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Baptism as a way of living

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Matthew 3:13-16 Today we focus on the baptism of Jesus. The Baptism of Jesus. Mosaic from the dome of the Arian Baptistery in Ravenna (late C5th/early C6th). The figure on the left is the the personified river Jordan (cf Psalm 114:3) We are in the season of epiphany - literally, from the Greek, epi - fanos, means ‘a shining forth, a revealing’ Epiphany is about revelation. Listen to an audio of this talk So we read about the revelation of the star to the wise men, and the revealing of Jesus to us. It is like when a car manufacturer has a new product. They announce that a new model XYZ is coming out next year. They put up the adverts. They give us teasers. And then they pull off the blanket and reveal the car. Well, this season of epiphany is the pulling off of the blanket and the revealing - not of the car - but of the Son of God. That happens at the baptism of Jesus. Jesus comes to be baptised, and he is revealed as the Son of God. The voice of the Father comes from heaven and the Spi...
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From tears of grief to tears of joy.

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Matthew 2:13-18 We’ve only just had Christmas and in our readings we are now, only three days later, in a real mess. ‘Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey’ are in Egypt having had to flee Herod, who wants to destroy Jesus. The audio of this talk can be found here And there is overwhelming desolation in Bethlehem. Mothers weeping for their dead babies. Their children, their world has been torn apart “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children because they are no more”. It is a quote from Jeremiah 31. The massacre of the innocents. The scroll reads (in slavonic) 'Rachel weeping for her children'. Rachel was the beloved wife of Jacob, the father of the Israelite nation. She was the mother of three of the tribes of Israel, and she died – incidentally in Bethlehem where she was buried - giving birth to Benjamin. Ramah, in the North of Israel, is one of the cities of Benjamin. In Jeremiah 31 Rachel is said to weep because her child...
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The Baby in the Manger and the Ladder We Can’t Climb. Christmas day 2025

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The big event for the Church this year has been the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene creed. Those are the words we say when we begin ‘I believe’ in every communion service. In 325 Emperor Constantine brought together all the bishops, the church leaders, many of whom had, until a few years earlier, been persecuted for their faith. He wanted them to come to an agreement on who Jesus really was. Was he human, or was he God-human? It was a passionate debate.  It was so passionate that even Santa Claus got locked up in a cell for the night. Nicholas the bishop of Myra, who later became St Nicholas, Santa Niklaus, was so impassioned that he punched his opponent in the face and was taken to the cell to cool off for the night. I guess that year he was on the naughty list. But at the heart of it was a discussion about Christmas, and the baby lying in the manger. Who was he? The people on the human side of the debate said that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he was the greatest and most Go...
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The Light of Christ. A talk for midnight Christmas Communion 2025

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We had a Christingle this afternoon. This is my Christingle. It looks like one of those old sputniks The key thing about the Christingle is the candle – signifying Christ the light of the world. But it got me thinking. If the orange represents the world, how many oranges would I need to fill the real earth? And the answer is 5 septillion, where a septillion is 1 with 24 0’s after it – give or take one or two! And if we had 5 septillion oranges we would need 5 septillion candles. They would produce as much light as the entire global energy output for one year multiplied by a trillion times. That is quite a long way short of what the sun produces, but it would still make the earth quite a bright bauble in the celestial sky, which could be seen from 15 trillion miles away John writes that in the Word, in Jesus Christ, was life and the life was the light of all people. I guess John is remembering the opening chapter of the Bible.  ‘In the beginning God created ..’  And the wind of...
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The three wise women of Bethlehem. Chistingle 2025

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Christingle 2025 I loved the school nativity play.  It was about Bethlehem – and the imagined police force in Bethlehem. They had a problem. There were so many people coming for the census that there was no room in the town. So the police force were trying to keep people out Joseph and Mary were OK – because they had come for the census But the shepherds – no, and the wise men – definitely no, and the angels – a categorically definitely loud no no no! We hear about Bethlehem in Christmas readings We sing about Bethlehem: O little town of Bethlehem It was an old town. Its name means 'house of bread', so probably there were lots of bakers there. I wonder whether they had any shops selling oranges? But when people thought about Bethlehem, they didn't think about three wise men, but two wise women. There was Rachel.   She lived a long time before Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the wee donkey. Rachel was one of the mothers of the Jewish people. One quarter of the nation looked back ...
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The Gift of Dignity at Christmas. A carol service talk 2005

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In Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi’s Adoration of the Magi, a rather chubby baby Jesus sits on Mary’s lap and blesses the wise man who kneels at his feet. Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi, The Adoration of the Magi , c. 1440/1460 I don’t think it was like that. The audio of this talk can be found here Not because the wise men were not blessed by coming to Jesus, nor because it requires a rather unimaginable precociousness for the baby to raise his hand (but then we speak of a virgin birth, so anything could happen!), but because at the heart of the Christmas story, God really does become one of us and makes himself vulnerable. The newborn Jesus was just like any other newborn baby: unable even to hold up his own head. He was totally dependent on Mary and Joseph. That is astonishing. God, who is all those omni-words: omni-present, omni-potent, omni-scient, who lacks nothing and needs nothing, chooses to become a helpless baby. George Macdonald wrote: “They all were looking for ...
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Steadying the Heart When Life Feels Slow, Unfair, or Irritating

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James 5:7-10 “Strengthen your hearts for the coming of the Lord is near” Images from the west side of St Marys Westgate, Burnham Market parapet. The first arch shows the attendant carrying the head of John the Baptist, and the second shows Herod and Herodias, sitting at table on which are dishes, while Salome is tumbling tête à terre before them. Photos taken by drone, courtesy of Sowerbys (and the lightning conductor cable across the attendant has been erased courtesy of AI!). When James says ‘strengthen your hearts’, he is saying set your hearts on a firm basis. The audio of this talk can be found here I think of a post in the ground. It has become a bit wobbly.  The post James wants us to knock in deeper is this conviction: the Lord is coming. V7: be patient ‘until the coming of the Lord’ V8: ‘for the coming of the Lord is near’ V9: ‘see the judge is standing at the doors’ Our conviction is that one day the Lord Jesus will return. It is something that we say every time we have a...
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