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Christianity sermons What actually is the good news

Jesus, Month Python, and The Mandalorian

Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No-one comes to the Father, except through me” Did he mean something like “if you want to get to the Father, you have to get through me first? Is Jesus standing in the way, preventing people from getting to God, like a soothsayer on a bridge asking impossible questions? Or is “the way” more like being the Mandalorian, where “this is the way” refers to a whole way of life? What do Jesus, Monty Python, and the Mandalorian have to do with one another? And was it absolutely necessary to bring Wittgenstein into it?

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sermons Spirituality Spirituality in the Ordinary What actually is the good news

Wes Anderson, Aliens, and the Faith of the Canaanite Woman

A sermon on Matthew 15: 21-28 I’m a big fan of the movies of the director Wes Anderson , and I was excited to hear that his newest film was out, and showing at the Thornbury Picture House, which I’m also a big fan of.  I don’t know how familiar you are with his work, […]

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Christianity sermons What actually is the good news

Easter Sermon

No-one knew it was Holy Saturday that first time. No-one who lived through Good Friday would have called it anything but evil, terrible, destructive. The end of all that they had hoped for. All that excitement – the drama of being called and leaving everything to follow this new rabbi, the gradual buildup of the […]

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deconstruct-reconstruct What actually is the good news

Jesus is Lord – and Putin Is Not

I was once asked to sum up the gospel in a sentence. I said this: Jesus is Lord. Why is this so controversial? Did you react a bit when I wrote it? It certainly caused quite a stir amongst the nice, well-meaning Christians in my group. Is this not very stark? Surely the idea of […]