In the story of the first kings of Israel we meet Saul who begins so well but ends so badly, and then David, the unlikely successor...It's a story about what being faithful, or not, looks like in two very real, messy lives. … [Read more...]
The Holy Trinity
"Trinity" isn't a theory of God, but an experience of life in God. This sermon is about how the idea of God as Trinity arises out of living the path of faith. Thinking about this Trinity idea doesn't get you far, you have to see it arises out of a need to describe what people experience. So I am inviting you, if you don't know in your bones what Trinity is about, to try to find it by experience, and let go of doing it in your head. … [Read more...]
Being honest with yourself, in prayer, work and life.
This sermon is about what feeds your body and your soul. What goes into you determines what you become. And what you say and how you act determine who you become. It is a story about a bread maker, and about Jesus. Neither of them chose "The Big Time". It was a good choice in both cases. … [Read more...]
Caribbean teaching, learnings & planning
I offer this report in the place of a sermon, although it has a feel not dissimilar. I spent a week in Barbados, and I spent less than an hour in total (5 quick swims) on the beach. Otherwise I was working. The report attached describes some of what I was doing, what I learned and what I have been led to think now. … [Read more...]
Prayer – How to do it
Prayer is a good subject to think about in the season of Lent. Lent is a time to deepen your practice of faith, and prayer is the way to do that. Prayer often feels very introverted and private, but I want to suggest it pulls in and pushes out. Prayer is not about handing off to God things you want done for you. Rather it is about asking for help and guidance in something you want, yourself, to get done. … [Read more...]
When does the Kingdom of God draw near?
You hear phrases so often that you can forget what they say. This story, a composite of people and places I have known, is one way to understand what the kingdom of God can be like when it draws near, and you turn around (which is what "repent" means) and you open your heart and soul to actually believe good news.It is not without significance that all of this happens between a young man and an older woman. The clergy presence here is at best "tangential"! The work of the church is best done by … [Read more...]
What does it mean to try to be holy?
This is a teaching about the little path of being clear, simple and above all vulnerable that allowed two people, Samuel and Philip, to be considered holy.It is a story-telling sermon and a sermon which tries to link those stories into living out our way of life as little-christs / christians. … [Read more...]
Gold, Incense and Hand cream…
The Festival of the Epiphany is all about the Magi. Delightfully we know almost nothing factual about them, and to Jesus, Joseph and Mary they apparently said absolutely nothing (worth recording, that is). But wordlessly they spoke so deeply with gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. This sermon is trying to help us re-connect with those gifts so that we may "hear" what the Magi were saying about the baby before them. … [Read more...]
Christmas Eve
This teaching looks at how the birth of a baby gives a clue to the nature of how God does "mighty" things. We tend to think of mightiness as about force and warfare. Do babies have "might"? Well, perhaps Jesu did, and still does. But in the heart not in the fist. … [Read more...]
Mary The Amazing, who gets to carry God!
In this teaching I am looking at the particularity, even peculiarity, of Mary, Jesus' mum. And wondering if we think we might be a bit too much for God to trust with himself. … [Read more...]
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