Author Archives: Ian Poulton

A Sermon for Sunday, 16th March 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

“How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings” Luke 13:34

Foxes, hens and chicks – Jesus spoke in the language of the ordinary people.

“Go and tell that fox for me”, he says in Saint Luke Chapter 13 Verse 32. Calling him a fox, Jesus is speaking about Herod in less than complimentary terms. Comparing cunning and devious behaviour to that of a fox goes back a long way.

Foxes in the Bible are not often encountered and when …

A Sermon for Sunday, 9th March 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

” . . . where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.” Luke 4:2

The practical, the powerful, and the personal, the three temptations the devil puts before Jesus.. The temptations are very clever, very beguiling, but temptations are like that, if they were not they would not be temptations, they would be things that could be rejected without a second thought.

What might we learn about ourselves in these conversations between the devil and Jesus?

Jesus is hungry, he is famished and the devil …

A Sermon for Sunday, 2nd March 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

“Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” Luke 9:35

The story of the transfiguration of Jesus gives four words beginning with “A” that can help  thinking about what the experience meant for the disciples and what it can mean for people now. The four words are appearance, accomplish, awake and alone.

The first word is “appearance.”

Saint Luke Chapter 9 Verses 28-29 says, “Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John …

A Sermon for Sunday, 23rd February 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” Luke 6:32

Jesus looks deep into the hearts of his listeners and he knows exactly what human nature is like.  Insights that were developed by researchers of human behaviour centuries later are here in the pages of Saint Luke’s Gospel.  Today’s verses from Saint Luke Chapter 6 anticipate the insights of psychology and sociology in our own time about the ways in which we treat other people.

One of the ideas from sociology that is anticipated by …

The road from Little Dribbling

For the fainthearted . . .

Bill Bryson’s books were a source of many hours of happiness. His constant good humour and eclectic choice of subjects made his writing compelling reading. There were moments when his description of the absurd and sometimes surreal moments of his life prompted laughter aloud. More than once the sudden chortles have prompted others to look at me quizzically.

The Road to Little Dribbling was among my Christmas presents from my former wife at the last Christmas we were still together. It lay unread because I could not cope with humour. …

A Sermon for Sunday, 16th February 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” Luke 6:24

There is a complete imbalance in the church’s preaching of the Gospel.

The church is obsessed with issues of personal morality.  Conservative bishops and liberal bishops alike speak forcibly on their views of human sexuality and other moral matters, but seem silent when it comes to the things about which Jesus speaks. Jesus talks a lot about money and very little about sex and all the other issues that preoccupy the church.

Where is the …