Sermons

Advent 1 Year B Isaiah 64:1-9;  1 Corinthians 1: 3-9;  Mark 13: 24 -37 “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.” *********** Welcome to the Year of Mark, and we’re in with a bang. It is the Passover week and Jesus takes his seat on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem. […]

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” In the name of the Father… How weary Jesus must have been of that word “greatest”. “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” “Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob?” “The disciples disputed among themselves as to which one of them was the greatest.” Time […]

(1 Thess. 1:1-10, Matt 22:15-22)           I had a dream – this week. Not at all like Dr Martin Luther King’s, or anything like Joseph’s in the Book of Genesis. I had looked at the readings for today earlier in the week, and then another day during my morning meditation, I’m afraid I nodded off. […]

“Many are called but few are chosen.” Matthew 22: 14 The parable we have just heard is one of the oddest parables in the Gospel. You do not need to be very clever to see the problems. First, we have a king whom we naturally assume must represent God. But this king is not a […]

Matthew 21.23-32         The Priests and elders who encounter Jesus in the temple can’t bring themselves to say John the Baptist is not from God. That’s because they are afraid of the crowd. They think he is clearly from God. Why does the crowd see things differently? The simple thing is that they get it. They […]

Syro-Phoenician woman – Trinity 11 2023 The story we have just heard would make a powerful scene in a film. Jesus has gone out of his home territory into an alien area. A woman appears and starts shouting, going on about her daughter. In the actual Greek of the gospel story, she shouts what we […]

SERMON: Trinity 10: August 13th 2023 1 Kings 19: 9-18; Psalm 85: 8-13; Rom. 10: 5-15; Mt. 14: 22-33 Test the living waters of the faith “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” (Mt. 14 28-9). May it be given to me to speak to you in the […]

Feast of the Transfiguration 6th August 2023 Community Church of the Resurrection, Mirfield    The Gospel:  S. Matthew 17:1-9 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I wonder what our reaction would be if we were led by Jesus up to that high mountain along with […]

((Gen. 29:15-28), Rom. 8:26-39, Matt. 13:31-33, 44-52)           It is perhaps not obvious if one has just heard the Gospel for today in church, but if one actually looks at the readings as set down in the lectionary, we have just had a selection of parables from the 13th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, rather than […]

Wisdom 12.13,16-19; Romans 8.12-25; Matthew 13.24–30, 36–43               A good many years ago now I remember hearing the Jewish theologian Dan Cohn-Sherbok talk about Jewish apocalyptic. “Fundamentally,” he said, “it’s about evident justice where ‘the baddies get their come-uppance!’” And, on that score today’s parable hits all the spots. Let the good flourish, get rid […]