Category Archives: sermon

Easter Vigil Sermon: New fire and living water

New fire and living water. Extremes of existence, held together by the cross and the resurrection, like life and death. Water. Soothing, refreshing, life-giving. We play in it, luxuriate in it. Our bodies are more than half made of it. … Continue reading →

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Last words

This is a meditation delivered at a service of the Seven Last Words at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, Good Friday 2009, revisited today in honour of Holy Week and in memory of Joyce.  – Woman, behold your son: behold your mother … Continue reading →

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The Archbishop of Canterbury: Poet, Politician, or Parable?

A Homily for Evensong at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, on the feast day of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop and Martyr, March 21st 2012 Thomas Cranmer: was he a romantic or an adventurer? A wise man or an opportunist? Was the man better … Continue reading →

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John 3:16

For God so loved the world he came between a mother and the baby at her breast so that each saw the image of love reflected in the other’s eyes God so loved the world that he sat at the … Continue reading →

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Serpent

Fashion your fear in all its detail. Make your sin shiny, sleek and dangerous. Fill its fangs with all the venom you can muster. Gaze upon it, and know that you are greater than the thing which you create.   … Continue reading →

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Year B Lent 3: Superstitions and the first commandment

The rest of the sermon: God spoke these words: I am the Lord your God … you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol … you shall not bow down to them or worship … Continue reading →

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Superstitions and the first commandment

Looking towards Sunday, I read this in the Oxford Bible Commentary about the Exodus reading (Ex0dus 10: 1-17): “Modern preachers interpret this [the first] command in a moralistic way: anything which absorbs a person’s devotion is his/her god … But this is … Continue reading →

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Lent-check

Matthew 20: 17-28 Jesus predicts his suffering and death – and the disciples’ response still leaves a little something to be desired. They have got past last Sunday’s denial of the whole horrible thing – they can, perhaps by now, bring themselves … Continue reading →

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Year B Lent 2: The cross: hoping against hope

Jesus began to teach his disciples that he, the Son of Man, must undergo great suffering and be rejected by his own people, and killed, and after three days rise again. The promise of God with us is a strange … Continue reading →

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A Tuesday lunchtime homily

A homily for today’s Eucharist. We used the weekdays of Lent lectionary: Isaiah 55: 6-11 Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their … Continue reading →

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