Sunday's coming!

  Luke 6: 17-26  & Psalm 1 When did a sermon last take you by surprise? For most of us – when we’re sitting in the pews, anyway – it’s time to settle down, pop in a mint imperial, and wait to hear some interesting things about God, or the Bible, or the life of Jesus. I wonder whether the crowd who first heard what we heard Jesus say today had similar expectations to us? Perhaps they expected something like Psalm 1: happy are those who have kept away from the wicked, from sinners, or the scornful. There is a translation of this called “the Message” which re-imagines the Psalm like this:   How well God must like you—      you don’t walk in the ruts of those blind-as-bats,      you don’t stand with the good-for-nothings,      you don’t take your seat among the know-it-alls. Instead you thrill to   God ’s Word,      you chew on Scripture day and night. You’re a...

  Isaiah 6: 1-13, Luke 5: 1-11 Introduction to readings Our first reading about the ‘call of Isaiah’ – though we’re going to read on today to hear the message Isaiah is sent to tell the people. Isaiah lived in a chaotic period of Israel's history during the 8th century BCE. At this time, the nation was divided into two kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Both kingdoms faced pressures from the nations surrounding them. The Northern Kingdom had already fallen to the Assyrian Empire, and both Israel and Judah had turned away from God in the interests of political survival. To a world which was in a mess; in a world which we might feel is in a mess today, let’s hear the words God speaks through Isaiah.   Sermon Traditionally we might all have seen both our Bible readings today as passages about call, especially call to ministry: but given the mess the world is in, I want to look at them again today, thinking about...

 This week we have a 'guest preacher': Revd Dr Susan Durber. Here are her sermon notes On Zion’s Hill I know that life is hard and tough in all sorts of ways. And that we’re not all always ‘fine!’. But sometimes there are moments in our lives when we are so blissfully happy, or so contented and fulfilled, that we find ourselves thinking – well I could go now and I wouldn’t mind … Sometimes there comes a moment when we know that we’ve seen life, we’ve known the deepest joy or peace and if we didn’t live another day it would all have been worth it! That’s the kind of experience we are going to meet today in our Bible story – about Simeon – who met the holy family in the Temple. And that perhaps is the kind of life and death that we would all like! I’m getting some help with this sermon – from someone who lived and died a while ago – the painter Rembrandt. He’s someone who changed the way that people painted the Bible – and he even changed his own way of pa...

  Luke 4: 14-30 This has been quite a week, if you’ve been watching the news from the United States. President Donald Trump has been elected for a second term – and has received acclaim and applause from many for his bold inauguration speech in which he declared a national emergency at the Southern border and promised to end the right to be registered as a US citizen if you are born there. He has since signed dozens of executive orders, including those withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, increasing oil, gas & coal exploitation, and releasing those who stormed the Capitol building when he failed to be elected president four years ago.   But Bishop Mariann Budde, the Episcopalian Bishop of Washington, preaching at the Washington National Cathedral the day after the inauguration, directly addressed President Trump and Vice-president Vance.   She asked them, in the name of the God Trump believes saved him from a bullet, to “have mercy” on those who fe...