Talks, Sermons and Reflections

2 Peter 1.1-4 How precious is your faith? What is precious to you? A person, home, freedom, career, possession, a ring! Peter writes here of his faith as being something that is precious. 1. It is precious because it is the gift of God Notice how he writes, ‘To those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours’ (v1) Our faith is gift. If there were no Jesus, if he had not come from heaven to be born as a human being, if there had been no sacrificial death on the cross, no resurrection – then there could be no Christian faith. And God has done it all. We did nothing to deserve life; we did nothing to deserve God’s mercy; we did nothing to deserve God’s forgiveness or acceptance; we did nothing to deserve the fact that God calls us his friends, or that God pours out on us his Holy Spirit, or that God gives us the hope of eternal life. I don’t know whether you think the same way as me. But at about...

1 Corinthians 12.1-13 listen to ‘on spiritual gifts and speaking in tongues’ on audioBoom We are looking for the next few weeks at 1 Corinthians 12 – 14 and at spiritual gifts. Paul does not want us to be ‘uninformed’ about the gifts 1. He begins this chapter by speaking of the heart of the spiritual person. 1 Cor 12.1 literally says ‘And now concerning the spiritual (people, gifts, things)’ People talk a great deal about being spiritual. It can mean that they are into yoga or dowsing or Gregorian chant or angels or they claim to be particularly sensitive or open to the world beyond our senses. But that is not what Paul understands here as spiritual. At the centre of the true spiritual person is a heart that worships Jesus Christ as Lord (v3). What we have here is a line. At one end are those people who declare that Jesus is cursed. They look at the Jesus Christ who we read about in the bible, [they see one who allowed himself to be crucified in love for s...

Luke 7.1-10 [ If the service is in the context of an all age gathering, the following may be appropriate. In our story Jesus finds something in an unexpected place.  I've hidden 5 boxes in the church (each box has letter of the word 'faith' on it. One of boxes needs to be in an unexpected place. When they are all together get children to work out what the word is) Rhiannon found love in a hopeless place!  Jesus found faith in an unexpected place] 'I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith'  Jesus is looking for people with faith. He looks for faith in the place where he would expect to find it. Of course that would be in the people who God chose to be his own people - the people of Israel. They were the people chosen by God to be His people all those many years before. They were the people who had seen God act time and time again to rescue them. They were the people who had been given the great prom...

Luke 2.7,12 What did Jesus bring with him when he came from heaven? I have with me his suitcase. It is a big suitcase because we are talking about the Son of God. There must be a great deal of pretty precious stuff in it! So could you open the case for us [Have pre-arranged helper open large suitcase in which you have put an empty wallet and some strips of cloth] 1. Where will he stay? Somewhere in that suitcase there must be a key – a key to a place where he is going to stay. I suspect that it is a big key, because he is the Son of God. He is the ruler of all rulers, the leader of all leaders, the king of all kings. He is the person who is one day going to come back to judge the world and to rule the world [helper puts head in case and searches in vain] Look harder. There must be a key in there. Maybe it is a small key? It will be the key to a glorious palace, designed by the greatest of architects. This is God we are talking about: when you come ...

listen to ‘Carol service 2014: Christ is born in the mess’ on audioBoom You will probably be aware that on Angel Hill, beside the old Abbey wall, there is a crib scene. It shows Mary, Joseph, a couple of shepherds and the baby in a manger. A couple stopped and looked at it, and one was overheard as he asked the other, 'Who is the man in the bed?' It is a reminder. The story of Jesus is not as well known as it once was. For Christians that is an amazing opportunity. We can tell the story of Jesus and it really is good news . For those who don't know, the man in the bed is not a man but a baby. The bed is not a bed but a cattle feeding trough. The crib scene is a reminder that the astonishing gift of Christmas was God giving us his Son. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born as a baby on earth. It was a mess. Being born is a messy business. In the film Nativity (the first one), Mr Poppy and Mr Maddens take their class to go and see a baby bei...

A talk for a LIGHT UP A LIFE Hospice service listen to ‘Light up a life’ on audioBoom We talk of someone as being the light of my life. It means that they are everything to us. They are the one who gives our life meaning; they are the one who is there when it gets dark and difficult; they are the one who shows up the colours and make it all so bright. With them we can be completely honest and ourselves. We can weep with them and we can laugh with them. They make us who we are. They bring out the best in us.  And when that light is taken, our lives become very dark and very empty. WH Auden wrote,  The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood. For nothing now can ever come to any good. I am very conscious that for many of you the light of your life has been extinguished. You've been in very dark places, and some of you may still be in those dark pl...