Category: Sermon

This is challenging stuff. It is clear that ticking-over is not an option. To achieve the Vision we do need to change gear from just maintaining what we have and to move into mission mode. That means we need to do more than turn up for worship on a Sunday…

Moses was 80 years old. He’d been tending someone else’s flock for 40 years. One day, he was out with the sheep, probably thinking about his pension plan, when he took a different path – and from there he saw a bush that was burning. His life completely changed direction…

Old Trafford has a number of places of worship. Our banns were heard at St Hilda’s, Old Trafford. But far and away the largest place of worship has thousands of adherents. Every Saturday, or thereabouts, they gather to chant devotion to their god. At times they will invite the leader of the worship, dressed in black, to improve his eyesight. They cheer whenever the team in red puts the ball into the net…

It’s often said that history is written by the victors. But what must it feel like to be defeated in war? Ashamed, frightened, disorientated, demoralized, physically hurt, mentally traumatized, angry at those who promised that you would be victorious, relieved the fighting is over, struggling to survive, cold, hungry…??

We learn that each of us has something to offer in service to progress God’s kingdom. It may not be immediately apparent; it may be hidden beneath the surface; but there will be something to offer in each one of us.

As the Word made flesh and dwelling among us, Jesus physically demonstrated the continuity of God, his unchanging love and mercy that we can always count upon. But he also showed us the God of surprises too. He changed what we thought about God and challenged the pre-conceived ideas that he came across. In physical, bodily form – as the body language of God – Jesus re-imagined God for us.

What a lovely idyllic picture we have in our reading from Isaiah today. Woody Allen once said of this vision: “The wolf shall lie down with the lamb. But the lamb won’t get much sleep!”

Jesus the king wore a crown of thorns; his throne was a cross; his royal banner a scribbled sign. This is the gospel image of royalty; the king and a criminal going together into paradise. This is the king we believe in; the king we celebrate and whose values we are pledged to live by.

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centred; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.

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.