When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with them all and prayed. There was much weeping among them all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, grieving especially because of what he had said, that they would not see his face again.(acts 20 : 36 – 37) Now even though I have an inflated ego I do […]
And I thought that it was only Donald Trump who says things that we wish he hadn’t ! Today’s Gospel is what we call in the trade a ‘hard passage’. And to make it worse there’s little doubt that he actually said them – these are some of the most authentic words of Jesus in […]
Why would anybody want to be a Christian? The Church can be boring, backward, narrow-minded and out of touch. Christians can be bigoted, hypocritical, and stupid. And religion can give some people a twisted justification for evil. When we see Christian bigotry in Uganda, Russia or the USA, why would anybody want to be one […]
(The Pokémon Go Sermon)
So what were pigs doing next to the sea of Galilee? There wasn’t much demand for Pork in 1st century Palestine. And why did Jesus let the poor pigs die? And what happened to the pig farmers once their livelihood was gone? And why is the man called ‘Legion’? This is a Gospel story which raises […]
(Sermon preached at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Quebec City) Thank you for inviting me to preach this morning, in this first Anglican cathedral to be built outside the British Isles. I remember when I was back in England, having a conversation with a young woman who was just about to take up […]
It’s life Jim, but not as we know it May I speak in the name of God the one holy and undivided Trinity. Sadly that quote from Star Trek is just an urban myth. But it works quite well for a Pentecost ordination … it’s life – but not as […]
Baptism always raises an interesting question for me. Will Ellie be more a child of God after her baptism today that she is right now? Or in other words does God love Ellie quite a lot at the moment, but after her baptism in a few minutes will God love her loads more? Nonsense – […]
If you remember last week I left you going down the plughole – that is to say I left you with an image of the Book of Revelation not as a simple prophecy telling us what was going to happen some time in the future at the end of the world – nor as an […]
Picture a long flowing river. The water gathers from the mountain and flows downwards until it becomes wide and fast-flowing. It goes through valleys and past settlements and communities, small branches break off and take different routes. Eventually they all flow out into the deep blue ocean. This is usually how we think of time. […]
This is a bit of a ‘chicken and egg’ kind of sermon. here’s the Easter chicken – (a duckling actually) and here’s the Easter egg. Now which one came first? …… Did we human beings invent the story of Jesus rising again, because we like to believe in life after death, or did God invent […]