Ian Poulton – Page 5 – For the fainthearted . . .

A Sermon for Sunday, 29th Dedember 2024

“Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Luke 2:41

The story of the boy Jesus in Jerusalem is a troubling one. “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” he asks, in Seventeenth Century English.

How did his parents not even notice he was missing? Many of the people of rural communities were part of large, extended families and to have gone off for a day would have not been unusual, but parents would always have known with which member of the family …

Young people have become boring

Walking through the supermarket the sound of Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody filled the aisles. I read once that Noddy Holder and Dave Hill, the writers of the song, earn about £500,000 in royalties on the song each year. It is 51 years since it was released, it has been an excellent pension fund!

Slade are memorable for their outrageous glam rock presentation and their unconventional spelling of lyrics. Slade used spellings that might have prompted apoplexy among traditional English teachers fifty years ago. Song titles included Cum On Feel the …

Why do people need to tell each other what to do?

Between Halloween and Christmas, urging the deputy principal to be more bossy became a regular pastime. It was an inclination borne from a belief that in a very successful school, those appointed to leadership positions should lead and that staff should act according to the direction of those deemed competent by the Board and should not be subject to the tyranny of staff room moaners, whose penchant for criticism of what has been suggested is never matched by a capacity to offer constructive suggestions.

In days among the ranks of …

Searching for treasure

The theme tune from BBC television’s series The Detectorists is audible from my mother’s television. The series was one of those delightful productions of which only the BBC would be capable, a piece of whimsy that spoke to someone searching for elusive treasure.

If there were a theme tune to the disastrous four year relationship that brought an end to my marriage, my clerical career and my relationship with my daughter, it is the guitar playing and folk song voice of Johnny Flynn. The metal detector search of the characters …

Thumping the villain

‘What will you do with your time when you have finished your doctorate?’ asked my colleague.

‘Study more,’ I said, ‘or spend my life watching detective programmes and reading every Maigret novel,’

‘What is it about clergy and detective fiction? My uncle was a priest in a missionary order and I once asked him if I could buy him some books as a gift. I thought he woukd want some theology or spirituality books but he asked me for detective novels. ‘It seemed odd.’

‘Perhaps it’s not so strange,’ I …

A Sermon for Sunday, 22nd December 2024

“My soul magnifies the Lord” Luke 1:46

The Magnificat, the Song of Mary, the words are so familiar that it is easy to miss what they might say. Read the words and there are a series of five contrasts, contrasts that speak about God and that tell people about themselves.

The contrasts begin in Verses 47-48, “my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,” says Mary, “for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.”

Could there be a greater contrast than that between the Most High …