Talks, Sermons and Reflections

KEEPING THE MAST UPRIGHT  What Nelson Can Teach Us About Faith and Duty A sermon preached in All Saints , Burnham Thorpe , the birthplace of Lord Nelson It is astonishing that there is a monument in the centre of a square that is known all around the world in the centre of London to a local boy born in Burnham Thorpe. And he would have spent more time than he probably would have wanted to in this building (where Nelson's father was the vicar)! Admiral Horatio Nelson, Trafalgar Square Nelson was not perfect. Far from it. He made big mistakes. I’m listening to the podcast, ‘ The Rest is History ’ about his life. It is fantastic and I do recommend it. I’ve just heard about the session of the disaster at Naples , he was spectacularly unfaithful to Fanny and quite cruel to her, and he was not the humblest of people – he liked people to praise him. Having said that, there was quite a bit for people to praise! Isaiah 33:23 states, “Your rigging hangs loose. It cannot hold the mast firm ...

Luke 18:9-14 I love this story that Jesus tells. It is about a familiar theme that we find in Luke – a theme that is introduced in the Mary’s song : “God will scatter the proud in the imagination of their conceit. He will cast down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly” The audio of this talk can be found here And we saw that illustrated in Jesus comments about guests at a dinner party who choose the most important places. The host will say to them, ‘Move down’, and will say to those in the lower places, ‘Come on up higher’ (Luke 14:11) And we see it here. God hears the prayer of the broken tax collector but not of the self-justifying Pharisee . The Tax collector and the Pharisee. Mosaic from St Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna. c505AD It is not that what the Pharisee is doing is wrong. He fasts twice a week. That was over and above what the law required. The law required fasting on the day of atonement (Leviticus 16:29) and possibly on 4 days in memory of the destruction of J...

  Last month I had the privilege of visiting Herculaneum. The archaeological site is smaller than Pompeii and more manageable. There was obvious wealth - a huge villa set on the edge of what would then have been the sea. This was the equivalent of Cornwall or the North Norfolk coast where wealthy Roman citizens could get out of Rome. In the local exhibition centre we saw beautiful jewellery, some of which was very similar to what we would see in our shops here. And down, where the beach was, in the place where the boats were kept, we saw the skeletons. They are of the people, young and old, free and slave, who fled to the shore as Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79, hoping against hope to be rescued by sea. It is incredibly poignant, not least because at least two of the skulls have open jaws set in what appears to be an eternal scream as the scorching gas cloud enveloped them. We hope their death was pretty instantaneous. It really brought home the fragility of life. Here were people ...

Luke 17:11-19 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus  was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.  As he entered a village, ten lepers  approached him. Keeping their distance,  they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’  When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean.  Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.  He prostrated himself at Jesus’  feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.  Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?  Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’  Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’ Harvest is much more real here than it was in the centre of Moscow or London. The audio of this talk can be found here We are conscious of the weather, not just for sai...

Luke 17:5-10 "The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith! The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you. ‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”’" Faith is central to absolutely everything that we do. Faith. South doors of the Baptistery in Florence, by Andrea Pisano, 1330 We all have faith. Without faith we cannot live. An audio of the talk can be found here If you walk into church and sit on the chair, th...

Luke 14:25-33 [There was a baptism in this Sunday service] Well, having heard that reading, you must wonder what on earth you are about to do in having your daughter baptised It seems that Jesus is saying that if she is to be a follower of him, she will need to hate you, give up all her possessions, hate her own life and end up being crucified (or the modern equivalent)! It is very stark. He certainly makes us sit up and take notice. The audio of this talk can be found here But Jesus is not saying that we must reject our family or live as homeless and virtually naked beggars. What he says here needs to be balanced by what he says elsewhere. So, for instance, he upholds the fifth commandment ‘to honour your mother and father’, and elsewhere the bible teaches us that we should work to earn so that we can support ourselves, our family and those dependent on us, and be able to give. And Jesus clearly enjoyed the hospitality of people like Lazarus, Martha and Mary who opened their home to h...

I’ve been speaking with several people over the past few months about the supernatural. They say something like this: “I am drawn to Jesus’ teaching – about loving your neighbour as yourself and doing to the other what you would want them to do to you, the so-called golden rule – but I struggle with the talk about God, and things like the   virgin birth and the resurrection, and that Jesus is the Son of God in a unique way. Of course, I would like to think that there is something after death, but I can’t because this world is all that there is.” I have huge respect for people who think like that. They have an intellectual integrity which overrides any wishful thinking. It is difficult to know how we can answer the person who cannot believe in anything that cannot be ‘proved’ scientifically through observation. I might shrink from the deterministic universe that their thinking presupposes, where everything that happens must have a physical cause. I might proclaim that I am more ...

Luke 14.7-14 This is not just a passage offering advice about weddings and dinner parties. The audio of this talk can be found here It is good advice - which I spectacularly ignored at a major civic function at Bury St Edmunds when I was there. As vicar of the civic church, I expected to be on one of the higher tables. I waltzed in with someone and walked up to one of the higher tables, not the highest – I knew I wasn’t on that – but my name wasn’t there. So, I then had to casually walk past the other tables pretending that I wasn’t looking at the names, until I reached the table where my name appeared.   It would have been so much less humiliating if I had started at the bottom and worked my way up! Peter Bruegel the elder. A Peasant wedding This story that Jesus tells is an illustration of one of the old Proverbs of Isael. “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here’, than to be put lower i...

Luke 12:49-56 This is a surprising passage! Is not Jesus the prince of peace? Did he not come to bring peace, ‘to guide our feet into the way of peace’ (Luke 1:79)? Did not the angels announce when he was born, ‘peace on earth among those who he favours’ (Luke 2:14)? And yet, as Simeon holds the baby Jesus in his arms, he says to Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too’ (Luke 2:34)? And here Jesus says, ‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. (Luke 12:51-52). And he goes on to say that even the most foundational unit of society will be split apart, that families will be divided. So who has Jesus come to divide? Is it rich from poor? Has he come to so shake up the order of ...

Luke 12:32-40 What is it that we strive for? What is it that we most want from life? Where is our heart? Jesus eats with sinners. Sieger Kodel. (the master who serves his servants) That is a hard question: because we look for different things at different times: excitement, rest, respect, comfort, fitness, the fulfilment of a desire. And in the midst of all this merry-go-round of desires, sometimes we long for a centre, a point around which we can orientate our lives. The audio of the talk can be found here I think our reading from Luke 12 can help us There are three parts: Verses 32-34 speak of treasure in heaven Verse 35-38 speak of slaves who are waiting for their master to return, and when the master returns, he serves them. Verses 39-40 speak of homeowner who is burgled, and there is the call to be ready. But to put these in focus, we need to go back to the previous verses where Jesus has said that, in view of the mercies and kindness of God, we are not to strive for the things of...

Luke 12:13-21 Here we have someone else trying to enlist Jesus to their ‘just’ cause. ‘Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me’. Only a few verses earlier we have been told about Martha who said to Jesus, ‘Tell my sister to help me’. And in both cases Jesus challenges the one who would enlist him to their cause. With Martha he spoke about the need to listen to him. With this man, he speaks about money. Listen to the audio of this talk Still life with skull, candlestick and coins. Johann Stumm c.1645. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. 1. Jesus warns him, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed”. Barns come in many shapes and sizes. There are plain old barns. There is property and land. There are the investment portfolios. There are some very big barns in the Burnhams. And equally there are many who aspire to have bigger barns. And it is very easy for the desire to get those bigger barns, the desire for money and all the things that it brings, to get a grip on us, to...