Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Matthew 25:1-13 We remember The most poignant part of this service is the reading of the names. Some of us here will have personally known the families involved. I was looking at the commemorative plaque to 8 people who died in the second world war at St Clements. Two Smiths: Frederick and Christopher. Both aged 25. Does anyone know if they were related? Father and son: Anthony Barnes 20, Austin Barnes 42 We can only begin to imagine the devastation, the grief, the pain, the loss and emptiness. The names remind us that we are not talking numbers. We are talking people – who were loved and who loved. And we come to remember. To say thank you for what they sacrificed. We heard the story of the FEPOWS: you risk your life to eat a bit of poisonous plant so, if you survive, others can eat that bit. And if the part you ate was poisonous .. And we also say thank you to their families – for what they sacrificed. The tragedy is that although we remember, remembering by itself does not seem able...

Matthew 5.1-12 The Beatitudes (Latin – blessed) do not tell us what it is to do saintly things. They show us what a godly, a saintly life looks like. And these are not an optional extra for monks or nuns, for stained glass heroes and heroines of the faith, for super-Christians. The audio of this talk can be found here Hebrews writes, ‘Pursue peace with everyone and the holiness without which no will see the Lord’ (Hebrews 12:14). The word ‘holy’ has the same root as the word ‘saint’. Or the beatitude, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God’ These are for all believers. Fra Angelica C15th Monastery of St Marco, Florence ‘Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.’ That implies that if we are not poor in Spirit, we have no share in the Kingdom of Heaven I would like to focus this morning on that first beatitude: 'blessed are the poor in Spirit' because it is the key to all the rest. To be poor in Spirit is to 1. See myself as I am. It is to ...

On Friday we had the funeral of my mother. Although it is a bit too soon, it is good for me to be here, to remember, together with you. We are coming for them and for us – to say that they matter. Whether their death was a few days ago, a year ago, or many years ago, they mattered to us and they still do matter. We come to remember who they were, what they gave and to express our love. For each of us grief will be different. For me it is a deep sense of sadness and emptiness, and – if I’m honest now – a weariness at what seems the futility of it all. For others it will be an emotional overwhelming, like a huge wave breaking over you. You are swept off your feet and there is nothing to hold on to. Or it may be, especially after the death of a lifelong partner, a sense of utter isolation and loneliness, of being on my own. And no other person will ever really be able to fill that gap, however loving and supporting are our family or friends. And that can all come with a sense of fear. We ...

Nelson was possibly England’s greatest hero, a military genius, and a brilliant commander of men. That puts him at the top of a plinth in Trafalgar Square, in the centre of London, 51 metres above us all. But Nelson was also quite like us. He was born in this village. His dad was rector here. He would have held these keys. He was a Norfolk man, loved the place (called it ‘dear Burnham’), and we have a letter in which he says that he expects to be buried here. And he was also like us because, despite his brilliance, he was also very flawed. There was his failed marriage, his treatment of Fanny, his – at times – very wrong calls, and his craving for recognition and titles. And that does not make him someone we should ditch, but it makes him someone we can identify with. And today I would like to focus on one of those things that we can both identify with and learn from. It was an idea that was very big for him, an idea expressed in that message that Nelson shared with his fleet before th...

This is a story that I read in Anthony Bloom's 'Beginning to Pray' and which I rewrote for a harvest assembly.  If anyone would like to send me an illustration that I can put with this, that would be wonderful!  This is the story of Joachim. He was an old man, kind but simple. He was a shepherd and he had a flock of goats. Every night, after he had milked his flock, he took the best of his milk, the cream at the top, and he put it into a saucer and placed it on a rock. Rev Moses was visiting and saw him do this and asked him, 'What are you doing?' Joachim answered, 'Every night after I have milked my goats I take the best of my milk, the cream at the top, and I put it into a saucer and place it on a rock. I give it to God. I am saying thank you to Him for all He has given. This beautiful place, my precious flock, this tasty milk and the beautiful people among whom I live. It is an expression of my love for Him. And every night God accepts my offering. He drinks ...

Matthew 21:33-46 Happy Harvest! Our reading today is a story that Jesus tells about tenants who do not give their harvest offering to the landlord. ‘When the harvest time had come he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce’ (v34) ‘He will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time’ (v41) ‘The Kingdom of God will be .. given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom’ (v43) The audio of this talk can be found here The focus when people usually look at this passage is – rightly – on the rejected Son who is the cornerstone of the Kingdom of God. But today – our harvest – I’d like to focus elsewhere, at the reasons that the tenants reject the landlord and do not give him the fruit of the kingdom. 1. The tenants have forgotten the goodness of the landlord. The vineyard, in this story, is the people of Israel. Jesus is echoing Isaiah 5. God in love ‘plants a vineyard’. He gives it a hedge and a heart.  And he gi...

Matthew 21:23-32 Two stories, two sons and a choice. The audio of this talk can be found here It is quite hard to see a connection between the two stories The first is about a question of authority. Jesus has just turned out the money changers from the temple. The elders and chief priests ask Jesus about his authority, and he turns it into a question about the authority of John the Baptist. The second is about two sons. The first says No to his father, but then does what his father asks. The second says Yes, but doesn’t do it. Jesus disputing in the temple with the Pharisees who ask him to prove his authority. Cristoforo De Predis (1440-1486) in 'The History of the New Testament' .  And the thing that these two stories have in common – is that in both Jesus refers to John the Baptist. I was utterly hopeless at chemistry at school. But I did seem to be able to manage the litmus test. You put a piece of litmus paper into a test-tube with some liquid and if it came out red it said...

Matthew 18:15-20 Today we are looking at the Church’s grievance policy! And that might sound very contemporary, risk averse and dry. But the astonishing thing is that Jesus gave his followers a grievance policy 2000 years ago – and modern organisations could do far worse than making Matthew 18 the basis of their policy. The audio of this talk can be found here There are a number of challenging elements to what Jesus says. 1. We are part of a recognisable community of believers , with real bonds, responsibilities and boundaries. Our reading speaks of being a ‘member’ of the people of God. The Greek speaks of being a ‘brother’ or a ‘sister’ within the Christian community. It is a family term We are not simply isolated individuals who happen to believe similar things. we are brothers and sisters who belong to one another. Jesus Christ is for everyone. The Church is open to everyone. To become part of the family of God is not to do anything – it is not to pay a subscriptio...

Matthew 16:21-end Matthew 16 is a great pivot moment in Matthew’s gospel. Up to now Jesus has been teaching his disciples about who he is. And they have got it. Last Sunday Peter confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Click here for an audio of this talk But now Jesus teaches them about what he has come to do, and the way of God. He teaches them what it means to call him the Son of God, to live as his followers ‘From that time on, Jesus began to show …’ And we see here a clash between human things and divine things, the ‘ must ’ of human necessity versus the ‘ must ’ of divine necessity. Jesus tells his followers that ‘he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering, and be killed, and on the third day to be raised again’ And Peter says to him, ‘this must never happen to you’ Jesus challenges Peter and says, ‘No Peter. You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things’. Annibale Carracci, Christ appearing to Saint Peter on the Appian Way, ...

Matthew 15:21-28 This is a shocking story Jesus has gone to Gentile territory. And a Gentile woman – she was not a Jew – comes to him in great need. The audio of this talk can be found here And she meets with silence, rejection and theological dogmatism. I love C15th image from the Duc of Richy’s Book of Hours (his prayer book) and put in the email and notice sheet. Jesus stands with his back to her. The Canaanite woman . Miniature from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry . Folio 164r. Conde museum, Chantilly, France So what is going on here? 1. This woman is desperate Her daughter is gripped by a demon In our culture we have lost the language of demons. We have replaced it with the language of psychology or medicine. It makes us feel that even if we cannot heal a mind now, we will be able to heal it as our knowledge increases. But the language of demons brings us up against the reality of evil and that there are some things that cannot be healed or restored by any medication o...

Matthew 14:13-21 Twice we are told that this is a deserted place. A link to the audio of this talk Jesus has gone by boat to a ‘deserted place’, a place where there were few people, out of the way, where everything else could be left behind, in order to get away and grieve. He has just heard that his cousin John the Baptist has been beheaded, and he knew that what had happened to John would happen to him. And Jesus longed for time to be on his own with his heavenly Father.  But the crowds follow him on land and they get to the place ahead of him. The only time Jesus was going to have on his own was his time in the boat. And Jesus, when he saw the crowd, ‘had compassion for them’.    This can feel like a deserted place, especially in November or February.  And this is a place where people come to get away from normal life, for holiday. In the past, it was the holy days that were the holidays – the days to get away from it all, to step out of our everyday story: of wor...