preaching

Lately I have posted in WordPress. Here is the opening from the latest sermon.

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Since arriving in Slimbridge, I have been saving my sermons and producing them on my website. A number of different ways of presenting them have happened. Here is a listing of the earlier sermons.

Sermons before using WordPress

Some sermons

Here are the openings for some sermons as they are being kept on these pages.

First Sunday of Lent

You may know that I enjoy mystery novels even more than my more academic and historical reading. One fictional character I find very engaging is Cadfael, a monk from the pen of Ellis Peters. I think you have all seen him on the small screen. I found a resumé of the characters which started my thinking for today’s ramblings.

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Second Sunday before Lent

A few weeks ago we heard about the events at the lake of Gennesaret, when the fishermen were called as disciples after they had hauled in the catch which almost overwhelmed their boats. This week we are back on the water. Today we hear about the storm which threatened to drown them all. We know about those gales, don’t we? When everything is upset, when the normal is overturned and we have to struggle through hell to the other side, we call out “We are perishing” in our despair.

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Fourth Sunday before Lent

We read this morning “and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God.” – Is this something we can say about any crowd today? Who today presses in to listen to anyone else, let alone anyone in a pulpit speaking about the word of God?

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Candlemass

Today we are celebrating Candlemass, the end of the Christmass–Epiphany season, the day when Jesus was presented in the Temple, when Simeon declared the words we know as the Nunc Dimittis, revealing yet again the magnificent mystery of the incarnate Lord. And we are told that Mary’s heart would feel a sword piercing it because the destiny of the child was “the rising and falling of many” and making known “inner thoughts”. I suppose Simeon was warning those parents that the life of a prophet was to be their son’s. It would not be one of sweetness and light, but the pain of self knowledge was to be his fate – that this child was going to stand against the ignorance of the crowd for the sake of humanity’s salvation in the truth, a stance which too often calls forth opposition in every sort of way.

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