Matthew 16:13-19 We are looking this morning at the Church. Not the institution of the Church. Not this beautiful building of All Saints, Burnham Sutton. We are talking about the Church, the ‘ecclesia’ (that is the word used here), the people who God has ‘called out’ to be his people, who Jesus gathered to himself, who live by faith in his promises, who are facing God rather than walking away from God, and who are seeking to grow in love and communion with God, together with each other and sharing in God’s mission to the world. A link to the audio of this sermon (and apologies for the poor quality of recording) And I note from our reading 1. That this is Jesus’ Church. Jesus says, “I will build my Church”. We sing the hymn, ‘The Churches one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord’. Jesus is the rock that is the foundation, the cornerstone of the Church. He is the stone on which we stumble and fall to our knees, or which falls on us. And he is the rock on which we can build our ...
Luke 8:26-39 Today we meet the demon possessed man. Mosaic of the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac from the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna , C6th Click here for the audio of this talk We meet a person who has almost been consumed by forces of evil. He is naked: stripped of dignity, protection, socially excluded and living like a wild beast. He lives among the tombs: he is living as a dead man among the dead. He has lost his name. When Jesus asks him what his name is, he defines himself by the demons He cannot be tamed. Others cannot control him. He cannot control himself. And when they enter into the pigs, the demons go into self destruct mode. They serve ‘Apollyon’ (Revelation 9:11), which means ‘the destroyer’. The demons can destroy the pigs. They would have destroyed this man, but for the tiny fragment of God residue that remains in him. But what we also see is that the demons recognise the person of Jesus; they recognise his authority. And they fear...