Talks, Sermons and Reflections

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...

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...

Acts 9:1-22 Today we are looking at the account of the conversion of St Paul, although in the reading he is known by his old name of Saul. It was a huge experience for Paul. It was an encounter which shaped the rest of his life: not just what he did but how he thought. An audio of the talk can be found here It is so important that we are told the same story three times. Here, in Acts 22 when Paul is speaking to a mob who wanted to lynch him and in Acts 26 when he is standing in front of the local governor and nobility. In both those cases Paul is explaining to his listeners why he does what he does. Four things that I would like to highlight 1. Paul’s experience on that road from Jerusalem to Damascus convinces him that it is all about Jesus. The day begins with him on the road to Damascus with a bunch of heavies, going to arrest followers of Jesus and bring them to Jerusalem. And then he is floored, literally, by a blinding light and a voice from heaven. He asks the voice, ‘Who a...

Matthew 3:13-16 Today we focus on the baptism of Jesus. The Baptism of Jesus. Mosaic from the dome of the Arian Baptistery in Ravenna (late C5th/early C6th). The figure on the left is the the personified river Jordan (cf Psalm 114:3) We are in the season of epiphany - literally, from the Greek, epi - fanos, means ‘a shining forth, a revealing’ Epiphany is about revelation. Listen to an audio of this talk So we read about the revelation of the star to the wise men, and the revealing of Jesus to us. It is like when a car manufacturer has a new product. They announce that a new model XYZ is coming out next year. They put up the adverts. They give us teasers. And then they pull off the blanket and reveal the car. Well, this season of epiphany is the pulling off of the blanket and the revealing - not of the car - but of the Son of God. That happens at the baptism of Jesus. Jesus comes to be baptised, and he is revealed as the Son of God. The voice of the Father comes from heaven and the Spi...

Matthew 2:13-18 We’ve only just had Christmas and in our readings we are now, only three days later, in a real mess. ‘Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey’ are in Egypt having had to flee Herod, who wants to destroy Jesus. The audio of this talk can be found here And there is overwhelming desolation in Bethlehem. Mothers weeping for their dead babies. Their children, their world has been torn apart “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children because they are no more”. It is a quote from Jeremiah 31. The massacre of the innocents. The scroll reads (in slavonic) 'Rachel weeping for her children'. Rachel was the beloved wife of Jacob, the father of the Israelite nation. She was the mother of three of the tribes of Israel, and she died – incidentally in Bethlehem where she was buried - giving birth to Benjamin. Ramah, in the North of Israel, is one of the cities of Benjamin. In Jeremiah 31 Rachel is said to weep because her child...

The big event for the Church this year has been the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene creed. Those are the words we say when we begin ‘I believe’ in every communion service. In 325 Emperor Constantine brought together all the bishops, the church leaders, many of whom had, until a few years earlier, been persecuted for their faith. He wanted them to come to an agreement on who Jesus really was. Was he human, or was he God-human? It was a passionate debate.  It was so passionate that even Santa Claus got locked up in a cell for the night. Nicholas the bishop of Myra, who later became St Nicholas, Santa Niklaus, was so impassioned that he punched his opponent in the face and was taken to the cell to cool off for the night. I guess that year he was on the naughty list. But at the heart of it was a discussion about Christmas, and the baby lying in the manger. Who was he? The people on the human side of the debate said that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he was the greatest and most Go...