Category: Sermon

Shortly after the destruction, the cathedral stonemason noticed that two of the charred medieval roof timbers had fallen in the shape of a cross. He set them up in the ruins, on an altar of rubble, with the moving words ‘Father Forgive’ inscribed on the Sanctuary wall…

The grace of God shows its full colours in the glory that is at work in all of God’s people who are called to be saints. That grace which is at work in you, the saints of God who are in Bury.

What is important to you? What is worth fighting for? What would make you be determined and persistent, not give up on, not be put off until you got it sorted? Is there something that you are so passionate about that you would stick with it and be prepared to struggle for as long as it takes?

Into the story comes a tiny, unnamed, Israelite slave girl. She would have been on the bottom rung of society, if she was on the ladder at all. A slave, female, foreign and young. In modern parlance we’d say she’d been trafficked.

The message from Nigel and I is: go, share your experience, tell about what you’ve seen, testify to what you know to be true. Because whether you know it or not, or like it or not, you’re all preachers! You each have a story to tell, a testimony to give…

When I first looked at our readings for today, I thought “O Good, the gospel of Luke. It will be a nice parable. But Oh no. A very difficult piece –and when I read the other passages it did not get much better” I didn’t get it. It was doing my head in.

Three quarters of the way through 2019 already! So, we thought we’d share with you our top 5 posts so far this year. They are each very different but they are a good representation of what we publish. You might have missed them the first time – or you might enjoy reading them again!

I read an article recently that said in the year 2000, TV adverts had to grab a persons’ attention within 12 seconds or they weren’t effective. By 2013 that had dropped to 8 seconds. The attention span of a goldfish is said to be 9 seconds. So, longer than humans now…

There are four gospels in the bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Three are similar to each other: Matthew, Mark and Luke. One is very different: John. Why are there four gospels that are so different and yet so similar in the case of three?

In a book written some 50 years ago, the Editor quotes a poem written on the wall of a prison cell by an English Prisoner of War. It was written before his execution. In it he unites himself to his suffering Redeemer and prays for his murderers. This poem is all we know of that heroic martyr.

My Mum’s family were very keen on taking and keeping photos. Her Dad wasn’t the greatest photographer though and most of them have the top of the heads chopped off, or half a person to one side, or a finger part-way over the lens. However, these photos were precious and kept in a box rather than thrown away.

Faith, says Hebrews, ‘gives substance to our hopes and makes us certain of realities we do not see’. We have not seen Jesus, unless we have had a vision. We have not seen Jesus but at some level, in some way we believe in him and trust in him and see him as our friend and saviour.

Picking up on recent media sound bites, faith seems to getting a much more negative vibe – “We’ve lost faith in the justice system”; “The country has no faith in politicians”.
Closer to home, in relation to Bury FC, “the fans have lost faith in the current owner”. Though the latest chairman statement calls us fans to hang on in there and have faith!

My sister was on a course for very important nurses. She was, at the time, the senior nursing officer for Cambridge and attended the course with matrons from all over the country – a fierce regiment of women. During the night the fire alarms went off and gathered on the lawn of the house were these redoubtable ladies in dressing gowns and hair nets…

Can I ask an indelicate question? Who here is in their 80’s? Or 90’s? Anyone older? Today we have that wonderful picture of the 3 visitors who come to bring startling news to Abraham and Sarah. Well, more to Sarah actually. The news is that within a year, the 89 year old Sarah will become pregnant and have that long-awaited, long-promised child.