Sermons

Today, Gaudete Sunday—the Church says rejoice. In the midst of Advent’s quiet longing and sobriety, a note of joy, rose-coloured and unexpected. Yet the readings set before us are not obviously joyful. They speak of waiting, of suffering, of imprisonment, of questions emerging from the darkness of prison cell. And...

The Old Testament Lesson Isaiah 2: 1-5 THE word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.  And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above...

May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Nigel Farage, the leader of the political party known as ‘Reform’ has described this country as ‘broken Britain’. Organisations not functioning properly, a weak economy and an increase in homelessness are examples of this breakdown...

“As some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, Jesus said,  As for these things, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” I wonder if you have ever asked:...

In the first reading, we hear Job’s raw cry: “O that my words were written printed in a book, engraved on rock forever.” Job longs for his story of innocent undeserved suffering, to be captured. In an oral culture the engraving of words into rock was itself a prophetic statement...

I realised when planning this sermon that in an intentional way I have been studying the Bible for over 40 years. I started A level RS in 1985, here is my Bible, and my Greek Testament; and here is something I am so excited about, I was showing the SC...

May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Recently I watched a programme on television about cyber-attacks and the attempts being made to stop them. The attacker finds a way into the computer system of an organisation and then locks out the victim...

May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Nothing, to my mind, demonstrates more clearly than today’s Gospel reading the emphasis Luke puts on the significance Jesus gives to people on the margins of the culture of his time.  The alien, the refugee...

May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The theme of my sermon today is ‘glory’.  In our earthly life we use the word ‘glorious’ to describe that which we have seen that we think of as uplifting, joyous and magnificent.  It is...

This Sunday of the Good Shepherd, Ruth Peel will be leading Sunday School. Her father was a shepherd, in two senses of the word. He was both a farmer and a priest. And I am sure what will be being learned downstairs will be more authentic than anything I can...

Today I would like to pose and endeavour to answer two simple questions. The first is simply, Who was St. Mark? The second, for us in this Church dedicated to St. Mark, Who is St. Mark? Our Patronal Festival is the occasion to think about what it means to be...

Easter Day 2025 (1700th Anniversary of Council of Nicaea) The year is 1550. For fans of Wolf Hall, we’re ten years on from the death of Thomas Cromwell, and three from Henry VIII. There’s another season to be made, and here’s my pitch for the screenplay. I want to explain...

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight oh Lord our strength and our Redeemer! Amen. Dear Friends in Christ, The whole Church in the East and West, regardless of denomination, is today placing the cross before our eyes. The...

Friends, I’m here today at William’s request to do 2 things. The first is to speak about the Jewish festival of Passover- and this is the eve of day three of 7, running sunset to sunset- and the second is to allay some myths and point out some similarities between...

May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The theme of my sermon today is compassion. Compassion is very much a feature of Luke’s Gospel and is particularly evident in today’s Gospel reading. I would say that compassion is pity, inclining one to...

May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Good morning. I greet you today with a cheerful welcome and two extracts from today’s reading and gospel. From Jeremiah: I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every...

May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. If we look at the passages in Mark’s Gospel that precede today’s Gospel reading, we can see that there were many questions that were being put to Jesus by the chief priests, the scribes and...

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:  yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. For 2,000 years Christians have seen in those words, and in that whole passage of the...

May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In 1832, Thomas Arnold, educator and historian, wrote the following words: ‘the church as it now stands, no human power can save’.  In 2009, this pessimistic view was echoed by the then Bishop of Winchester...

May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In today’s Gospel reading we learn that the Jews are disputing amongst themselves that which Jesus has told them about who he is.  In the verses that lead into today’s reading, Jesus has revealed himself...

When I read through today’s Gospel reading to prepare for my sermon today, the word that came to mind was ‘compassion’.  That word leapt out at me as I read how Jesus invites his disciples to come away and rest after all they have done and taught.  He is mindful...

The theme of my sermon today is what is meant by being set apart. In today’s Gospel reading we learn that by the Sea of Galilee Jesus invites his disciples to leave the crowd behind and go with him into a boat. The disciples are being set apart from the...

At the heart of our worship and how we praise God is music. Most churches, indeed most religions set a great deal of store by the importance of music. We begin our Annual Summer Music Festival today, and in recognition of this celebration of the musical gifts in our midst...

The biblical story opens with God speaking order into chaos, creating the heavens and the earth. But what is meant by “heavens” and “earth”? In Hebrew, the word “heavens” literally means “the skies.” In modern English, we usually use the word “earth” to refer to the whole planet or globe, but the Hebrew...