Talks, Sermons and Reflections

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...

2 Timothy 4:1-8 ; Matthew 13:44-46 St Margaret of Antioch, as she is known in the West, is the same as St Marina the Great celebrated in the Eastern churches. St Margaret of Antioch (on the left) together with St Margaret of Scotland. Stained glass window, St Margarets' Church, Burnham Norton. According to a C9th Martyrology (a record that tells the lives of the martyrs), Marina/Margaret suffered and died in 304. An audio of this talk can be found here She was the daughter of a pagan priest, Aedesius, and her mother died when she was very young. She was nursed by a Christian woman, who lived 15 miles or so from Antioch. She embraced Christianity and consecrated her virginity to Christ. It was at about this time that men were beginning to go off into the desert to consecrate themselves to Christ – the earliest monks; and so we could say that Margaret was one of the earliest nuns. She was disowned by her father, adopted by the Christian woman, and lived in the country keeping sheep. ...

Luke 10:38-end Jesus gave the wrong answer. I know that because I asked the children in an assembly last week. An audio of the talk can be found here I had Martha peeling a potato, cutting an onion, tidying up and washing up, setting the table – and I had Mary sitting with Jesus and listening to him. And Martha became more and more angry and irritated because she was doing all the work, and Mary was doing nothing. So I asked them, ‘What should Jesus have said to Mary?’ And they said that he should have told her to help! But he gave the wrong answer. Christ in the Home of Martha and Mary, Johannes Vemeer ,  Scottish National Gallery  in  Edinburgh What is going on? 1. Don’t ask Jesus to do your dirty work for you Martha says to Jesus, ‘Tell Mary to help me’ But Jesus, it seems, challenges Martha and not Mary That also happens later in Luke 12:13-15 . A man goes to Jesus and says, ‘Tell my brother to share the inheritance with me’, and Jesus replies, ‘Friend, who appoi...

HOLIDAYS AND PILGRIMAGES Article for Burnham Market Parish Magazine. July 2025 Holmes and Watson were on holiday in North Norfolk (why not?). They were lying on the dunes looking up at the clear starry night sky. ‘What does that tell you?’, Holmes asked Watson. Watson replied: ‘It tells me that this is a wonder-filled universe. That we are so small. That surely there must be some mind behind that.’ And then he asked Holmes, ‘And what does it tell you?’. To which Holmes replied, ‘It tells me that someone has stolen our tent’. They are so annoying, those pedants who are only concerned with details and can’t see the bigger picture!! They also happen to be the ones who get things done, and who detect crime! But we need both. The pedants and the star gazers. We need to be able to see the stolen tent and the awe of a star filled night. The problem is that most of the time we are looking down, at the details, at the next thing on our to do list: organise who is going to pick up the childr...

Psalm 107.23-32   Luke 8:22-25 'The Calming of the Storm' from the ' Holkham Bible Picture Book ', c.1327–35, Unknown English artist. Illumination on parchment, 285 x 210 mm, The British Library, London. A commentary can be found at  Calming the Storm | VCS .  Our Psalm begins with business, and it ends with praise: V23 ‘Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the mighty waters’ V31 ‘Let them thank God for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind’. A link to the audio of this talk It is not that business is wrong. It is just that there is something that is bigger. And what happens in between the business and the praise: There is the sea the encounter with God. He takes them down and he lifts them up. The Sea helps us to see 1. It helps us to see our vulnerability The sea is vast, seemingly unending. It dwarfs us, everything that we have created or built. It is a reminder that we are so small. And on a stormy day, we encounter the ove...