Author Archives: Ian Poulton

A Sermon for Sunday, 18th May 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” John 13:35

The letters of the word “glory” provide a useful acrostic to help us think thinking about the Gospel reading: “G” for “God;” “L” for “little children;” “O” for “one another;” “R” from the middle of the word “are;” and “Y” for “you.”

“G” for “God.”

There is sometimes a tendency to read the Gospel account as only a human story, to read accounts of incidents as though they were just part …

A Sermon for Sunday, 11th May 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

“My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27

Four verbs used by Jesus in the Gospel reading can help thinking about the sheep and the shepherd.

“Belong” from Saint John Chapter 10 Verse 26; “hear” and “follow” from Verse 27; and “never perish” from Verse 28. Belong, hear, follow, never perish: four steps in faith.

Jesus is in the Temple in Jerusalem and he is surrounded his opponents. They are in a confrontational mood, Verse 24 …

A Sermon for Sunday, 4th May 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

“Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.'” John 21:17

The word “feed” can be used as an acrostic to help thinking about Peter and the disciples, and to help reflection on personal faith: “F” for “fearful“; “E” for “excited“; “E” for “encouraged;” and “D” for “destined.”

Peter and the disciples are fearful.

Jesus has appeared to them twice in Jerusalem, and on both occasions the doors have been locked for fear of what might happen and now they have returned to …

A Sermon for Sunday, 27th April 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

” . . . these are written so that you may come to believe* that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:31

In the verses of the Gospel reading, Saint John uses the first, second and third person in his description of the appearances of Jesus: the first person, words like “I” and “my”; the second person, words like “you” and “your; the third person, words like “Jesus”, “the disciples”, “he”, “his”, “they” and “them.” Each …

A Sermon for Easter 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

‘ . . . he went home, amazed at what had happened.’ Luke 24:12

Perplexed, terrified and amazed: Saint Luke expresses the mood on that first Easter morning in three words.

In Chapter 24 he writes that very early on the Sunday morning the women had gone to the tomb with spices. The stone at the entrance had been rolled away and they had gone inside to find that Jesus’ body was gone. Verse 4 says, ‘they were perplexed about this’.

The word ‘perplexed‘ captures a sense of …

A Sermon for Palm Sunday, 13th April 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road Luke 19:36

How much of our life is spent travelling roads? How many of our memories are connected to roads?

As Jesus rides into Jerusalem and looks down at the road strewn with cloaks to welcome him, what roads might he have remembered? Journeying is often a time for thinking and in the many. many hours Jesus would have spent walking the roads there must have been countless things he saw and heard and had cause to ponder. As …