Category: ‘Sermon’ like material

  • The Presents Arrive: – What is it exactly?

    End of Christmas? Christmas Two – ‘the forgotten presents’. The fashionably late join the party. Well no not really for unlike the birth of Jesus, the epiphany is not a moment in time, but a moment of clarity. For those who like etymology – you’ll be pleased to know that clarity shares it’s Latin root…

  • Time to join the story…

    Time to join the story…

    Christmas is a time of storytelling. Essentially though that is what we do all the time. Be it face to face – (some hope these days,) or in a letter which you might get at a push at Christmas – or by many and various social media options that appear to be a part of…

  • St. Nicholas, the Shopping Frenzy and a box of goodies

    St. Nicholas, the Shopping Frenzy and a box of goodies

    This box came from Bedwellty, a Parish in South Wales as part of the Church in Wales The Time is Now conference.  So as I’m speaking it will come around and you can help yourself to a simple gift from St. Nicholas. It was doomed to end in violence, but either they didn’t care or…

  • be christian sunday

    Alternatively:  Racial Justice Sunday! Racial Justice Sunday is yet another sunday during the year set aside for a particular cause.  I often wonder why we are still in need of such sundays?  How about we just have a ‘be christian sunday’ or a ‘Follow christ’s teaching for once sunday’ and be done with it.  What…

  • Praying for peace

    I’m sure you like me have been watching in disbelief as people around the world are killed because of their religion or because of where they live or because they are in the way of someone else’s dreams.  And I find myself asking what is the use of praying for peace.  I suppose then it…

  • Make Bread, not War

    Make Bread, not War

    Make Bread not War.  If you receive the weekly news sheet from the Diocese, ‘StAR’, you’ll notice a proliferation of services, vigils and the like for today, tomorrow and the coming weeks to mark the beginning of the First World War.  And here we are celebrating Lammas, Loaf-mass,  Make Bread not War.  It makes me…

  • Bubbles of the Kingdom and the Love Commandments

    Bubbles of the Kingdom and the Love Commandments

    How are we to share the kingdom of heaven?  Since I’ve recently debunked the myth of our ability to pray for rain etc…  Perhaps I should continue the myth busting by saying that heaven is not in the sky.  I have to say that I think John Lennon was almost right with “Imagine there’s no…

  • Jesus, Weeds, Wheat or Flower?

    I took the funeral of a scaffolder once.  They said he had a unique perspective on life, not surprising really since most of his working life he spent was above ground looking down.  Without taking quite such drastic actions it always pays to take a step back for a moment to see how things are…

  • the sarcasm of Jesus growing seeds with weeds

    the sarcasm of Jesus growing seeds with weeds

    It seems almost customary on special occasions to make a plea for ‘fine weather’ or have a word or two ‘upstairs’.  There are still one or two people who expect the vicar to have a special hotline for such things as the weather.  Well, I no more control the weather, i’m sorry to say, than…

  • Playtime, Jesus, and summer festivals

    Playtime, Jesus, and summer festivals

    Anyone who has spent any time at all in a school playground will know that break times are a perfect opportunity for children to let off steam, play games and without knowing it prepare themselves for later life by forging social relations and practising with friends and peers and the MDSA’s what we called ‘dinner…