Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Luke 9.28-36 Peter, James and John get a glimpse of heaven The clue is in the 'About 8 days later'. The 8th day is the first day of the new week - the first day of the new creation. If the old creation began on Sunday and Saturday is the 7th day on which God rested, then the Sunday after the Sabbath is the 8th day and the day of the new act of creation. And there are two things that I would like to draw out from this glimpse of heaven 1. It is about shared glory We share in the glory of Jesus. He is shown to be the Son of God. He is the creator and sustainer of the universe. All light and all colours radiate from him. When you refract white light, you see all the colours of the spectrum. Jesus contains it all. In icons of the transfiguration, Jesus is the source of light, and everyone and everything is lit up by that light. And here, Moses and Elijah share in that glory: ‘They appeared in glory’ This is a glory which transcends space, t...

Luke 6.17-26 For Christmas we were given a game. You are given the first part of a sentence and then told to guess what are the most common internet searches that begin with those words. So, for instance, .. Well, what would you think would be the most common internet searches that begin with the words, How can I be .. ? Answer: (Become) rich, happy Jesus speaks in our reading about those two things - and he adds two others, that I suspect are pretty high on the search ratings:   satisfied and respected. These are four of the things that we aspire for, that we think are worth living for. The pursuit of wealth and riches The pursuit of the satisfaction of our physical and emotional desires The pursuit of happiness And the pursuit for respect and honour. I think that last one is often underestimated, and yet I wonder if it might not actually be number one on many of our lists. For the sake of respect, people put up with poverty, deprivation and pos...

Luke 5:1-11 Most of us will have stood by a bonfire. At first, we stand close by. We want the warmth. But as the bonfire begins to burn, as the fire gets hot, so we move away. That is what happens with Simon Peter He is drawn to the fire that is Jesus. He is ready to call Jesus master. He is ready to let Jesus use his boat He is ready to even follow Jesus’ ridiculous instruction to go fishing in the middle of the day – when they caught nothing all night. But then he suddenly realises that this is not some little fire that he can warm himself by. He realises that this is a burning furnace. And it is getting too hot. So he falls at Jesus’ feet and he says, ‘Go away from me Lord for I am a sinful man’ Many of us here will have been drawn to the fire. We have made the decision to follow Jesus. We call him master There are times when we even do what he says! And maybe there are moments when we pray that God will come close to us – that we might...