Matthew 16:21-28 Self-denial’s clearly an important element of tonight’s reading. That isn’t something that’s really compatible with life in the 21st century. I suppose it’s about as popular a topic as defending the ice cream sabotaging super villain from last week’s episode the Great British Bake Off. However, we cannot avoid that in tonight’s reading…
Exodus 3:1-15 Matthew 16:21-28 During the ongoing war in Gaza, much has been made of the small area, and how many Palestinians live there. It is 139 square miles, a bit smaller than the Isle of Wight, and 1.8 million people live there. Now, of course, about half of Gaza is uninhabitable, so 1.8 million…
Isaiah 43:8-13 Luke 22:24-30 As I’m sure you all know, today, 24 August, is the day when the church celebrates St. Bartholomew. Of, to us Nonconformists, it’s indelibly etched onto our DNA as the date upon which the Act of Uniformity came into effect in 1662, forcing our spiritual ancestors out of the Church of…
Isaiah 51:1-6 Romans 12:1-8 Matthew 16:13-20 August Bank Holiday, and a congregation almost6 stripped bare of families with school age children. Holiday Season. I wonder where you like going on holiday. I’ve been told, by several different people, Sidmouth is wonderful. So is Majorca. And Cornwall. And the Black Forest, although gateaux has nothing to…
Matthew 15:21-28 She didn’t belong there. I knew it and the rest of us knew it. We were just sitting down to dinner when she barged in. The dogs woke up immediately, and from their place under the table they began to bark. One of the children started to cry as the woman frantically looked…
Matthew 15:21-28 Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous letter from Birmingham Jail responded to criticisms of the local clergy who charged that he was an outside agitator who was stirring up trouble away from his home town. He wrote, “I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I…
Matthew 13:44-48 The last time I saw pearls in any significant quantity was at the recent civic service. Pearls, being discreet, tasteful, and expensive, were much in evidence on the many ladies whose outfits had probably been among the top end of those at Royal Ascot Ladies Day. Seriously, pearls are wonderful, and many ladies…
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 I once read a murder mystery in which the secret lay in patchwork quilt in a farm in north Wales. It turned out that an old lady had inadvertently discovered a particular mathematical formula years ahead of the academics, as she had stitched together her quilt. Patchwork is what we have this…
Matthew 13:24-30 Romans 8:12-25 Where was God in the trenches of the First World War? From Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy (Woodbine Willie) to Siegfried Sassoon, great minds have wrestled with what was effectively the first industrialised war in human history. But as we rapidly approach the centenary of the ‘war to end all wars’ we are…
Matthew 13:1-9 When we read stories to children, they don’t have to be very old before they know that you have to wait for the end, and that it will be alright, or even more than alright. The owl babies’ mother does come back. The little bear who is scared of the dark does…