Sermons for Ordinary Times
John 51-58 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. Cannibalism is a universal human taboo. Eating human flesh offends and horrifies everyone. It is the domain of the deranged killer. The Hannibal Lectors of fiction and their very rare real …
Ephesians 4:24-5:2 There are two questions that are essential to religion. They are: the theological question, and the the ethical question. There are two questions which any religion must provide an answer to. First: What is God like? That is the theological question. And second: How should we live? That is the ethical, or moral …
A Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (08/08/21): Be Imitators of God Read More »
John 6:24-35 Overnight there has been something of a game of cat and mouse. Jesus had slipped away from the crowd , who earlier in the day he had fed miraculously from five barley loaves and and two fish. The crowd had been so impressed with what they had seen Jesus do that they were …
A Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (01/08/21): I am the bread of life Read More »
When the Son of Man Comes Matthew 25:31-46 This is the end of Jesus’ teaching ministry. Three years of wandering and three years of speaking to everyone who would listen reaches its climax here. This is the completion of everything he has tried to reveal. Jesus pictures “the Son of Man” coming in glory. He takes up the …
A Sermon for the Last Sunday before Advent (22/11/20): When the Son of Man Comes Read More »
Theology Matters! Matthew 25:14-30 The Parables of the Talents is an odd parable. It is something of an outlier in Jesus’ story telling. It seems out of place. It is odd because it appears to run counter to most of what Jesus teaches elsewhere. The conclusion seems particularly troublesome: For to those who have more will be given and …
A Sermon for the Twenty Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (15/11/20): Theology Matters! Read More »
Keep awake! You foolish bridesmaids Matthew 25:1-13 Christianity is a religion of looking forward! Perhaps it is hard for people sometimes to recognise that. Much of our talk is, of course, about event that took place 2000 years and more ago. But all of those events, in fact, have a bearing on the future. …
White in the Blood of the Lamb Revelation 7:9-17 These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. On All Saints Day we might ask: “Who are the saints?” Perhaps a slightly facetious answer might be: “Someone …
A Sermon for All Saints Day (01/11/20): White in the Blood of the Lamb Read More »
The Last Two Questions Matthew 22:34-46 Something is happening in Jerusalem. It is one of those moments when everyone knows that a crisis is coming. Like one of those hot heavy afternoons, when the air feels thick, close and dense, that can only end in a thunderstorm before evening. Jesus arrived in the city on …
A Sermon for the Twenty First Sunday after Pentecost (25/10/20): The Last Two Questions Read More »
A Trick Answer to a Trick Question Matthew 22:15-22 Jesus’ answers the question which the Pharisees put to him: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that the emperor’s and to God the things that are God.” There is a fundamental question which God’s people must always answer, how does God’s people live in the …
Accepting the Invitation and Going Properly Dressed Matthew 22:1-14 There is a picture which is repeated all the way through the Bible of what God is offering people. It is the picture of a banquet. Jesus says – on more than one occasion: The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave …