boasting, yet we all know perfectly well that this person in Christ […]

“Thus far you shall come and no further, and here shall your proud waves be stopped.” *********************************************** I had the pleasure a couple of weeks ago of visiting Crackington Haven on the North Cornish coast and walking on the sands. It was a bright day and a peaceful scene. At least, it was until I […]

Mark 2: 23 – 3: 6     Keeping the Sabbath It’s easy to mock the Pharisees or criticize them for their strict rules for keeping Sabbath. Yet it was not they who invented the Sabbath. That came from the hand of God on Mount Sinai. Keeping the Sabbath is at the heart of the Mosaic Law. […]

It was utterly compelling. It’s not so easy for us to realize that the message that Jesus brought to the ancient world made people sit up in amazement. In a world full of us-and-them attitudes, Jesus told people to love one another. In a world full of vindictiveness and conflict, he told them to love […]

About ten years ago my (then) teenage nephew introduced me to the world of Percy Jackson. We were both present at a baptism and I noticed that he was reading a novel during the whole of the service. It was probably part of some teen bush warfare expressing his disapproval of the service or his […]