Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Matthew 22.1-14 In a few minutes time, we will be invited to come to communion. At one level, it is not much of an invitation: you’re invited to receive a wafer and a sip of wine. At another level this is the greatest invitation that you will ever receive: It is the invitation to participate in the Kingdom of Heaven, to live the life of God. It is the invitation to participate in the King’s wedding banquet for his son. Of course, what happens here is just the hors d’oevre, the zakuski, the taster of the wedding banquet in heaven, but it is still part of that banquet. And the parable that Jesus tells is 1.       About a great invitation An invitation to participate in God’s Kingdom. It is amazing invitation. It is a wedding feast: about new beginnings, love and joy and hope and deep intimacy. It is an invitation to start again; to know the deep love that God has for you; to receive the joy that he would give you - even in th...

Luke 22.14-23 We have now moved from the left to the right hand side of the church of St Apollinare Nuovo. We are not going to look at all of the 13 mosaics on this side, but as we prepare to remember the events of the first Good Friday and Easter, we will look at some of these mosaics which focus on Jesus' journey to the cross There is an immediate difference between the mosaics on the left and on the right: The Jesus on the left is beardless and the Jesus on the right has a beard. There is a debate about why! Most seem to say that beards were a mark of maturity - or a mark of grief. It is the mature Jesus who goes to the cross. There is also a different style. The mosaics on the left hand side of the church are simple, quite iconic, usually showing Jesus with one subject and one disciple. The mosaics on the right are more complex. There are multiple figures. And today we are going to look at this image: Jesus is reclining at the table, together with his 12 disciples. Four o...

John 6.51-58 Jesus said, ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’ listen to ‘What does it mean to 'eat' Jesus’ on Audioboo ...