Talks, Sermons and Reflections

John Seago, 1926 - 2013 1 Corinthians 15:20-58 We have come to give to thanks to God and to honour an extraordinary, passionate and loving man. I had heard some of the stories, but listening to Tim’s eulogy made me astonished me at what John had come through, and what had shaped his life. It is the stuff that films are made of. John would have profoundly approved of the reading – the language and the message. 1. It speaks of Jesus: And John loved Jesus – or ‘Christ’ as he would call him – although I have to confess that I never quite understood all his speculative theology.  He loved the stories about Jesus, the teaching of Jesus, the work of Jesus, the cross of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. And he did say to me a couple of years ago, and it was one of those quotes that I just wish I had written down, that when he died he longed to be with Jesus 2. It speaks of transformation: Paul writes here about the resurrection body. He says, ‘Some pe...

Luke18:35-43 listen to ‘What do you really want’ on Audioboo The story is told of the man walking along the river Lark who found a bottle. He opened it and out popped the genii. The genii said, ‘I demand a public enquiry to investigate why so many geniis get put in bottles  ..’ No. He said, ‘You’ve got three wishes’. So the man said, ‘I want to live on a tropical island, surrounded by palm trees and sandy beaches’, and pow, in less than a second he was there. So he said, ‘I want a billion pounds’. And the genii said, ‘Only a billion?’ and pow, there was a billion. And the man said, ‘For my third wish, I’d like to be irresistible to women’, and pow – he was transformed into a box of chocolates. What would you like? What would you really like? Jesus calls the blind man to come to him and asks him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ If you were standing in front of Jesus now, and he asked you that question, how would you answer? For some of us, like the bli...

2 Kings 2:1-14 listen to ‘Representatives of God. 2 Kings 2’ on Audioboo Elijah is one of the greats in the bible. God called him to be his representative in a dark world. It was hard. He did not have an easy message to speak. It did not make him popular. He challenged the people to stop wavering between following God and following Baal, a non-existent pagan god; to stop choosing between this god now and that god then. He confronted the whole religious establishment of the time because they misrepresented God. He even challenged King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. He declared God's judgement on them because they had introduced pagan worship into the life of Isael. King Ahab describes him as 'my enemy', and as 'the troubler of Israel'. And God confirmed his words in the way that he answered Elijah's prayers: he caused a drought for 3 years; he brought down fire from heaven; he raised a widow's son from the dead; he made the waters part – just li...

1 Kings 21:1-21 listen to ‘What happens when we don't get what we want?’ on Audioboo I’m going to go quite deep today. What happens when we don’t get what we want? It could be that: You love someone – but they don’t love you or they are out of bounds   I like the story that is told of the man walking along the street with a friend when he sees the most stunning woman walking along the pavement on the other side of the road. He follows her with greedy eyes. His friend sighs, and says, ‘married with three children’. ‘What?’ said the man, ‘with a figure like that, she can’t be?’ ‘No you idiot’, said his friend, ‘you are!’ We long to have children, but it is not possible We long to be cured, but there is no cure We long to be wealthy or famous We desperately want a new job or promotion at work We want to move – but it is just not happening We want something, but it is out of our reach It is hard for us today because we live in a world which tel...

Jesus raises Lazarus. Ravenna John 11:17-37 listen to ‘Jesus wept: town memorial service’ on Audioboo It is good, although it is also painful, to come to remember, to give thanks, but also to be here with many other people who are grieving Grief can be a lonely experience. Our society does not do death well. People are good for a few weeks, but then they forget and for them life goes on as usual. But we cannot forget, we will not forget and life, if you can call it that, will never be the same again. So it is good to know that we are not on our own. The verses above tell of the death of a dear friend of Jesus. His name was Lazarus. And the passage tells us that when he turns up and sees the grief of Martha and Mary (the dead man's sisters), 'Jesus wept' . Those two words combine to make the shortest verse in the bible; they have also become swear words - but they also tell us something about the heart of God for people who grieve. Jesus does not weep for Lazarus When ...