Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Luke 18:9-14 I love this story that Jesus tells. It is about a familiar theme that we find in Luke – a theme that is introduced in the Mary’s song : “God will scatter the proud in the imagination of their conceit. He will cast down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly” The audio of this talk can be found here And we saw that illustrated in Jesus comments about guests at a dinner party who choose the most important places. The host will say to them, ‘Move down’, and will say to those in the lower places, ‘Come on up higher’ (Luke 14:11) And we see it here. God hears the prayer of the broken tax collector but not of the self-justifying Pharisee . The Tax collector and the Pharisee. Mosaic from St Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna. c505AD It is not that what the Pharisee is doing is wrong. He fasts twice a week. That was over and above what the law required. The law required fasting on the day of atonement (Leviticus 16:29) and possibly on 4 days in memory of the destruction of J...

  Last month I had the privilege of visiting Herculaneum. The archaeological site is smaller than Pompeii and more manageable. There was obvious wealth - a huge villa set on the edge of what would then have been the sea. This was the equivalent of Cornwall or the North Norfolk coast where wealthy Roman citizens could get out of Rome. In the local exhibition centre we saw beautiful jewellery, some of which was very similar to what we would see in our shops here. And down, where the beach was, in the place where the boats were kept, we saw the skeletons. They are of the people, young and old, free and slave, who fled to the shore as Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79, hoping against hope to be rescued by sea. It is incredibly poignant, not least because at least two of the skulls have open jaws set in what appears to be an eternal scream as the scorching gas cloud enveloped them. We hope their death was pretty instantaneous. It really brought home the fragility of life. Here were people ...

Luke 17:11-19 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus  was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.  As he entered a village, ten lepers  approached him. Keeping their distance,  they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’  When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean.  Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.  He prostrated himself at Jesus’  feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.  Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?  Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’  Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’ Harvest is much more real here than it was in the centre of Moscow or London. The audio of this talk can be found here We are conscious of the weather, not just for sai...