May 2024 – Reflections from the Rectory I find May a great month! In the church we celebrate the Ascension (when Jesus ascended into heaven on the 40th day after his resurrection), Pentecost (when the Holy Spirit was poured out and made available to all), and Trinity Sunday (where we focus on the mystery of …
Category archives: Sermons
Sermon 2024-04-14
Sermon 14th April 2024 Evensong Acts 3:12-19, Luke 25:36b – 48 I’d like to invite you, if you will, to imagine that you are an old Jewish tradesman in the 1st century in the middle East. You are a puzzled seeker trying to make sense of this Jesus stuff. Your thoughts may go something like this …
Sermon 2024-04-07
TITLE Texts: Acts 4: 32-35, John 20,:19-end Today we hear in our readings about two seemingly very different personalities. The first being Thomas, the apostle almost invariably labelled with the epithet ‘doubting’ and then we have Barnabas, whose name we are told means ‘Son of the Encourager’. The name Barnabas is now associated with not …
Sermon 2024-03-31
Sermon 31st March2024 Readings – Acts 10:34-43, John 20: 1-18 Are we Easter people or Holy Saturday people? What do I mean by this? Are we lost in the darkness and confusion of Holy Saturday and in some ways content in wallowing in our inadequacies- in the ways we fall short, mess up and don’t measure up? …
Sermon 2024-03-27 Compline
Compline Reflection 27th March 2024 Wednesday: Head “O sacred head, surrounded by crown of piercing thorn! O bleeding head, so wounded, so shamed and put to scorn”. This is the head that is now given a kingly crown; only now at the time of his death does Jesus’ head bear the acknowledged symbol of kingship. …
Sermon 2024-03-26 Compline
Compline Reflection 26th March 2024 Tuesday: Feet Come see his hands and his feet, the scars that speak of sacrifice, hands that flung stars into space to cruel nails surrendered. See Christ’s feet nailed to the main beam of the cross; nailed with the same brutality as his hands have been pinned. Again see the …
Sermon 2024-03-25 Compline
Reflection for Compline 25th March 2024 Monday: Hands Come see his hands and his feet, the scars that speak of sacrifice, hands that flung stars into space to cruel nails surrendered. Hands pierced by nails, great clumsy pieces of iron hammered in with brutal power, hammered in with thoughtless uncaring cruelty; each blow struck with …
Sermon 2024-03-10 Evensong
10th March 2024 Homily for Evensong Texts: Ephesians 2: 1-10, John 6: 1-14 How, I wonder, do you refer to this day? Is it as the majority of people in this country would tell you Mothers’ Day or would you, like me, be what most people would consider being horribly pedantic and insist on calling …
Sermon 2024-03-10 Communion
Sermon 10th March 2024 – Mothering Sunday We’ve come here this morning to say thank you. Thank you to our mothers for all that they are and all that they do for us. And for some of us we have come here to remember. To remember our mothers who are no longer here to say thank …
Sermon 2024-03-03
Sermon 3rd March 2024 I was at Holmbury and shared one of my dark secrets, can share more with you. I was demoted from Head Boy at my Public School as I was caught drinking and smoking at the local pub and you probably think I’m going to say I was really contrite and ashamed, …