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Thirsting for God. John 7.37-39

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  John 7.37-39 Today we hear a wonderful invitation. Listen to the audio of the sermon here Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink’. Jesus is talking to people who live in a dry land. There was little water, much of the time the earth was barren; but when the rains came the world exploded into life. Jesus was at the feast of the tabernacles, of the booths. This was a festival, held every year, when the people of Israel remembered how, about 1300 years earlier, God had led them out of Egypt to the Promised land, through the wilderness. It was a desert land. There were times when they had no water. On at least two occasions the people are very scared. They begin to complain. They accuse Moses, who had brought them out of Egypt, of bringing them into the desert so that they will die. And Moses cries out to God. And God tells Moses to take his staff and to strike a rock, and miraculously water pours out of the rock. The New Tes
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What is the glory of God? John 17.1-11

John 17:1-11 Madonna, the mega star, was being interviewed. They asked her if she prayed. She said that she did. She said that before she went on stage, she gathered her crew around her and she prayed, ‘God, make them love me’. I speak of Madonna, but I suspect that that is a prayer that each of us might want to pray. In John 17 we are shown Jesus at prayer. At first glance it might look like Jesus is praying what Madonna prayed, only bigger. Not ‘make them love me’, but ‘glorify me’! Is Jesus praying, Glorify me: let me be a star, let me be there in the headlights, let them love me and praise me, let them say their great big ‘ ура ’ about me? But as we read through this prayer, we begin to realise that true glory is so much more.   1.       When Jesus prays ‘Glorify your son’, he is praying for that his Father will complete his work in Jesus, will make him perfect, through the cross. Jesus has already lived a perfect, authentic life: a life that was driven by love of G
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Four promises from John 14.15-21

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John 14.15-21 I hate preaching from John and I love preaching from John! I hate preaching from John because there is so much here and some of it is very complicated.  But I love preaching from John because there is so much here, and there are always new truths to discover. John’s gospel is like a mine – the deeper you dig, the larger and the more precious are the jewels that you draw up.  Today is no different. Although I fear that we are not going to dig very deep. We are simply scraping over the topsoil.  Audio of the talk In John chapters 13-17, Jesus is speaking to his disciples. It is his last night with them. These are his final words. That very evening he will be betrayed by Judas and arrested. That very night he will be tried and sentenced. The following day, at about 9am, he will be nailed to a cross and at about 3pm he will die.  Jesus knows that his followers will be crushed. He knows that they will be lost and broken, feel abandoned and utterly hopeless. He knows that they
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Service and leadership. Luke 22.24-30

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Luke 22.24-30 King Charles III said, at the beginning of the coronation service yesterday. ‘In his name and after his example, I come not to be served but to serve’. The audio of this talk can be found here It is the first time that those words have been put in the coronation service. Possibly that is due to the very real way that his mother understood her calling to leadership – as sacrificial service to God and to the peoples for whom he had given her responsibility; and also to a movement of the Spirit which is reminding the Church, and especially church leaders, that we are not here to be served by people, but to serve the people. Of course, we often use the language of serving others, especially in the church, as a sham, a god-speak way for ruling over others. ‘I am your servant’ means ‘do what I say’.   That is not something new. That desire to Lord it over others is the way of the world in which we live. In our reading, the disciples are arguing – again. ‘A dispute
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Don't get stuck in your faith. Luke 24.13-35

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Luke 24.13-35 Today we meet two people who go on a journey A physical journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus, but also another kind of journey At the beginning , when Jesus, who had risen from the dead, meets the two disciples, they do not recognise him. He asks them what they are discussing, and we are told, ‘They stood still, looking sad’. But then, as they continue with their journey , and as Jesus explains the bible to them, we are told that ‘their hearts burnt within [them]’. I love that. I hope you have experienced something like that – it does not necessarily need to be things about God – but when what you are hearing makes such sense, clarifies so many confusions, and brings you such joy – that you are alive, you are on fire. Your heart is burning within you. And then when they come to the end of their journey , and they invite the stranger in, and he breaks bread – they recognise that it is Jesus. Forgive me for making Luke say something that he is not saying, but that I t
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The glory of the resurrection. Matthew 28.1-10

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Matthew 28.1-10 This morning we are looking at Matthew 28, and the account of the resurrection of Jesus Matthew specifically mentions two women who come to the tomb, and he names them: Mary Magdalene and ‘the other’ Mary (not Mary the mother of Jesus, but Mary the mother of James and Joseph). The audio of this sermon can be found here That is very Matthew: Matthew likes his ‘twos’. He mentions two blind men who Jesus heals (twice); he mentions two demoniacs from whom Jesus casts out demons. And now he mentions two women who come to the tomb. And the reason is that you need two witnesses in a Jewish court if your evidence is to be counted as valid So Matthew is putting forward Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. They are his witnesses However, there were other women who came with them to the tomb. Mark mentions Salome; Luke mentions Joanna and ‘other women’ And so in our icon (a 16 th Century icon from the Pskov region), I think you can count 5 women looking down at the tomb
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