For whom the Bell tolls

The imagery that we heard in our Gospel today must be among the most familiar  used in scripture.   It is very tempting, particularly for those of us who most commonly meet lamb on a plate rather than in the fields, to imagine today’s reading as one of agricultural harmony, a kind of pretty, and pretty twee, image of beautiful sheep ambling after a smiling shepherd, leaning on his crook, looking off into the sunset. Think Hovis advert meets the Archers. Pastoral bliss.   Yet a nyone who has ever worked on a farm will, of course,  remind us  that sheep are anything but the fluffy bundles of joy so often pictured in saccharine farmyard scenes. Sheep are hard work – they go the wrong way, they show little to no initiative, they occasionally give you a decent nip on the hand when you’re trying to get them in order.  Sheep constantly need new pasture to feed on, and to be taken care of when the wolf comes or they get trapped down a ditch. In fact, there was a Yo...

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. The Church of England’s Evangelical [sic] Council has actually outdone itself.   It’s hard to imagine a more hackneyed, unimpressive, self-indulgent act of dissembling on the topic of Living in Love and Faith. This is meant to be an opportunity for members of the Church of England to listen to each other – yet it appears that the CEEC, including members of the bishops’ steering group for LLF itself, have decided that a bare-faced political assault is in order instead.   It’s hard to overstate how tired the arguments made in this shiny yet vacuous presentation are. However, it’...

Some friendly advice for churches on coronavirus Since this blog was published, the advice has changed. The content has been mostly taken down so as not to provide a confusing account. The following section remains, however, relevant: ·       It is absolutely possible that there will be 100,000 deaths from this virus. What do we practically need to do for this? ·       We may have to suspend services or close churches. What are our priorities? o    This includes ordinations coming up in June – the peak may well be between June and August o    This also includes the Lambeth Conference, which absolutely *must* be cancelled, surely ·       This may go on until September at least – what is our strategy at a national and local level? ·       Our churches need to be hospitable but safe: o    How do we keep in touch with our elderly members? ...

 Preached for Corpus Christi 2019 at St. Paul's, Deptford ‘When the crowds found out about it, they followed him; and he welcomed them, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured.’ In the name of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Today is a great Feast. It is a day when the church gathers around the altar once again, and offers particular thanks for this great sacrament of the Eucharist which we are partaking in today. Coming, as it does, as the strains of the Easter season can still be heard, gently fading into the distance, it brings our hearts and our minds back to that upper room where Jesus gathered his disciples around him and broke the bread, gave the cup, telling them to do this in ‘re-membrance of me’. And as we recall the events of that solemn and holy night of Maundy Thursday today, we look at it, perhaps, from a different angle. In the great emotion and journey to the cross, tomb and re...

Seven Last Words Today is a day when heaven seems to not only meet with earth, but fall down and collide with it. Word 1: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do At the heart of the Christian message is forgiveness. Throughout Jesus’ ministry we hear this time and time again – ‘Master how many times shall we forgive’ ‘seventy times seven’ - forgive, and forgive, and forgive. Yet how much do we live up to this command. Often we might say to ourselves ‘but it’s too difficult, I’m too hurt, I can’t’, yet here is our Lord and savior, nailed to a tree, not only forgiving but praying to the Father to forgive too. Jesus, our mediator, is praying not only for us, but with us – praying with us for all those times we find forgiveness too hard to bear, and praying for us, when we are the ones who need forgiveness. Now forgiveness is no easy task, and we often say that to forgive, someone must at least show some remorse – yet where is the remorse ...

Lent is always a time of repentance and a time of ‘bringing to mind’ – trying to re-member those parts of our lives that are most in need of God’s bountiful forgiveness. Lent is sometimes seen as a bit of a downer, an opportunity to bask in moroseness and general brow beating. Yet I’m not convinced that that is really at the heart of this season. In fact, even when Jesus spent his time in the desert being tempted, as we heard about a few weeks ago, this was a period of growing in faith, a period of growth in self-understanding, that follows that great statement from heaven – ‘this is my son, in whom I am well pleased’. That said, we need to take this intentional growth very seriously indeed.   Our readings today are, if you like, a manual to a good and holy Lent – full of caution yet also full of redemption. God Himself was tempted, and yet didn’t yield – but we know from our own experience that we are not there yet. All of us here have probably done somet...

We fly to thy protection, O Holy Mother of God; do not despise our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O Glorious and Blessed Virgin. Amen. The sermons this term have all reflected on moments in the life of Mary, the mother of God, popularly known as the Seven Sorrows. Tonight, we will think about the sixth of those sorrows – where Jesus’ lifeless body was taken down from the cross having been pierced with a spear. It’s easy, perhaps, to recoil from discussion of these more difficult parts of the Bible and the Christian message – it’s all just a little gloomy. If one spends too much time with the contemporary Church of England, incidentally a habit much to be avoided, then what sometimes presents itself is a rather cheery and superficial form of Christianity that struggles rather when dealing with the darker sides of life. There’s a lot of talk of power and might, of baby Jesus or Jesus the conqueror, but rather less that ...