Talks, Sermons and Reflections

John 14:15-21 Why? Why do you come to church? Why do you seek to keep the commandments: say the 10 commandments (or at least some of them!): no stealing, murder, adultery, lying or coveting? Jesus intensifies that to no hating, lusting, swearing – or perhaps more positively forgiving, exercising self discipline, speaking words of integrity. Why do you give? Why do you try to forgive? Why do you want to try and love other people even those you don't like or who don't like you? Why might you try to say some prayers, or the Lord's prayer, when you are on your own? The audio of this talk can be found here Because it is a habit, or what we have been taught we should do, or it is familiar or comfortable, or because it is useful in life? I suggest that somewhere within us, whatever other reasons we do those things for, we do them – rather than other things - because there is a spark of love for God in us. Jesus says, ‘If you love me you will keep my commandments’ (v15). ‘They wh...

John 10.1-10 , Psalm 23 Forgive a very basic sermon today, but I hope one that will live with you. I’ve brought along a visual aid. My hand. Your hand. Listen to an audio of this talk here The thumb. Look at your hand. Just for a moment. Now try to imagine it without your thumb. It still works but not very well. The thumb is an amazing organ. It is the digit that each of the other fingers – the pointing finger, the middle finger, the ring finger and the little finger – relate to. Without the oppositional structure of the thumb, they can work together, grasp and hold but they cannot really do anything precise. The thumb in my illustration stands for the Lord Jesus, my shepherd. He is the one closest to me. He is the one who has come to us, who calls us – you and me – by name. “He calls his own sheep by name .. the sheep follow him because they know his voice” We think of him in the garden after his resurrection. Mary is distraught. The body of Jesus has disappeared. She sees what she th...

Luke 24:13-35 Jesus says to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: ‘Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ They had been there with the others on the first Easter Sunday, but they had decided to call it a day. It was all too confusing and depressing. An audio of this talk can be found here They had thought that Jesus was the Messiah; that he would set Israel free from Roman occupation and bring in God’s reign of abundance and security and justice. They didn’t know how – perhaps he was going to provoke an uprising and raise an army. Or perhaps God would step in, as he had done in the past, and wipe out the Romans overnight. But they trusted this man, and they had put their hope in him. But it had all gone so wrong. Jesus had been arrested and crucified. Even the crowd had chanted for his death. And now, three days later, the women were saying that an angel had told them that Jesus was alive. Some of the disciples had been to t...

Matthew 28:1-10 This was a sermon preached at a family service when we created a living model of this image. An icon of the myrrh bearing women. Prosopon school. Painted/written by Alison Rogers The icon above shows the women who came to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body Or maybe you have been given an artist’s impression of a potential crime scene! And here on the ground we have a coffin marked out by our forensic experts. I would like us to visualise this scene and see how it helps us understand what we read in Matthew 28 Our witnesses are three women Mary Magdalene, another Mary (Mark and Luke tell us that she is Mary the mother of James – in other words, they are saying, you may not know her, but you know James and she is his mum). And there is a third woman mentioned by the other writers. They come to the tomb of Jesus. They know it is his tomb. They had seen where his body was laid. They had seen the stone rolled across the entrance. But when they get there, they find that the bod...

Hebrews 10.19-25 This passage seems to be addressing a problem we don’t have. It is talking to people who are afraid of praying, of coming into the presence of God. Most people – if they believe that God exists – don’t have that problem. They may have a problem about coming into a church for a service – in the same way that I might feel awkward going into a night club. It is just not my world. But we have been taught that we can come to God as we are; that we can pray to him wherever we are; that we don’t need to use special words. And yet this passage assumes something very different: that people tremble to come into the presence of God. They knew something that we have largely forgotten. They had a concept of God as totally other, as holy, as set apart, as awesome. He is eternal – we are mortal He is the creator – we are the creation. It is the difference between a fruit fly and a human being. All the wisdom of Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, Hume, Weil, Einstein, Wittgenstein put ...

Matthew 21:1-11 How do you take over a country – especially one that does not want to be taken over? Do you take out the leadership, a le Trump? Do you use military might – shock and awe? Do you use economic muscle and sanction your enemy into submission? Or – do you find a donkey, throw some rags on it, ride it into the capital claiming that you are God’s King. The audio of this talk can be found here Jesus enters into Jerusalem. A contemporary mural from the Anafora Coptic Cathedral, Egypt. The movement is from right to left rather than left to right.  It is a bit of a joke. It is Monty Python-esque It is a sure way of getting yourself crucified And it is the way that Jesus chose to come into Jerusalem So what is going on here? 1. Jesus is leading a revolution. He is now finally openly declaring himself to be the Messiah, God’s king. He is very deliberately choosing to fulfil the prophecy of Zechariah. “Look your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on...