preaching

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

We have a new liturgy today – all that means is that we have a new set of words for worship. The pattern remains the same, but our focus is just a bit different, because we have turned to Creation as the symbol through which we understand God approaches us.

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Other sermons are available

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.

Trinity 4

Who has not heard of the Good Samaritan? This parable from the Gospel of Luke is one that is known throughout the world. It raises all those delicate matters of social attitudes and philosophical differences of opinion. It highlights the animosity of groups, one against the other – those “normal” prejudices communities hold towards strangers (whatever that strange is: color, smell, straight, crooked). Samaritans and Jews were at odds with each other – it was deep-seated, nothing trivial, essentially it was at the heart of Judaism. They would have nothing to do with each other. You could say it was a hatred. This attitude sullied any relationship between the two communities, and between individuals.

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Trinity 3

What do you say when you catch someone out? Are you sarcastic or bitter? Do you berate those persons about their failures? – Or – would you say something like:

My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit, should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.

So Paul writes to the Galatians. He goes on to say, “Take care that you yourselves are not tempted.” Has anyone ever said such a thing to you? Do we give way to that wicked temptation all too easily? Do I let my bile rise when I come across a mistake and lambaste the poor fellow who already may be feeling bad about this “sin”? Imagine that person standing in front of you – there you are with the transgressor before you, you see such embarrassment and contrition in front of you, do you still wale into that hapless individual and vent your fury because of your own feelings? Have you succumbed to such a temptation and let rip because others have done that to you?

Such things do happen, don’t they? I know that I have behaved pretty badly from time to time, and I haven’t remembered or heard these words of Paul in those moments. So, afterwards, what happens? Do any of us at all regret that loss of control?

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Trinity

For many, this Sunday is one of the most important feast days of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church – it celebrates the creed’s formula of the image of God as Trinity – God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. As some of you may know, we should be reciting the Athanasian Creed, which you will find in the BCP and Common Worship. – But we won’t, because it is repetitive, and, more probably, because it is so very long, and we don’t do long nowadays anywhere, do we? However, it is profound in a very poetic way.

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Pentecost

Here we are at WhitSun, Pentecost. Many call today the birthday of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

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