Matthew

Sermons based on readings from the Gospel of Matthew

A Sermon for Trinity Sunday (04/06/23): The Sign on the Door – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28:16-20 Just as he is about leave them as he ascends into heaven, Jesus leaves his followers with what has become known as the great commission:Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.This is a problematic day that …

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A Sermon for Easter Day (09/04/23): The Empty Tomb Is Not The Resurrection

Matthew 28:1-10 The Easter narrative fails to supply the thing we most eagerly anticipate. There is no description of the very thing which make Easter what it is. We do no see, there is no account of the resurrection.As the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to …

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A Sermon for the Sixth Sunday in Lent (02/04/23): Jesus Handed Over and Abandoned

Matthew 27:11-26 [The lectionary gives two options for reading on the Sixth Sunday in Lent / Palm Sunday. We can read about Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem from Matthew 21:1-11. You can a sermon on that reading here. Or we can read the Passion Narrative from Matthew 26:14-27:66. This sermon reflects on part of that …

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A Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent (26/02/23): Freedom and Temptations

Matthew 4:1-11 “Speak of the devil and he shall appear” is what the proverb says. The devil is not, as some of our mythology might have it, a fallen angel. The devil is not, as he would appear when we give him too much credence, an equal and opposite counterpart to God. The devil has …

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A Sermon for Ash Wednesday (22/02/23): Piety is Not a Means to Another End

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 Jesus says:Whenever you give alms. . .And whenever you pray. . .And whenever you fast. . .Charitable giving, prayer and fasting, these are three things we might do, or do more of in Lent. And Jesus warns us how not to do them! It is with charitable giving where we might recognise …

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A Sermon for the Last Sunday before Lent (19/02/23): The Guarantee of the Transfiguration

(Matthew 17:1-9) II Peter 1:16-21 How do we know that Christianity is true or good or even useful? Here we are spending our time and energy on it. We devote ourselves to a particular set of commitments and a particular lifestyle that grows our of those commitments. We tell a story and try to allow …

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A Sermon for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (12/02/23): But I say to you

Matthew 5:21-37 “You have heard that it was said. . . but I say to you“ Jesus goes up onto a mountain, sits down, the disciples and the crowd gathers round him and Jesus begins to teach. The choice of location for this teaching is quite deliberate. Given the content of what Jesus teaches in …

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A Sermon for the Second Sunday of Christmas (01/01/23):Herod and Joseph

Matthew 2:13-23 The story of the massacre of the innocents punctures the sentimentality of Christmas. There is a possibility that our celebration of Christmas becomes like the pictures on the lids of tins of biscuits or on Christmas cards. We turn it into a warm glowing image of bovine contentment and family bliss. It is …

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A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent (18/12/22):Christmas, a righteousness that goes beyond mercy

Matthew 1:(1-17)18-25 He [Joseph] did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took her [Mary] as his wife but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son. And he named him Jesus. In Matthew’s Gospel the birth of Jesus is reported by Jesus almost as an aside. It isn’t …

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A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent (11/12/22):The Gift You Didn’t Know You Wanted

Matthew 11:2-11 One of the things many, most, perhaps everyone looks forward to at Christmas are the presents. We do try to tell ourselves not to be so shallow or materialistic. We say the joy of Christmas isn’t dependent on what we get But even if we have grown out of that, we can still …

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