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Living water for a thirsty soul

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John 4.4-42 We seek the things of this world. At the very basic we seek water and food Jesus here asks the Samaritan woman for a drink. He is tired and thirsty. His disciples ask him if he wants something to eat because they think he is hungry But there is another kind of hunger. A hunger for spiritual food. A hunger and thirst for righteousness, for the Kingdom of God, for God himself. I guess we could say that there is the water and food which washes and refreshes and feeds us on the outside – and the water and food which washes and refreshes and feeds us deep on the inside. So, when his disciples ask Jesus if he wants something to eat, he says to the disciples that he has other food – real food – which is to do the will of his Father And Jesus says to the Samaritan woman that just as he has asked her for physical water, so she should be asking him to give living water – water which is the gift of God, which will never run out and which will satisfy us for eternity. And...
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When we are desperate. Matthew 15:21-28

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Matthew 15:21–28 The woman in our story is desperate.  She is a Gentile yet she comes to a Jew, and not just any Jew. She recognises him as Messiah, 'Son of David'.  She is shouting. She is going to get his attention She keeps on shouting even when Jesus' followers try to get rid of her.  She persists when Jesus says nothing: 'But he did not answer her at all' (v23) She even persists when Jesus tells her bluntly that he was not sent for people like her. He calls her a dog. To put it in context, this is a rabbinic exchange: sharp but opening up the conversation and not ending it. It invites a response. What I love about this woman is that there is no attempt at self-justification. She does not bristle at what could be taken as a racial slur She does not argue for rights. She asks for mercy.  She simply recognises that she is coming with nothing and she is asking for gift.  Yesterday I was speaking with someone who was struggling to understand why the Ch...
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Before you throw the first stone ..

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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...
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Moving from the night to the light. John 3:1-17

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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...
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The vision and the voice. The transfiguration of Jesus.

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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...
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Do not worry!

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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...
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The uniting power of the cross. A talk for the week of prayer for Christian Unity

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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...
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