Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Matthew 24.36-44 Advent is about keeping awake. Jesus tells the story the man who was burgled. He tells us that if the man had known when the burglar was coming, he would have stayed awake. Jesus is saying to us, in pretty dramatic terms, that we need to stay awake because there will be a day when the Son of Man comes with great power and glory. We speak of it as the second coming. The first coming was when Jesus the Messiah was born in Bethlehem. This is his second coming. It will be the end of space and time as we know it. It will be God closing the books on history. Of course it is hard to imagine. We can only think in categories of space and time, and this event goes beyond those categories. So all we have is picture language. But we need to stay awake because nobody knows when that second coming will be, not even the main character! Jesus says that only the Father knows. So don’t get misled by people who tell you when they think the end of the world is coming! They just don’t kn...

We have just bought ourselves an Advent calendar. We couldn’t find one with the nativity scene but did find one with a village church in the snow - so it sort of has a Christian association! Advent is the four weeks in the Church year which comes before Christmas. It is a time for glorious music. Marian, our music director, goes on an annual pilgrimage to a different cathedral each year for their Advent carol service. We plan to have one at All Saints Sutton in Burnham Market on Sunday 7 December at 6:30pm. It may not quite be of cathedral standard(!) – but it is a good opportunity to sing some of the great hymns. Advent is about waiting . The readings from the Bible we hear in church tell how the Jewish people waited for a promised child to be born, a Messiah who would get them out of the mess they were in. They tell of the months before the birth of Jesus: of John the Baptist who came ‘to prepare the way’, and of the angel who came to Mary with the astonishing news that she is to...

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY 2025 A couple of weeks ago I heard an interview with a woman who had lost her father 50 years earlier, when she was a little girl. He had worked on the boats taking oil workers to the rigs. There had been a storm and he had been killed. The oil workers with him had been officially remembered, but he had not been. 50 years later she approached the chaplain for oil workers, and in their annual service in Aberdeen they named him. They also welcomed her. The audio of this talk can be found here It was a very small act – the including of a name on a list – but it made such a difference to her. It meant that she felt that her father mattered. And it in fact opened the door to be able to talk about him and to find out more about him. We come together this morning to remember because people matter The reading from what is known as the Beatitudes (‘Blessed are’) and from Ecclesiastes are separated by 1400 years or so. But they are connected in one line. King Solomon , who i...