Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Letter for the March 2026 Burnham Magazine There were rumours among some journalists that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was going to be moving to Burnham Norton. I think they got their Marsh Farms muddled up. But I began to wonder what I would say if the press approached me. The simple solution is also the correct solution. I would never talk about parishioners to the press without their permission. But there is one other thing that I may have said - if I had had the courage - and it feels particularly appropriate as we begin this season of Lent. Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery.   Vasily Polenov. 1888 Lent began with our Ash Wednesday service on 18 February. One of the readings for the day tells of the woman caught in adultery ( John 8.1-11 ). She may well have been a victim; she may have been set up to trap Jesus. She alone was dragged before him - and not the man - and the crowd demanded of Jesus that, because she had committed what was then an unforgivable sexual offence, s...

John 3:1-17 Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the night. Perhaps he comes in secret. Perhaps he is wisely cautious Nicodemus Visiting Jesus , by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1899 But John tells us it was night – and in John night is more than a time of day Night is when we cannot see Night is when we stumble (11:10) Night is when we catch nothing (21:3) And when Judas leaves the last supper and the presence of Jesus and goes out to betray him, we are told: ‘it was night’ (13:30) Nicodemus comes in the night – yet he comes seeking light. Many of us find ourselves in the spiritual night. We may think we see clearly – yet remain blind to God Or we stumble through life, overwhelmed by emotions of anger or resentment or frustration, living unfulfilled lives that seem to mean nothing We grasp at things that promise life but they leave us colder, harder and darker. So how, with Nicodemus, do we move from the night to the day, from darkness into light? Four things from our passage. 1. We need to be bo...

Matthew 17:1-10 We see Jesus transfigured. This icon was written by Theophanes the Greek c 1403. Elijah is on his right, and Moses on his left.  And Peter, James and John have fallen to the ground in fear.  An audio of this talk can be found here This is a key passage in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus has just told his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem to be crucified. But before he goes, he takes Peter, James and John with him up the mountain.  1. This passage, this icon, is about seeing glory Jesus goes up the mountain. “And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white” (v2) There are echoes of the OT, of Moses (Exodus 24:12-17), who is called up the mountain to meet with God, together with his assistant Joshua, and ‘the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain’. But now, as Peter, James and John go up the mountain, they do not see a devouring fire, but they se...

Matthew 6:25-34 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life’. This might seem rather unrealistic advice. An audio of this talk can be found here I did an assembly on this passage on Tuesday and I asked the children what they worried about. I suggested a couple of things somebody might worry about – to give them an example: dad not picking you up at the end of school on time, or not finding a friend to play with at break. And then I said, what do you worry about? A boy put up his hand and said, ‘the end of the world’. Another child, a girl, said, ‘the possibility of war’. I would like to follow that up. It would be a fascinating conversation. We can worry about so many things: perhaps we worry about the big things: where is our world and our country going, or we worry about our health, our children, our parents, being scammed, decisions about jobs or where we live – what if I make the wrong decision, about whether I should be with someone, or not having enough money, or being al...

John 12:31-37 It is good to meet together, especially as we disagree on many things We disagree on where authority ultimately lies, on how to balance faithfulness and inclusion, on the sanctity of life – both at the beginning and end, gay sex, on the nature and priorities of the church, on war and peace, on the Kingdom of God and the relation between the now and then, on migration and where boundaries are drawn, gender roles, the number of sacraments and what happens at baptism and communion, on whether everyone will be saved, on music, councils, liturgy and style of worship. I could go on. And yet, despite the differences, we have much in common. An audio of this talk can be found here When I worked in St Andrews Anglican Church in Moscow, I was invited to speak with some students at the Tikhon Orthodox university about the differences between Anglicanism and Orthodoxy. But I asked if instead I could speak on similarities. Because while the differences are very obvious, what we have i...

Acts 9:1-22 Today we are looking at the account of the conversion of St Paul, although in the reading he is known by his old name of Saul. It was a huge experience for Paul. It was an encounter which shaped the rest of his life: not just what he did but how he thought. An audio of the talk can be found here It is so important that we are told the same story three times. Here, in Acts 22 when Paul is speaking to a mob who wanted to lynch him and in Acts 26 when he is standing in front of the local governor and nobility. In both those cases Paul is explaining to his listeners why he does what he does. Four things that I would like to highlight 1. Paul’s experience on that road from Jerusalem to Damascus convinces him that it is all about Jesus. The day begins with him on the road to Damascus with a bunch of heavies, going to arrest followers of Jesus and bring them to Jerusalem. And then he is floored, literally, by a blinding light and a voice from heaven. He asks the voice, ‘Who a...