October 2017 – Page 3 – For the fainthearted . . .

Sermon for Sunday, 22nd October 2017 (Trinity 19/Pentecost 20/Ordinary 29)

“Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s”. Matthew 22:21

What are the things we worship? For what or whom do we live our lives?

The Pharisees challenge Jesus about taxes and he asks to see a coin. Taking the coin, he asks them in Saint Matthew Chapter 22 Verse 20, “Whose is this image and superscription?” In some translations the Greek word “Kaisaros” is translated as “emperor”, but that translation loses something of the meaning that the word would …

There is nothing like a piece of paper

Having things down on paper made good sense.

More than twenty years ago, an employee of the Port of Larne told the story of an unfortunate occurrence. Ferries from the port sailed both to Cairnryan in Scotland and to Fleetwood, in Lancashire, in the north-west of England. The crossing to Scotland took two hours, that to Fleetwood some hours longer. On one Lancashire bound sailing a man of older years had approached a crew member to ask when the vessel would arrive in Scotland. The man had been upset to …

We can’t talk anymore

Driving in darkness and drizzle on a cool autumn evening, it would have been easy to have missed the cafe. Without a billboard announcing a meal package for £12, there would have been an assumption that turning from the road would bring one only to a garden centre, and who would want to be looking at plants on a damp night in October?

The welcome was warm, the server brought tortilla chips and salsa while the meals were being prepared. Steak pie, mashed potatoes, vegetables and gravy – proper food; …

More a web than a tree

“Where are you from?” asked the man.

“Here, this parish; my family are Crossmans of Pibsbury.”

“Not another one!” he exclaimed.

Had he lived in the Nineteenth Century, he would have greater cause to comment on the frequency with which he encountered family members. Maureen Pittard, of Eli’s, the Rose and Crown pub in Huish Episcopi, (who is a fourth cousin, our mutual forebear being Thomas Crossman of Ham Down), has an extraordinary obituary of Harriet Crossman, our great-great-great grandmother.

HUISH EPISCOPI

A REMARKABLE FAMILY The interment of the late

…

A shortage of wizards

“Wizard Festivals” proclaimed the letters across the back of the van. With a Bristol telephone number, it seemed to promise the local availability of some magical events. It conjured images of a Lord of the Rings sort of firework display, the sort provided by Gandalf at Bilbo Baggins’ eleventy-first birthday party. Perhaps there would be smoke rings that were transformed into the shape of galleons flying through the sky, or dragons that would swoop low over the heads of those gathered. A wizard festival would offer the prospect of the …

A superstar’s missus?

The unseasonably warm weather brought out shoppers in summer attire. Without the autumn colours of the trees, it would have been easy to imagine it a day in mid-July. Among the short-sleeves and the tee-shirts, a middle-aged woman walked through the precinct deep in conversation on the mobile phone held firmly against her ear. Across the front of her black shirt in white letters there were the words, “Mrs Dave Grohl.”

Of course, it is possible that the wife of one of the world’s greatest rock stars could be walking …