When I was a schoolboy, each August my mother would take me and my brother to Smith’s department store in Leicester to buy new blazers. Putting on the new blazer was always magic, but there was another bit of magic I always looked forward to. The store was equipped with a vacuum tube payment system. […]
Sermons
19th after Trinity
It all comes down to the money. That seems to be the consensus of political commentators this week on the Brexit negotiations after the latest EU leaders’ meeting. The future relations between neighbours sharing one continent and centuries of entwined cultural development depend on ‘how much?’. Later this week we’ll be commemorating the Christian King […]
“And then the end will come.” Matthew 24 1-12
What did Jesus mean by all this talk of war and rumours of wars; of enduring to the end? Over the centuries these verses have convinced many that the end of the world is about to come. This past century has been a particularly rich time for those who like to give this warning and […]
Trinity XIV 2017
This is the third time that I have read these words from this lectern in the past month, I don’t quite know what that means except that I, at least, am familiar with this very Dickensian text, Dickensian because Dickens wrote so much about the poor and afflicted alongside the affluence so abundant among the […]
The Way of the Cross
How quickly the mood changes, the tone darkens. Only moments earlier Peter’s insight has been declared by Jesus to be heaven-inspired, something beyond the capacity of flesh and blood, providing the rock on which the future will be built. But now Peter is sternly reprimanded and firmly put in his place; he is called Satanic, […]
Isaiah 51:1-6. Romans 12:1-8. Matthew 16:13-20
In the modern kingdom of Jordan is a big tourist attraction, the rock hewn city of PETRA, where beautiful tombs are cut out of the living rock: PETER/PETRA. Isaiah says is all: “Look to the ROCK from which you were hewn”, and the reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans tells us about ministries we […]
Trinity 7 (Pr 12) I Kings 3.5-12; Romans 8.26-39; Matthew 13.31-33, 44-52
HR 30 July 2017 Trinity 7 (Pr 12) I Kings 3.5-12; Romans 8.26-39; Matthew 13.31-33, 44-52 Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” – and we find ourselves on familiar ground. These sayings are lodged deep within us. Heard and reheard over years and years, they form a central part of our experience […]
The Sower
I have heard quite often that the sower in Jesus’ parable sows the seed in the traditional peasant fashion, casting it from side to side. If this is the way all farmers sowed their seed it is no wonder peasant farming was so bad and famines so frequent. It is a very inefficient way of […]
“Salvation has come to this house today.” (Luke 19.9) – Re-hallowing of the Community Church
“Salvation has come to this house today.” (Luke 19.9) It was in July 1911 that Charles Gore presided at a service here for the laying of the foundation stone of the Chapel of the Resurrection. He and Walter Frere were not at one on the liturgical arrangements. Gore was “all for incense” but refused to […]
Here’s the church, here’s the steeple, look inside and there’s the people
The gospel tells us that the Church is the people. “You are the body of Christ”. Every church building is for the people, the People of God. Having church buildings is an inevitable consequence of the gospel. In Jesus God entered into human life, taking flesh. And so our relationship with God is not just […]