Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Philippians 4.4-7 (click on arrow above to hear audio of sermon)  It has been a fairly stressful week and at times I felt overwhelmed But it is nothing compared to what other people are going through Some of you may have had a hellish week; Some of you are under almost unbearable pressure Paul knew about pressure. He is writing this letter from prison. He is facing a capital charge. If it goes badly, he will be executed. And the church in Philippi that Paul founded, the church that he loves, is divided. There is a bitter conflict between two women. Just before these verses Paul has appealed to Eunice and Syntyche to agree in the Lord. And yet despite that, Paul urges his readers to rejoice, to be gentle, and not to be anxious about anything. But he doesn’t just tell them that – because that would be like telling a drowning person to swim harder. He gives them a reason. It is very simple – in English it is 4 words: ‘The Lord is near’. In Greek it is 3: ‘Ho Kyri...

I am told that it is terrifying to experience a serious earthquake. When the ground is shaking beneath your feet, there  is nothing that you can depend on This passage speaks of a celestial earthquake: the powers of heaven themselves being shaken There will be signs in sun, moon, stars, earth, sea Jesus is using apocalyptic language, particularly Isaiah 13.9f, which speaks of the dreadful day of the Lord when the land will be made a desolation, and sinners will be destroyed: the stars, sun and moon will not shed light (cf Ezekiel 32.7, Joel 2.10). Joel 2.31 and 3.15 speak of the sun turning to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord (quoted in Acts 2.20). Amos 8.9 speaks of the sun going down at noon. This is a vision of a dark and terrifying world. There will be distress, confusion, fear and foreboding. And then, in the darkness, comes the Son of Man, coming in a cloud - the symbol of the glory of God. Again, it is using apocalyptic language: the langua...

An Advent carol service  Leader           The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Choir              Those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shone Choir              O nata lux de lumine – Tallis (O light, born of light) Leader            In this service, we join with brothers and sisters around the world,  and light candles to mark the signs that God has given to his people as we journey through Advent. FIRST CANDLE: Abraham and Sarah, to whom the promise was first given. We light our first candle to recall the men and women of faith in the Old Testament, to whom the promise would be given. 4000 years before the birth of Christ, God told Abraham and Sarah that one of their descendants would de...

Listen to this talk We are looking at 2 Peter 3 It is an appropriate reading for today, Advent Sunday. We prepare to celebrate Jesus' first coming, and we look forward to Jesus' second coming. And in chapter 3 Peter focuses on one particular promise: the promise that one day this current heaven and earth will face judgement, come to an end, and be replaced with a new heaven and earth, the home of righteousness (3:13) We may believe that the world is going to end. Scientists tell us that in about 4 billion years this planet will be burnt up by an expanding sun. But the idea that Jesus will return, and that there will be a new heaven and earth (in which stars do not turn into red giants on us) belongs to the realm of Bermuda triangles, UFO's and little green men. It's there for odd people walking about with billboards, which say, 'the end is nigh'. And anyway, Jesus said that he would return, and the first Christians expected that he would ...

2 Peter 2:4-10 This passage from 2 Peter talks of hell, punishment, judgement and destruction. Interestingly it talks about them in that order. Hell. In this case, hell is the 'waiting room' for judgement. It ties in with the pit of Revelation, in which the beast, the devil, is chained – released at the end of time – and then destroyed with its followers. (Ties in with Revelation 20) The verses talk of the punishment and judgement of the ungodly, the lawless, the unrighteous: v9: "the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment" And the verses tell us what happened to people at the time of Noah's flood and of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. They are an example of what will happen to the ungodly, the unrighteous.   And the verses talk of final destruction: 2 Peter 2:12 (NRSV) talks of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and who despise a...

Advent: 2 Peter 3:8-15a It is very easy to dismiss the season of Advent as a flight from reality. In the season of Advent we have two foci: one is Bethlehem, 2000 years ago; and the other is the end of space and time as we know it. And both seem to be unreal. We talk - at one end - about angels singing in the sky, of a virgin feeding her baby in a cattle trough, and - at the other - of a cataclysmic global barbeque at the end of time, and Jesus returning. It all seems so very far from everyday life. It all seems so irrelevant.   But 2 Peter 3 is a passage of utter realism It is the reason why Christians have been on tiptoe for the last 2000 years, waiting for something to happen, waiting for God to intervene, waiting for the God who we know to be so real and to be so significant for our lives to break into this world: to make himself known, to wipe out that which is evil, and to establish his rule of peace and righteousness: where what is right conquers what is evi...