Posts

Showing posts from July, 2017

On St Mary's. The vicar's final sermon at St Mary's

Image
Hebrews 10.19-25 Thank you: for the immense privilege of working here among you – amazing place, remarkable people from whom I have learnt so much, from the town and from the parish. Sorry: There are so many of you who I would have loved to have spent time with before we go, especially those with whom I have had the privilege of going through times of immense pain or of great joy - but it has not been possible I’d like to look today at Hebrews 10.19-25. Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess Let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds I call it the Rabbit passage. Lots of lettuce in it! (That is not even worthy of David Crofts or Ricky Wilkinson) And on this occasion, I haven’t brought a visual aid with me because today – and I ask people from St Peters to forgive me – St Mary's building is my visual aid.  This building speaks of the glory of God and of Jesus, th

With Jesus in your boat ..

Image
Matthew 8.23-27  (an all age talk) The sea can be terrifying Some of you will have heard me tell of the time when we went on a day trip to the isle of Aran, off the coast of Ireland, in the Atlantic Ocean. It was terrifying. I clung on to the post and Alison clung on to me.   It wasn’t quite as bad as this ( Clark Little ) but it was almost as bad as this! We thought we were going to die. And for the disciples in the boat, the waves were very scary. Jesus had said, ‘Let’s go to the other side of the lake’. He got into the boat and they followed him. The passage is very clear about that. Just a few verses earlier Jesus has told them that following him is not going to be easy, but these men had decided to follow Jesus. So they are doing what is right. And they think that they are going to die.   I wonder whether you have been very scared, overwhelmed, out of your depth. You may even have thought you were going to die. Maybe you were