1 Corinthians 15:1-8 John 14:1-14 Disciples are like buses today – you wait for ages, and then two turn up at once. Today’s the nearest Sunday to the day in the church calendar when we celebrate the feast of two of the apostles: Philip and James. We celebrate two of them together because of the…
Matthew 5:38-42 Isaiah 2:2-5 Ephesians 2:13-22 As a boy I remembered a bench being installed in our town, with an inscription “in thanksgiving for forty years of peace in Europe” – I think it must be been featured in the local newspaper, benches not being so very memorable, except for that one that was…
Psalm 23 1 John 3:16-end John 10:11-18 Well it’s hotting up. The General Election is round the corner, and most of us are feeling a mixture of battered and bewildered by the barrage of promises, the endless stream of claim and counter claim. Those of us who aren’t economists really have little idea what pledges…
Acts 3:12-19 Luke 24:36-48 A man walked into a corner shop with a shotgun and demanded all the cash from the till. After the cashier put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf. He told the cashier to put it in…
John 21:1-19 Acts 9:1-6 As the little boat rose and fell, the grey dawn cast an unkind light on Peter’s face. Every line was etched deeper, so it seemed. His eyelids were heavy after a night of fruitlessly casting nets into the water. And there was a far-away tiredness inside. Anger, self-loathing and deep, deep…
John 20:1-18 Interviewer: The recent rumours which have come out of Jerusalem have shocked the world and we on this programme have had our correspondents as close as possible to the action. We have been able to track down the one person who above all others is probably closest to Jesus the Nazarene, who was…
Mark 16:1-8 Some years ago someone received a letter from the then DHSS, informing him that his benefit would be stopped at the end of March 1986 because he had died. The letter then went onto say, “you may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances.” Someone once wrote into the problem page…
Mark 11:1-11 A voice from the Crowd I don’t know why l did it – didn’t then, didn’t now. Don’t look at me like that. You’d have done it too, if you’d been there. The city was heaving – one great mass of squashed-together humanity. There must have been two, three hundred thousand there, even…
John 12:20-33 These days when the Greeks turn up, they’re probably asking for money, but it wasn’t so in Jesus’ time. The “Greeks” who asked for Jesus were, I expect, Greek Jews. I expect they were there for the Passover. They wanted to see Jesus. And they found Philip. Philip is a Greek name. So…
Ephesians 2:1-10 John 3:14-21 At 404 ft, the spire of Salisbury Cathedral is the tallest church structure in Britain. Somewhat taller than our own, and be grateful we don’t have their maintenance bills! Completed in 1320, Salisbury Cathedral spire gives inspiration to visitors who feel thrilled when it first comes into sight while they are…