Jesus’ last supper was a meal hovering on the threshold of things. We tend to think of it as settled, easy, and relaxed – a big Jewish meal with friends at the heart of the Passover celebrations in Jerusalem. Whether this was a Seder Celebration is now a matter of debate, but what we do…Continue reading Sermon for Maundy Thursday

East West Street I have been re-reading East West Street by Philippe Sands: an account of the lives of two men who introduced the terms Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity into international law. Both men were Jewish, both lived in the Ukrainian town now known as Lviv in the first half of the C20th. Along…Continue reading Sermon for Palm Sunday

I was talking to my mum this week about the lady who used to come and help her with the cleaning – a cheerful and kind woman who lived in terrible poverty and was married to a violent and abusive man. Their son died as a young man as an indirect result of the beatings…Continue reading Sermon for Mothering Sunday 2022

Noise! At a hospital appointment on Monday morning I was dismayed by the noise. There was a TV on somewhere – a sitcom with canned laughter but meaningless because the screen wasn’t visible. At the other end of the ward there was a radio playing, and then some people came in with a child and…Continue reading Sermon for the first Sunday in Lent

Above the clouds, the sun always shines When I was a child we holidayed mostly in the United Kingdom, with occasional camping trips to Germany via the ferry from Harwich. There’s a layby, just west of Settle, where we once  stopped to fix a puncture: my dad was a very patient man, but he really…Continue reading Sermon for the Sunday Next Before Lent

Candlemas is a lovely feast: outside of Easter and Christmas, it is definitely on the top of my list of favourites. Beautiful it is, but it is a bittersweet feast – there is sorrow there as well as joy. The bitter: Well, at the end of the service today we turn (physically) from Christmas to…Continue reading A Sermon for Candlemas

Driving north up the M6, there is a place, just south of Lancaster, where hedges begin to give way to dry-stone walls. Most are tumble-down and badly kept, the grey stones often lying in heaps, the walls supplemented by fences to keep the livestock in the correct field. But these tumble-down walls make my heart…Continue reading Sermond for the Third Sunday of Epiphany

The Epiphany Theme of Glory The account in John’s gospel of Jesus’ first miracle at the Wedding at Cana, speaks of glory – a golden thread running through the season of Epiphany; the bright star which lead the Magi; the riches they offered and their unexpected encounter with the glory of the infant king; the…Continue reading Sermon for the Second Sunday of Epiphany.