Talks, Sermons and Reflections

  Luke 10:25-37 Russian protest outside St Andrew's Church Moscow, Remembrance Sunday 2022 The audio for this talk can be found here Two years ago, nine months after the invasion of Ukraine, I was about to conduct a Remembrance Day service in St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Moscow – where I was the chaplain. On the opposite side of the road there was a group of about 20 protestors. They were chanting their slogans, in Russian, which included phrases like “defeat to the Anglo Saxon vampires”,  “ Go home ”  and, best of all, “Freedom to Scotland”. It was very controlled, very organised – someone had brought along all the banners - and incidentally very illegal. The Russian authorities brought in a COVID law that said it was illegal to hold an outdoor protest where there is more than one person – and they forgot to lift it when the COVID risk was reduced. But, of course, the police were not going to intervene. So I decided, wearing my cassock, to go across the road to ask th...

John 11:32-44 In John 11:32 we are told that Jesus, seeing Mary weeping and the people with her weeping, is deeply disturbed.  Why? The audio of this talk can be found here He knew that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. It was the reason he had delayed going to Martha and Mary when he was first told that Lazarus was seriously ill. He knew that glory would come from this: glory to his Father and a revelation of his glory. If it had been me, I would have gone with a sense of excitement and anticipation – of the joy of Mary and Martha in seeing their brother alive again. But we are told in verse 38 that Jesus ‘again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb’ I want to suggest that Jesus is deeply disturbed because 1. He sees the devastation that death brings He sees the despair and brokenness of Martha and Mary. They have lost probably the one who was the rock of their family, and as two unmarried sisters without a brother they would have suddenly become very vulnerable And...

Mark 10:46-52 I love this story of blind Bartimaeus. It comes at a very significant point in Mark’s gospel. The audio of this talk can be found here Mark has put this story here as the climax of the first half of the short book that he wrote. From chapter 11, beginning with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, we are told of the final few days of Jesus’ life before his crucifixion. Julia Stankova (Bulgarian, 1954–), Christ and Bartimaeus, 2017. So it is important. It is about how, at the end of all the teaching, someone puts their faith in Jesus, sees, and follows Jesus ‘on the way’. That phrase, ‘on the way’ is how Mark describes being a Christian. The disciples were ‘on the way’ to Jerusalem with Jesus (v32). We are on the way with Jesus, a way that leads to the cross and through the cross to resurrection. But I love this story for another reason. It is much easier to relate to Bartimaeus than it is to many other characters in the gospel. Like us, Bartimaeus had never seen Jesus....

 Luke 12:35-48 35 “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit;  36 be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks.  37 Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.  38 If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. 39 “But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he  would not have let his house be broken into.  40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” 41 Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone?”  42 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at th...

Mark 10.17-31 [Note to congregation on why I hand out the text.  Please feel free to take it home with you. It would be wonderful if you chose to reread it, to think it through for yourself. Possibly to learn a verse. To live with it. And the purpose of this talk is not to give you a correct interpretation of the passage (I could not do that: and almost certainly I will have missed what you might think is the most important part of the passage), but to give you a fascination for the passage – and a desire to look at it again. And if you do, then I will have done my job ]. A man comes to Jesus. He seems to have everything He is young (Luke): life is ahead of him He is a ruler (Matthew) and has influence and power He is morally upright: he has kept the commandments (there is no reason to doubt him) He has wealth, and all that it offers: openings, security, comfort and status But he is not satisfied. He knows that something is missing, there is something more. It is bugging him. He ...

  John 6.35,41-51 “Our hungers are so deep. We are dying of thirst. We are bundles of seemingly insatiable need, rushing here and there in a vain attempt to assuage our emptiness. Our culture is a vast supermarket of desire.” (William H Willimon, Feasting on the Word) The audio of this talk can be found here And Jesus says “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”. Can it be that this crucified, resurrected Jew who lived 2000 years ago in Palestine is able to meet – not only meet but satisfy - our deepest desires and longings? There are four staggering claims that Jesus makes in our reading.     1.   He has come from heaven in a unique way   Jesus claims, “I am the bread that came down from heaven”. It is a staggering claim. So much so that the people complain. Not because he said he was bread, but because he claimed that he had come from heaven. “How can he say that. We know his parents. Joseph an...