Tag Archives: Advent
Sermon: Love Sunday
In Jesus’ birth, as in Jesus’ death and resurrection, God is defeating death and hopelessness. Continue reading
Sermon: Joy Sunday
God is not well-behaved! Continue reading
Sermon: Hope Sunday
The creation story speaks of light and order and life not because it is ignoring the reality of darkness and chaos and death but in response to it. Continue reading
Sermon: The greater righteousness (2)
Matthew’s story is a story of social conventions being overturned and of mercy outweighing merely-legal righteousness. Continue reading
Sermon: The greater righteousness (1)
it is the story of a righteousness that doesn’t stand on the letter of the law, but instead offers justice and mercy and faith Continue reading
Sermon: ‘Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise’
Sixteen-year-old me wanted to be Enjolras and take to the barricades. Forty-three-year-old me prays that God will enable me to live like an elderly bishop who can welcome and forgive a thief who steals his silver. Continue reading
Sermon for Advent 3: Joy
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. The Lord is near. He is coming to welcome us to his kingdom, to make a place for us at his banqueting table. Continue reading
Sermon: Lighten our darkness
We live in a world in which it can be hard to hold on to hope, hard to see signs of peace, a world that appears to be one of sorrow and hatred rather than joy and love. Continue reading
Sermon: How can we celebrate Advent in a world without Peace
There are many, many other places around the world where an absence of conflict is misnamed ‘peace’. I’m reminded of a very famous quote from the first-century Roman historian Tacitus’ history of Rome’s conquest of Scotland. Tacitus writes a rousing speech that he puts into the mouth of the British leader, Calgacus, in which he says of the Romans: ‘They make a desert and call it peace.’ Continue reading
