Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Matthew 28.1-10 This morning we are looking at Matthew 28, and the account of the resurrection of Jesus Matthew specifically mentions two women who come to the tomb, and he names them: Mary Magdalene and ‘the other’ Mary (not Mary the mother of Jesus, but Mary the mother of James and Joseph). The audio of this sermon can be found here That is very Matthew: Matthew likes his ‘twos’. He mentions two blind men who Jesus heals (twice); he mentions two demoniacs from whom Jesus casts out demons. And now he mentions two women who come to the tomb. And the reason is that you need two witnesses in a Jewish court if your evidence is to be counted as valid So Matthew is putting forward Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. They are his witnesses However, there were other women who came with them to the tomb. Mark mentions Salome; Luke mentions Joanna and ‘other women’ And so in our icon (a 16 th Century icon from the Pskov region), I think you can count 5 women looking down at the tomb...

John 11.28-44 ‘Jesus began to weep’ John 11:35 In the KJV it is just two words ‘Jesus wept’, making it the shortest verse in the bible. Why? Why does he weep? Jesus is clearly not weeping for Lazarus, because he knows that in a few minutes he will raise Lazarus from the dead And Jesus is not weeping for Mary and Martha and the mourners in their grief, because he knows that in a few minutes he will turn that grief into joy If a child comes to you all upset because something has been taken away from them, but you can give them something so much better, then you may feel for them, but rather than weep with them you will wipe their eyes and make them happy again. So why does Jesus weep? 1. Jesus weeps in compassion because he sees what death does He sees the devastation that it causes. Death was never part of God’s plan When God created the world there was no death. At the heart of the garden of Eden there was the tree of life. Death is nothing in itself. It is simply a negation of what i...

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...

Mark 16:1-8 I wrote to Mike to let him know what I was thinking of saying: that the resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate happy ending. This is the fairy tale on which all fairy tales are based. Jesus is the knight who turns the scullery maid into a princess, who rescues the princess shut up in a tower, who wakes her with a kiss. And Jesus is the princess who saves the prince, enchanted by a wicked witch, from their life as a beast or a bear or a frog. And here is a story in which they do all ultimately live ‘happily ever after’. And it is a story that is based on a historical fact – the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is a great idea, nicked in my case from Tim Keller who, I believe, stole it from CS Lewis. But Mike pointed out to me that Mark 16 doesn’t end with the ‘happily ever after’. It ends with some serious confused, scared and silent women. It is a very odd ending, and the reason that we ended there is because most people think that Mark ende...

Matthew 28.1-10 I’d like to introduce you to Alice and her friend, Humphrey. Here is Alice and here is a picture of her friend, Humphrey Humphrey is 8 ft tall, he is blue and is a very furry rabbit. He is also invisible. Humphrey is Alice’s great friend He is always with her She talks to him and tells him her secrets. He knows everything about her And he comforts her when she is sad or scared. What then of Jesus? Is he just a grown-ups’ version of Humphrey? Someone who knows me, is with me and comforts me when I am scared or lonely? Today's reading tells us that Jesus is not an imaginary friend. It is the story of what happened on that first Easter morning. And it tells us that: 1.       There really was a person called Jesus He was as real as .. Ben, here. You could shake his hand. You could have a conversation with him. You cou...

Luke 20.27-40 This week we are thinking a little more about the resurrection. The Sadducees, as we see here, did not believe in the resurrection. They believed in God; they believed in the first five books of the Old Testament – the Mosaic law. And they believed that death was the end. I’ve got a lot of time for the Sadducees. They are serious, thoughtful, hard-nosed rationalists. They are going to face up to death with no sugar-coated pill. They would not have been willing to buy into the half-baked sentimentalist claptrap about people dying and going up there to sit on clouds and be with those we have loved for ever. So they challenge Jesus about the resurrection. They say to Jesus, ‘OK, if there is resurrection, when we are there who will we be with?’ They tell of this unfortunate woman who marries an even more unfortunate man. He dies before they have children. The law of Moses said that she needed to marry his brother. It makes sense. First, it ensured that she as...

John20.24-29 Today we are looking at the last in the cycle of very early C6th mosaics that can be found in the church of St Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, which depict the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  We see Jesus appearing to the 11 disciples. This is the second meeting that the resurrected Jesus has with his disciples – a week after his appearance to them on the first Easter Sunday. Jesus is showing his wound (we only see the wound on his side, presumably where he was stabbed with the spear), but in so doing he points us to our right. All the way through this cycle of 26 mosaics, there has been a movement to our right. In most of the mosaics, one of the figures moves us on to the next. Now here at the end, Jesus himself moves us on, but this time upwards, to heaven. On the first occasion when Jesus appeared to his disciples, Thomas was not present. And when the disciples told Thomas that they had seen the Lord, Thomas made his famous statement: ‘Unless I s...