Talks, Sermons and Reflections

MATTHEW 4:1-11 Useful to use the Churches times and seasons. It tells our story The year begins with Advent : We remember the prophecies given to the Patriarchs, to the prophets, to John the Baptist – and the announcing of Jesus birth to Mary Christmas : The coming of the Son of God. God is with us Epiphany : The revelation of Christ, the Son of God, to the world – through the star that appears to the wise men, and the baptism. At Lent we focus on Jesus ministry and in particular the way that the course of his life led him to his death on a cross. It culminates in Holy Week, when we focus again on Jesus’ last week. On Maundy Thursday we remember how Jesus gave us the Lord’s supper. On Good Friday we remember his death on the cross for us. And of course on Easter Sunday, and throughout the season of Easter, we focus on the risen Jesus, and that as Christians we are called to live as resurrection people. On Ascension we remember that Jesus was taken up into heaven, that he is there...

Matthew 17:1-9 Who do we listen to? Last week several of us went on silent retreat. One of the things that happen when you go on silent retreat is that you become aware of just how many voices there are round about you. Some of the more obvious voices were silenced: There was no television, radio, newspapers; and we didn't have the daily chatter or the voices of other people (apart from the voice of the vicar!) We are surrounded by so many voices. The outer voices: the voices of others, present and past, spoken and unspoken. The voices of parents, teachers, friends, work colleagues, books, advertisements; there are the magazines we read, the programmes we watch, the films we see, the websites we visit. Even the back of my cereal packet tells me what I must eat. There are also the inner voices: the jumble of memories and thoughts: CS Lewis describes them as 'a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds'. There is the voice of morality...