Talks, Sermons and Reflections

John 20.19-31 Jesus gives peace to people who are afraid The disciples are in a house with a door that is locked because they are afraid of the authorities. That is what fear does. It locks us in We are so often paralysed by fear: by fear of other people, by fear of being shamed, by fear of failure, by fear of condemnation, by fear of losing something or someone that has become so precious to us that it is part of us, by fear of being hurt or pain, by fear of death. It is because of the fear of being rejected that we do not invite someone out for even something as simple as a coffee or a drink It is because of the fear of humiliation that we are not prepared to share our weaknesses and vulnerabilities It is because of the fear of the consequences that we do not do what is right. Many years ago I was going into one of the churches where I served, when I noticed two young men go up to an older drunk man who regularly used to sit on a bench in the park in wh...

Ezekiel 1 The Jewish rabbis taught that you must not preach on Ezekiel until you have preached for 20 years or more. I sadly qualify for that.  A STRANGE VISION It is a weird vision.  We want to ask what Ezekiel was on.  There is a famous book which said that this describes an encounter with ETs.  But we don't need to go there.  After all Da Vinci drew a helicopter and Jules Vernes described the submarine.  Perhaps some genius somewhere is working on these wheels within wheels. Ezekiel has a vision of 4 pairs of wheels in wheels. The wheels at first seem to be inanimate - glorified flying chariots which can move in any direction. But then we learn that their rims are surrounded with eyes, and that they have the spirit of the living creatures in them.  It is a vision of the all seeing, utterly free and unrestricted living Spirit of God. And beside them are the 4 creatures with 4 faces who are the drivers of the wheels, but also one with t...

2 Kings 6:14-23; Mark 8:22-30 Today we honour the men and women who fought in the Battle of Britain: those who were up in the air, the ground crews, observer corps, those who defended the airfields, those who provided practical and logistical support, the families and many others, military and civilian. We give thanks for their commitment, courage and hard work. The fact that our celebrations still include a church service means that we have not forgotten that this was not simply about we have done. We recognise that behind the reality of human history there is another reality, an eternal reality - and we give thanks to God for his merciful act of deliverance. Our reading from the OT today speaks of a moment when a man who could only see the physical reality, had his eyes opened and he saw the eternal reality. There are elements in the story that are familiar. An enemy intent on invasion and occupation. An enemy with a strategic objective. Israel has a secret weapon. I...

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN SERVICE 2009 PSALM 115 We gather today to honour those who fought in the Battle of Britain, and to give thanks for what was achieved. We do not honour victory in itself: victory writes the history books and is quite capable of blowing its own trumpet; but we do honour the love, courage, service and the self-sacrifice of those who made victory possible, and we celebrate the freedom and peace that victory won for us. At times the world and life can seem very dark. 70 years ago, almost to the day, it must have seemed incredibly dark. It was Christmas 1939 that King George VI echoed words of Minnie Louise Haskins, which many of us will know: “I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!’ So I went forth and finding the Hand of God, trod gla...

BATTLE OF BRITAIN It is a real privilege to be able to celebrate this service with you today. We come to give thanks to God for those who fought in the Battle of Britain, for the outcome of that battle, and also to give thanks for those - who, in that same spirit - have continued to serve in the Royal Air Force. And we have here men and women who have served with the RAF regiment and with the USAF in Iraq and Afghanistan. We give thanks to God for you and for your families. And we also remember before God those who have given their lives, and their families. And on behalf of this town and church I wish to say that we are immensely proud to be associated with you. I am not sure that the role of this particular service is to honour victory. Please do not get me wrong. Of course we give real thanks to God for the victory in 1940. It was the first major defeat of the war for Hitler, and it meant the invasion of this island was put off indefinitely. Certainly, the consequences for ...