Many Sparrows
Matthew 10:24-31 Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. Why sparrows?
Freely received, freely give
Matthew 10:8 This week I was invited to be part of an online discussion about the role of AI in education. So I thought I might start by sharing with you what ChatGPT made of this challenge – “write me a sermon on Matthew 9:35-10:8 in the context of refugees”. This is part of its […]
Mercy not Sacrifice
Matthew 9:9-13 Another of our bite-sized sayings from Jesus. Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Words well known to those that Jesus addressed – the Pharisees would have recognised them as the punchline of the prophet Hosea’s lament in Hosea chapter 6: What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? […]
I am with you always
Matthew 28:16-20 Over the next few weeks we’re going to be looking at some, mostly quite short, readings from Matthew’s Gospel. As I’ve said before, each of the four gospels has a very distinctive flavour that comes from the purpose and audience for which it was originally written.
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 […]