Epiphany

Sermons for the Season of Epiphany

A Sermon for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (22/01/23): You are my Servant

Isaiah 49:1-7 You are my servant . . . .and:I will give you as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.One of the first questions that might ask of this, or for that matter many passages of scripture is: Who are these words addressed to? Who …

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A Sermon for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (15/01/23):Filling in the Blanks with Ourselves

John 1:29-42 How is Jesus recognised as the one sent by God? How do you know? How do we establish that it is indeed Jesus, who is the one who comes to establish God’s kingdom? The one who calls together a people in his name, who reconciles that people and through them the whole of …

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A Sermon for the Last Sunday after Epiphany (27/02/22): How Did They Know?

Luke 9:28-36 Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. How did they know? As readers of Luke’s account of the transfiguration, one of the questions that must surely occur to is: how did …

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A Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany (20/02/22): Love Your Enemies

Luke 6:27-38 There is a basic level of kindness which is probably common to all people. It is a sort of shared concern for our fellow human beings which might be present everywhere. It is that sense that if a person’s needs are great enough, for example if they were drowning, and that if the …

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A Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany (13/02/22): God speaks from among the poor

Luke 6:17-26 Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God.This is a familiar line from Jesus’ teaching.It is the first of the Beatitudes.But woe to you who are rich for you have received you consolation.It is followed by a somewhat less familiar line from Jesus’ teaching. Luke recalls that for …

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A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany (30/01/22): Is Not This Joseph’s Son

Luke 4:21-30 When John, rather than Luke recounts the story of Jesus’ life and ministry he says:“He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.” (John 1:11)To begin with, when Jesus goes to those who were most his own, in the place where he had grown up, to begin …

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A Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany (23/01/22): Manifesto at Nazareth

Luke 4:14-21 At the synagogue in Nazareth Jesus reads a passage from Isaiah and then preaches a one sentence sermon:Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” We could think of Jesus’ life and career in conventional terms, in the way we would any other historical figure, …

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A Sermon for the Second Sunday after Epiphany (16/01/22): His First Sign

John 2:1-12 Jesus did this, the first of his signs in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.One of the characteristics of John’s telling of Jesus’ story are the “signs.” At key moments in his ministry Jesus does something, a miracle, a sign, which reveals, in action, some aspect …

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A Sermon for the First Sunday after Epiphany (09/01/22): Jesus Christ fully human though never less than God

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Now when the people were baptised and Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heaven was opened , and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”Luke’s report of …

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A Sermon for the Epiphany (06/01/22): Following the Star and the Scriptures

Matthew 2:1-12 The wise men are some of the oddest characters in the Bible. They are almost out of place. They are from a culture that is alien to the Bible. They are in possession of knowledge, of a kind and a quality that makes them seem, to ordinary folk, like magicians. Their careful study …

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