Genesis 18:20–32 ‘The Lord appears to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre and says, “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know.”’ […]
Luke 10:38 – 42 We hear a voice: ‘He’s here! At last! We’ve been hoping against hope that he’d come; and now he’s actually here! In my house! This man has words of eternal life. And I can listen, truly listen, not just overhear snatches that the wind happens to blow in my direction. Nothing […]
Colossians 1:1 – 14 Imagine two people. Both are listening in, as these words of St Paul that we heard are read out in two church congregations. Yet neither is a regular member of these congregations: each has slipped in at the back, after the service has started. Not quite sure why, not quite sure […]
Luke 10: 1– 11, 16– 20 Be honest! You struggled a bit with the three readings we heard this morning. Didn’t you? I certainly struggled, looking at them earlier in the week. Because all three sound a bit, well, remote from our lives: from our joys and sorrows, our worries and our relationships. I’m happy […]
Luke 9:51-62 Picture busy Northumberland Street. But not now; no, no, no! Picture Northumberland Street on Christmas Eve, about half past four, an hour or so before the shops shut! Here, everybody is on a journey; and everybody is rushing. You don’t make eye contact with anyone. The only conversation, barely discernible above the noise […]
Luke 7:36 – 8:3 I can see it from Simon’s point of view. Organising a banquet, which almost everyone in the village will attend in some shape or form: what could possibly go wrong? You know whom you need to see here. You know who needs to be seen here. You draw up the formal […]
Acts 2:1-21 ‘This little piggy went to market; this little piggy stayed home. This little piggy had roast beef:’ how does it finish? Or ‘Round and round the houses, like a teddy bear. One step, two step’… What is all this nonsense all about? Not nonsense at all: these are the games we play with […]
Acts 16:16-34 There are certain jobs that have to be done by someone. Being a gaoler, for instance, in Philippi, a Roman town in the north of Greece, in about AD 50. We meet the Philippian Gaoler on what was so nearly the last day of his life. An earthquake undermined the foundations of his […]
Genesis, chapter 1 Earlier this month, a American expedition made what was only the third ever dive to the very deepest part of the Pacific Ocean. They took a submersible to the floor of the Mariana Trench: at 35000 feet, it is a mile deeper than Everest is high. The Mariana Trench is found where […]
Psalm 23 When did you first work out what a valley was? At what age did geography impinge upon you? Those of you born and brought up in the Allen Valleys have always been part of a landscape of valleys and fells. But if you grow up in Norfolk, for instance, valleys are hard to […]
