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Springs Gushing Up to Eternal Life

“So, I see you are something of a prophet. Well then, riddle me this. Where does God want us to worship?” Top quality banter? Maybe. But to ask where we are to worship is to ask how we are to do it, which is to ask the most important question of all: who, or what, do we worship? Because, as Bob Dylan put it – everyone serves something.

Also, one of my favourite topics: ancient religions groups that are alive today, and was the Woman at the Well really a bit of a “loose woman”? Or was she the aunty of half the village, who’d lived through some tough times and was well worth listening to?

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sermons

You Must Be Born from Above

What does it mean to be “born again”? What is that stuff about the Moses and the serpent on a pole? And what does “for God so loved the world” really mean? And, finally, what does all this mean for us in the everyday reality of our lives?

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sermons

Vulnerability and Triumph

What does the story of Jesus temptation in the wilderness have to do with me? Did Jesus mog Satan into submission? Or is there something for both “the universe was made for me” and “I am nothing but dust and ashes” people?

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sermons

The Good News of the Transfiguration

How do we live? This is the fundamental question. Our lives are a cascade of objects and events, joy and sorrow, all conducted in front of the backdrop of a world which just continues on as usual no matter what is going on in our own lives. What do we make of if all? Is it ever possible to say of our lives “this is my life, I want no other?”

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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 Culture and Society Faith Philosophy Spirituality Spirituality in the Ordinary

What is the most important thing?

A reflection on money, power, Succession, and the meaning of life.

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sermons

The Cost of Discipleship and the Last Man

How does Friedrich Nietzsche help us make sense of the astonishingly tough demands Jesus makes of his disciples? How could being told to “give away all your possessions” possibly be Good News?

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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 […]

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Ethics grace sermons Spirituality

This is a sermon about grace

Could a sermon on the impossibly demanding commandment to love your enemies really be about grace?