Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Luke 4:1-12 The temptations of Christ. The Basilica of San Marco, Venice c1100-1150 The story is told of the boy whose parents found out that he was swimming in the river on his way home from school. They told him that he was not to do that. The following morning, mum thought it was wise to check his bag. She found in it a pair of swimming trunks. She said to him, ‘I thought I had told you not to go swimming on your way back from school’. And he replied, ‘It is OK mum. I wasn’t going to go swimming. I packed them just in case I was tempted’. Today, as this season of Lent starts, we read about the temptations of Jesus. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted Interestingly, we pray a bit later in this service, ‘Lead us not into temptation’. We will look at that in our Lent course on the Lord’s Prayer, but I wonder whether one way to think about this is to consider that there are two kinds of temptations. There are those temptations which are too strong for us and wi...

Christ in the Wilderness. Ivan Kramskoy 1. Natural fasting : when we are emotionally so full or empty that we do not want to eat. For instance, when we are deep in grief, excited, anxious, sick, in love or simply feeling crushed and broken People in the Bible fast because they are broken (Nehemiah 1:4; Joel 2:12), anxious (Daniel 6:18; Esther 4:3), or because they long for God, righteousness and heaven (Psalm 69:9-10). 2. By fasting from something we acknowledge that what we have is gift and not right : that the good things God gives us are to be enjoyed and received with thanksgiving, but are not to control us/become our gods (1 Corinthians 7:5; 2 Timothy 4:4) 3. By fasting we empty ourselves so that we put aside some of the distractions in the world, and are more open to seek God, his guidance and his intervention (2 Samuel 12:23; Ezra 8:21-23; 2 Chronicles 20:3). Often, when we fast, we become aware of things in ourselves that we have been suppressing and of our sin...

Last week I attended a day organised by the Norfolk Gospel Partnership exploring AI and its blessings and curses. The day was titled Artificial Intelligence - Authentic Wisdom. The day was led by Chris Green, whose blog can be found here An image produced by AI These are some of my take aways and reflections from the day: 1. We use word languages for AI.   There is no 'cloud', no 'brain', no 'I' - even though AI, through Chat GPT, speaks in the 'I' form. It would be better if it was called not artificial intelligence but apparent intelligence 2. AI has no inbuilt morality.   It can be 'malicious' or 'benevolent', but has no will or common sense. Chris Green likened it to a really willing intern who completely lacks common sense 3. Things that we thought years to achieve: being an architect, lawyer, doctor, computer programmer can be done by AI in a few minutes. Things we think are easy, like catching a ball, it still finds incredibly di...

Luke 9:28-36 Today, on this last Sunday before Lent, we read of how Peter, James and John see the transfigured Jesus. They have been taken up a mountain by Jesus – it is a real mountain, you can go there today – and he is changed. His appearance changes. Matthew tells us that his face shines like the sun, and his clothes shine with dazzling, brilliant whiteness. And they see Moses and Elijah with him, both of them long long dead. Moses was the one who God used to lead the Israelites, who were slaves in Egypt, out of Egypt, through the wilderness into the promised land. That is what we call the Exodus. He went up on a mountain and was given the law, what we know as the ten commandments. He is described as a prophet, and he met with God face to face. Elijah was born about 1300 years later. He too was a prophet. He came at a time when the people of Israel had committed apostasy and walked away from God. He too met with God on a mountain. And Elijah is one of the two people who we are told...

Luke 6:17-26 Mark Twain famously said that it was not the bits of the Bible that he couldn't understand that caused him problems, but the bits that he did.  Today is one of those passages. It is difficult. Not to understand, but to live. How does one preach on this passage to a congregation when most of us, and I include myself very much in this, are materially rich and well fed? You will notice that the passage begins with the words, ‘Jesus came down with them’. He has been up a mountain where he has been praying, and he calls to him those who he chooses to be his 12 disciples. Now he comes down and stands on a level place, and the people flock to him. They come to listen to his teaching and to receive his healing. Power comes out of him. And then we are told, ‘Jesus looked up at his disciples’ Having come down from the mountain to the people, he now sits down and looks up at the disciples. So here is Jesus ministering with astonishing power, in words and actions, but from a posit...

Luke 2:22-38 If you go into an Orthodox church, often in front of you, where the sanctuary rail would be, is a large panel on which rows of icons are placed – the iconostasis. One of the rows on the iconostasis is called the festival row and on it are scenes from the life of Mary but mainly of Jesus. And today we are looking at the icon of the presentation or purification. The audio of this talk can be found here. On the left, we have Joseph and Mary. Behind them is the temple. The red drape in iconography shows that we are looking at what is going on inside the building, even though the main characters are shown standing in front of the building. PURIFICATION Mary and Joseph have come into the temple. Joseph is holding in his hands two birds, pigeons. The pigeons are a sacrifice for the purification of Mary, which the law required for a mother after she had given birth. Why was a woman thought to be ritually unclean after giving birth? Indeed, why was Mary unclean after the birth of ...

Mark 3:1-16 I wonder what the man with the withered hand expected when he went to the synagogue that Saturday? He would, at least technically, have not been permitted into the temple, into the very presence of God, because of his disability; but he could come to the synagogue and hear God’s laws and learn of God’s ways. And this Saturday, the visiting speaker was the rabbi from Nazareth. He was quite controversial. There had been a heated debate about some of the things that Jesus and his followers were doing on the Sabbath. And maybe Jesus was speaking about the Sabbath. Maybe he read from Exodus 20 , and he spoke of how God gave the Sabbath as a day to celebrate His creation and as a day to rest, a day for restoration. Maybe he read from Deuteronomy 5 : about how the Sabbath was a day to remember how the people of Israel, who had been slaves, were set free; and how it was to be a day when their servants, their slaves were set free from doing any work. Or maybe he spoke from Levitic...

It is cold, damp, dark and a bit depressing. And so it is good to be reminded that there is glory.  Psalm 96 speaks of the glory of God 'Declare his glory among the nations ..' (v3) 'Ascribe to the Lord .. glory and strength; ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name'. (vv7-8) If we allow Him, God opens our eyes and we see that glory: We see His glory in what He has done: His salvation and wonderful works (v2,3);  in the creation of the heavens (v5) We see His glory in who He is: full of honour, majesty, strength and beauty (v6).  Plato was right. There is absolute beauty. We see His glory in His name: the sacred name 'I am who I am'. It is a name that declares the absolute freedom of God, that He is beyond all limits or boundaries, beyond space, beyond time, bigger than our language and rationality - and yet in revealing to us His name, H e enables us to call to Him. (v8) We see his glory in what He will do: Psalm 96 speaks of how God will come, make an app...

Luke 3.15-17,21-22   From 1993 to 1995 Alison and myself were sent by CMS to build bridges with Orthodox believers in Russia. We lived in the Orthodox seminary in St Petersburg. One of the many treasures that we found were icons, and especially icons from what is called the festival row, depicting the main events in the life of Jesus. A link to the audio of the talk You were, I hope, given a card with the image frosdm a C16th fresco that can be found in the monastery of Dionysos on Mount Athos. The word above the man on the left holding out his hand is John (abbreviated), and the word above the man standing in the water is Jesus Christ. It is an iconic (literally) representation of the baptism (Greek word at top is He Baptesis – just to make sure that we know what it is) of Jesus. And I would like to spend a few minutes reflecting on this icon, because it gives some deep insights into how we might read the passages in Luke and other gospels, how we might reflect on our own b...

John 1:10-18 Beginning of New Year: Opportunity to revisit John 1 and look at these verses in a little more detail. The audio of the talk can be found here Two words for 2025. Glory and Grace! 1. GLORY ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth’ What is it that makes someone glorious? Is it their power, their success, their achievements? Is it being in the New Year’s honours list? Is it a remarkable victory or getting a book published or creating an acclaimed piece of art? Is it the ending of a concerto, when all the different themes are brought together in a magnificent climax, or of the fulfilment of a lifetime of effort? Is it the acclaim, the love, the awe of millions? It is very hard to define what it is to be glorious. It is one of those terms that we sort of know what it is, but we cannot really describe it.  It is about radiance, awesomeness, fulfilment, achievement, joy, love all wrap...