Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Revelation 21:1-4 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,  and there was no longer any sea.   2  I saw the Holy City,  the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,  prepared as a bride  beautifully dressed for her husband.   3  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.   4  ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain,  for the old order of things has passed away.” There is something extremely appropriate this evening about the singing of Edgar Bainton's anthem, 'And I saw a new heaven and earth'.  It was performed at the Hillsborough Memorial Service  at Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral in 1989....

Mark 7:1-13 We're looking today at two visions of what it is to be holy; what it is to be pure, acceptable  There is the human vision of purity: I call this the dead mouse theory of purity. And there is God's vision of purity: the fire theory of purity THE HUMAN VISION OF PURITY - however that is understood - is that I am pure, but that my purity is destroyed by things and people out there.  Our cat is very generous. Most mornings she brings us a gift of a dead mouse. Unfortunately we do not particularly like finding dead mice on our kitchen floor. So I get a tissue, pick up the unfortunate dead creature by the tail and throw it outside. The dead mouse contaminates our house and needs must go.  The dead mouse theory of purity says that in order to maintain your purity, the dead mice, the things that contaminate you, must go. So, in order to keep or maintain my purity, I need to keep away from them. And there are a whole load of rules which are hand...