Sermons
From time to time I put sermons I give up here. Not because I think they are particularly good, even less that they are model sermons. I can't even guarantee that I agree with everything I said then - I am (of course) learning all the time. But someone may be interested.
You can use the filters below to restrict which sermons you see. Sermons will be sorted newest first, which means that they appear in reverse order from that in which they were delivered.
Exodus 11:1-13:16
Sun, 14/02/2010 - 09:30 — JamesIntroduction
I’m sure there is not a child anywhere in the English-speaking world who has not had a phase of asking “why” to everything. Children are naturally curious. They want to know how the world fits together. So as they observe things happening, they ask why? They want to understand.
Much that we do here in church makes people ask “why” as well? Why do we eat a meal each week comprising a small amount of bread and wine? Why do we have readings from the Bible in church? Why do we have a sermon? And so on.
… read more »Exodus 7:8-10:29
Sun, 24/01/2010 - 11:30 — JamesWe don’t like plagues. We shudder to think what it must have been like to live through the various runs of Bubonic Plague in the middle ages. We fear illnesses like swine flu because of what they might do to our community. We get very anxious when we hear that Iraq might have biological or chemical weapons, that could make life very painful and uncomfortable for us.
So, if we are honest, the account of the plagues of Egypt is a difficult part of the Bible to stomach. It’s hard to read. It’s hard to preach on. It’s hard to listen to a sermon on. We start to ask: How could God do such horrible things to the Egyptians?
… read more »Exodus 1:1-7:7
Sun, 10/01/2010 - 11:30 — JamesIntroduction
“… and they all lived happily ever after”.
We like stories that end like that. They’re lovely. At least – they’re lovely if you live in that period called “ever after”. The trouble is: That is only the ending because the rest of the story is somewhat more complex and somewhat less happy. That’s what makes “… and they all lived happily ever after” newsworthy.
For the people of God, the Bible is a story that ends “and they all lived happily ever after”. The trouble is that before we get to “ever after”, things don’t feel happy. In fact, it often doesn’t feel that we are living in a story that is going to end with the words, “and they all lived happily ever after”.
In real life, the fact of the matter is, the difficulties and pressures of daily life easily seem far more real to us than the promises and purposes of God. And the danger is that we end up with a mismatch between Sunday and Monday to Friday. On Sunday we come to church, and what we hear is that it all ends happily ever after. We hear about God, what he promises, and how he will look after us. Then we go out into Monday to Friday, and we wonder if it all makes any difference at all. What we see before us for six days of the week are not the fine statements we heard on Sunday, but the often cruel details of life.
… read more »Philippians 1:1-11 - thanksgiving
Sun, 29/11/2009 - 10:00 — JamesWelcome to Paul’s letter to the Philippians. The church at Philippi was a thriving and healthy church. Just from this opening paragraph we get a sense of how deeply Paul feels for them. It’s almost as if they are his favourite church. Philippians is a lovely letter, because the Philippian church had no major problems. Sure, there are a few things for them to work on, and there are a few things for them to watch out for. But overall, this is a church that’s getting things right, that is in good health, and has been a tremendous strength and blessing to Paul.
… read more »Mark 10:35-45
Sun, 18/10/2009 - 08:30 — JamesOne of the things that causes many people to dismiss the Christian faith is the perception that the church is hypocritical.
… read more »Mark 9:38-50
Sun, 27/09/2009 - 08:30 — JamesWith great delight we have just baptised three small children. We have just welcomed three new members into our church. That makes this a good Sunday to think about our relationships with one another. How should we, who are in this church, relate to one another? What should characterise our relationships.
… read more »Mark 8:27-38
Sun, 13/09/2009 - 08:30 — JamesMost of us here this morning would agree that Jesus Christ is good. He’s good for our lives. He’s good for our village. He’s good for our nation. He’s worth doing things for. He’s worth giving things up for. He’s somebody really very precious indeed.
… read more »Mark 7:1-23
Sun, 30/08/2009 - 08:30 — JamesOver the past twenty years, the study of “comparative religion” has become a significant enterprise. As more and more religious faiths are represented in Britain in significant numbers, and as communications around the world have opened up, we feel it is important that people have a basic grasp of the religions of the world and how they differ from one another. Most GCSE RE syllabuses now focus on this, and the emphasis is on the various practices, customs and rituals of each religion. Compare, and contrast.
… read more »Jeremiah 18:18-20
Wed, 11/03/2009 - 09:30 — JamesThat Bible reading from Jeremiah chapter 18 was a very short one, so we don’t get any sense of where it comes in the book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was asked to go and watch a potter at work. The vessel the potter was making went awry, and so the potter changed his plans and made something else. God explains to Jeremiah that he is a bit like that potter. He can plan to destroy a nation for its wickedness, but if the nation shifts and starts to fear God, he’ll change his plans and build it up instead. Conversely, he could plan to build up and prosper a nation, but if that nation goes awry and becomes wicked, he’ll change his plans and destroy it instead.
… read more »Psalm 1
Sun, 14/09/2008 - 09:45 — JamesI could have gone to a shelf in the newsagents and brought with me pretty much any half-dozen magazines, and the chances are that on their cover or inside they would have their own version of “Ten ways to be happy”. Whether it be “21 ways to have a celebrity-type romantic relationship”. Or, I think it was Men’s Health on the cover, “30 guaranteed ways to burn fat”. Or whatever it might be. “10 ways to find true and lasting happiness.”
Psalm 1 is the Bible’s alternative to those magazines. Psalm 1 starts, “Happy…” or “Blessed… is the man (or the woman) who…”. Psalm 1 tells us where we will go to find true and lasting happiness. Psalm 1 is for men and women. It’s as much the Bible’s answer to FHM as it is to Cosmo; it is as much the Bible’s answer to Men’s Health as it is to Red. Psalm 1 is the Bible’s answer to those magazines: where we go to find true happiness.
… read more »
