Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Galatians 5.1-15 ​ The gospel, good news, is liberating Religion tells us that we need to prove ourselves to God. We need to make ourselves acceptable to him. And we do that by following certain rules, laws. If we keep them then we are OK. But the gospel is very different. It sets us free from the need to prove ourselves to God. It sets us free from trying to make ourselves acceptable to him. And that is great news, because we could never prove ourselves to God, and we could never make ourselves acceptable to him. Alongside the good that we see in each of us, there is also deep corruption, deep rottenness in each one of us. And we find that we are trapped. Thomas Costain tells the story of a 14th-century duke in what is now Belgium known as Raynald III. Raynald was grossly overweight, and was commonly called by his Latin nickname, Crassus, which means fat. After a violent quarrel, Raynald's younger brother Edward led a successful revolt agains...

Ephesians 1:1-15 A couple of weeks ago, we looked at these verses with Clive at the blessings that Christ has given us.  This evening, as we spend a few more minutes looking at these verses, I would like to talk about grace. If you notice from v1, the Christian lives in two places. They live ‘in Ephesus’, and they live ‘in Christ’. They live in Ephesus The currency of Ephesus is stars There is nothing profound in my saying that. I am simply saying that Ephesus, and here Ephesus stands for human society at large, deals in merit. We think that our value, our significance, our identity, our status depends on our achievements, qualifications, wealth or our power. It is the star culture. If you are well-behaved at school you get a star. If you are not well-behaved you don’t. If you live according to the rules, you get the reward. If you don’t, you don’t. Father Christmas comes from Ephesus. He gives presents to children who are good. And this star ...

Luke 15:1-10 In this chapter, Jesus tells us three stories. The first is about a shepherd who goes to search for a lost sheep. He finds the sheep and rejoices. The second is about a woman who searches for a lost coin. She finds the coin and she rejoices. The third (which we didn’t have read today, but is known as the story of the Prodigal son) is about a father who does not go to search for his lost son, but he does wait for his son to return. And when his son returns, he rejoices. But in this story there is also an older son. This older son has stayed at home. He has played by the rules. And when he sees his father welcoming back his younger brother – after all that his younger brother has done, he is furious. It seems that all his work at home has been pointless. And now the Father does go searching. He goes outside to his older son; he pleads with him; and he begs him to come in. [There is, as elsewhere in Luke’s gospel, a hint of Trinity here. The Father, the Son...

Acts 8:26-40 I'd like to look at this passage from the perspective of the Ethiopian eunuch. Here is a man who as far as the world is concerned is an insider. He is a top banker. He is in charge of the treasury of the Queen of Candace - actually Candace is the name of a dynasty and a province within Egypt. He is being driven in a chariot. He is a man of influence. But here is a man who as far as his faith is concerned is an outsider. We presume that he is a Jew: there was a large Jewish community in Egypt. But he does not live in the land that God had given to the Jewish people. His ancestors would have been the people who disobeyed what God said through Jeremiah, and chose to move to Egypt at the time of the exile. They chose to live in a different land. And the land of Israel was so important to the Jewish people. He would have been a welcome visitor to Jerusalem, but very much a second class visitor. And secondly, he is a eunuch. He has been castrated. And that woul...