Glorified by God
John 17:1-11 We have seen the Lord… glorified by God. Today is ascension Sunday, the week before Pentecost, when we are brought the story of Jesus, some weeks after the resurrection, returning to heaven – the last time that the physical, post-resurrection body of Jesus would be seen ‘in the flesh’, as it were. The […]
In the unknown God
Acts 17:22-31 We have seen the Lord. Over the past few weeks we’ve explored the ways in which the early Church saw the Lord, encountered, or experienced, the reality of the risen Jesus.
In difficult times
Acts 7:55-60 We have seen the Lord, this week, in difficult times. When I read this passage through when sat down to actually write this sermon I realised that I have always remembered the story wrongly. I mean, I guess its not one of the best known passages in the New Testament, but I thought […]
In the community of God’s people
Acts 2:42-47 When I arrived at Roseville, something over six years ago now, believe it or not, one of the first people that I met was a tall, well-presented lady, with the bearing of someone who had enjoyed a professional life. She introduced herself, and quite early on in our conversation she told me that […]
On the road out of town
Luke 24:13-35 In his sermon on the resurrection appearances to the disciples, in particular Thomas, last week, Stuart said – well, he said a lot of interesting things, actually, but the one which really struck me was drawing out that phrase, “we have seen the Lord”, and his exploration of the ways in which, even […]
Easter Sunday
Matthew 28:1-10 Just over fifty years ago the German theologian Jurgen Moltmann wrote one of the most influential books of theology of the twentieth century. Into an age in which the Christian faith had become closely identified with power, with triumph, with overcoming the foe – whether in the military conflicts of the wars from […]
Palm Sunday
Matthew 21:1-11 We all know the story – it’s one of the big spectacles of the Christian year. The triumphal entry, the palm branches cut down and lain across the road, Jesus riding in on a donkey, children shouting “Hosanna”. And we all know, as well, because we’ve read the end of the story, that […]
Focus on Jesus – the Transfiguration
Exodus 24:12-18 | Matthew 17:1-9 Today’s gospel reading, the story of the transfiguration, would normally be read at the beginning of Lent, at the start of that journey. We shuffled things around so we could explore the Sermon on the Mount uninterrupted. The transfiguration is an unusual story in many ways. It’s one of the […]
The Narrow Way
Matthew 7:13-29 Today we come, at last, you might be thinking, to the end of the sermon on the mount – three chapters of concentrated spiritual, practical, and ethical teaching. It’s taken us eight Sundays to work our way through, and given the amount that I’ve had to leave out when deciding what to talk […]
Do to others
Matthew 7:1-12 And so we come, at last, to the simple phrase that lies at the center of the ethical content of the Sermon on the Mount, and, perhaps, of the teaching of Jesus. Two weeks ago we reflected on the Lord’s Prayer, and how it, in many ways, was the greatest possible summary of […]
Do not worry
Matthew 6:22-34 Reading the gospel today we read three times the clear command “do not worry”. Now I doubt that there is a piece of advice which is more often given, more universally accepted as wise, and more completely useless, than those words: “do not worry”. I mean, can you imagine a circumstance in which […]
Lord’s Prayer
Matthew 6:1-13 Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, once said “If somebody said, give me a summary of Christian faith that I can write on the back of an envelope, the best thing to do would be to write out the Lord’s Prayer.” It is perhaps the only piece of Christian liturgy used by […]
Be Perfect
Leviticus 19:13-18 | Matthew 5:38-48 Last week – or maybe it was the week before – I mentioned that there was this pattern of speech that Jesus used in the sermon on the mount, and which was a good indication of the way that the author portrays him as taking part in the cut and […]
Choice and Hope
Sirach 15:15-20 | Matthew 5:21-26 A while back, and I’m not sure exactly how it happened, there was a conversation in our household that turns out to be relevant to our readings today. Somehow we ended up talking about the doctrine of original sin.