Psalm 8 Colossians 3:16 So, today we celebrate John’s service to this church for forty years, and to the church universal for so much longer than that, and we say thank you for that. What I want to say, briefly, is something about why that service matters so very much. Music is not just a…
Mark 10:13-16 Psalm 103:8-18 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 A young lad walked into the lingerie section of a department store and asked to buy something for his mother’s birthday the following day. But when it came to what size to buy, he was at a complete loss. “Well, what’s your mother like?” asked the assistant. “Is…
Isaiah 52:7-12 Acts 11:19-30 I reckon that if there’s anyone you want to meet that if you sit in the church coffee bar long enough, eventually they’ll come past. They the same about King’s Parade in Cambridge – if you walk up and down for long enough, whoever you want to meet will come past….
Isaiah 40:12-17 Matthew 28:16-20 2 Corinthians 13:11-14 If you’ve looked closely at a rope, you’ll have noticed that it’d made of three cords, which are wound together, and it’s the three cords wound together that has been found to the strongest way of making a rope, much stronger than the cords on their own, or…
Genesis 11:1-9 Acts 2:1-21 In the spring of 1963 the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, had to ask the publishers for a copy of a book, because the demand was such that no other copy was available. The author was John Robinson, the bishop of Woolwich, and the book was called Honest to God. A couple…
The year is 1949. The congregation in the village of Barvas on the Isle of Lewis is in a poor state. Not a single young person attended church. Two old women, one of them 84, the other 82 and blind, were greatly concerned, and made this a matter of special prayer. A verse gripped them:…
Acts 1:1-11 Luke 24:44-53 Perhaps some of you remember Sputnik going into space in 1957, and then in 1961, when Yuri Gagarin made that first manned space flight. Apparently some were concerned that the godless Russian might use his craft to break physically into heaven. Others pointed out that Gagarin was not the first person…
Acts 1:1-11 Luke 24:44-53 Is the ascension a fictional story of something that couldn’t have happened, written by people in an age when they still thought the earth was flat, of no relevance to us today? Or is it – although impossible to explain in modern rational and scientific terms – a literal truth? The…
Acts 17:22-34 John 14:15-21 Conspiracy theories abound. There are people who believe that the moon landings were faked in television studios. I can remember seeing moon rock when I was an undergraduate in the Geology Department at Durham University, and seeing how they examined made me confident it was what it claimed to be. Yet,…
Luke 24:13-35 It’s good to be here this evening. In the light of what happened in these last few days, my travelling companion Cleopas and I felt it imperative that we come and tell you about our incredible experiences. Cleopas has gone to Elstead, so I’ve come to Farnham tonight to speak to you….