Sermons

Today is the first Sunday in Lent.  In my sermon today I am going to explore the meaning of Lent. The first thought that comes into my head is that Lent is a time when we feel we should give something up that we like and in that period to ...

Our gospel reading today comes from the Sermon on the Mount, a foundational text of teaching for what it means to live life as a Christian. The verses we heard today break into three sections: First, the importance of Salt and Light; Second, the Law and the Prophets; and Third, ...

I’m sure you are all just itching to be a vicar. I can see it in your eyes well, when you finally get round to taking that step, I have some good news. Presuming you get selected, you then get offered a plethora of theological training institutions across the land ...

1 Kings 17: v15. “And she went according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.” John 2: v5. “His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” Welcome to the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany, when both our ...

It’s a game of two halves – and our gospel reading today definitely had two parts! The Kingdom of God, and the calling of the first disciples. In the latter, we have four names given to us: Simon Peter and Andrew, and then James and John, sons of Zebedee (not ...

Happy new year and if you are Orthodox, Merry Christmas to you! It is of course the Orthodox Christmas, though William was most disappointed to learn I have never seen the Orthodox practice that we are going to do today actually put into practice, even though I lived in an ...

Happy new year and if you are Orthodox, Merry Christmas to you! It is of course the Orthodox Christmas, though William was most disappointed to learn I have never seen the Orthodox practice that we are going to do today actually put into practice, even though I lived in an ...

An old man was sitting in his chair in Bethlehem when a young man walked up to him, with a notebook and pencil in hand. “What are you selling?” cried out the old man. “I’m not selling anything sir”, replied the young man. “I’m taking the census”. “The what?” said ...

It is midnight in Bethlehem. Tonight’s Gospel evokes Bethlehem’s hillsides. The angel of the Lord proclaimed to shepherds that their Saviour had been born. “This will be the sign. Ye will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel ...

I like to be organised, and wrote today’s sermon two weeks ago. I focused on Joseph. And then William and Joanna sent me the orders of service, mentioning that we celebrate Mary today. Thus this past week left me rewriting everything from scratch! But that’s great news, because I can ...

In today’s Gospel reading we learn of John the Baptist appearing in the wilderness of Judea, calling upon people to repent and be baptized by him, confessing their sins.  Yet when the Jewish leaders, known as the Pharisees, appear, John dismisses them in their attempt to be baptized by him.  ...

Well here we are on the first day of advent, yet we start at the beginning by talking about the end! I am standing here today largely because of “THE END TIMES”! I grew up in a home where there was great interest in the ‘signs of the times’, and ...

There is certainly a lot to remember this year, especially with the passing of HM the Queen, herself a war veteran, and the ascendency to the throne of King Charles III, who has experience in all three services. And it will be to the war in which the Queen served ...

The name we give to this particular Sunday is ‘Christ the King’.  This to affirm that, in spite of the mockery of Jesus by the religious leaders and soldiers that we find in today’s Gospel reading and the insult of the inscription ‘This is the King of the Jews’ over ...

From II Timothy 3: v. 14 “continue thou in the things which thou has learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou has learned them.” And from Luke 18: v.1 “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not ...

There is certainly a lot to remember this year, especially with the passing of HM the Queen, herself a war veteran, and the ascendency to the throne of King Charles III, who has experience in all three services. And it will be to the war in which the Queen served ...

From Job 19: 26 & 27 “yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another;” And From St. Luke 20: 36 “Neither can they die anymore: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children ...

“In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions.” A story from my first year at university, when I was studying the Book of Daniel. In the room opposite mine a chap was hosting a Christian Union Bible Study. They were getting rather bogged ...

I am sure you were all as impressed as I was by the State Funeral of our late Queen Elizabeth II.  Equally impressive were the proclamations that announced the accession of our new King, Charles III.  We look forward to his Coronation in May next year and we all wish ...

From today’s Gospel “Destroy this temple and in three days, I shall raise it up.” Words above the doorway of this church, from Genesis 28: 17: “This is none other than the House of God, this is the Gate of Heaven.” 65 years ago almost to the day, the then ...

We are keeping harvest today, because I have sense that the late Queen and the King would approve. Not only country people at heart, they and the Duke of Edinburgh have had shared and complementary visions of the need for respect for our planet and the systems which enable food ...

John 14: 11 “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted”. 13 “when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind” Hebrews 13: 16 “ to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God ...

I’m going to reflect on some aspects of the gospel reading first, and then tell you a little about the Lambeth Conference where I served for a week. The conference saw 650 bishops from Anglican churches across the world gather to pray, study and worship together. But I can’t leave ...

In the opening sentence of today’s Gospel reading, we learn that Jesus is reassuring his disciples that they need not be afraid of opposition, particularly from the Pharisees, because they have the promise of the Kingdom of God.  No-one can take that promise from them because it does not rely ...