Author Archives: Ian Poulton

A Sermon for Sunday, 22nd December 2024

For the fainthearted . . .

“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 …

A Sermon for Sunday, 15th December 2024

For the fainthearted . . .

“I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming” Luke 3:16

Using the five “W’s” one can look at what the Gospel might have meant for the people of Jesus’ time and what it might mean for those reading it today.

Saint Luke writes in Chapter 3 Verse 7, “John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers!'”

Where does this happen?

Where do the people go in order to have this robust encounter with John? …

A Sermon for Sunday, 8th December 2024

For the fainthearted . . .

“Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come.” Malachi 3:1

Canon John Barry died some fifteen years ago in 2006. He will be best remembered for the weekly column he wrote in the Church of Ireland Gazette for many years under the pen name “Cromlyn.” I remember no more than a few of the thousands he must have written, but there was one that made a particular impact upon me. It was one that made me reflect on what Advent was really about.

He wrote of an old lady …

A Sermon for Sunday, 1st December 2024

For the fainthearted . . .

“Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory” Luke 21:37

I grew up here in Somerset hearing the legends of King Arthur. I grew up with magical stories which transformed the countryside around here. Our landscape of gentle hills and flat moorland became the scene for extraordinary happenings. Looking out my bedroom window towards Glastonbury Tor, I could almost see Arthur and his knights galloping along the ridge of the hills.

Arthur was the king of the Britons; the leader who …

A Sermon for Sunday, 17th November 2024

For the fainthearted . . .

“When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple.” Mark 13:3

Do you have a special place? Somewhere you go for peace and quiet, somewhere you go to get away from annoying things, somewhere you go just because it is a good place to be?

In days as a curate, there were two spots I would go just to be there. One was an island in a lake, joined to land by a stone bridge. It had been the site of a monastery in ancient times and …

A Sermon for Sunday, 9th November 2024

For the fainthearted . . .

The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah.” 1 Kings 17:16

Today’s reading from the Old Testament is part of a story that ends well for Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and her son.

They survive the famine and, when he dies, her son is brought back to life. Were we telling it as a children’s story, we would say “and they all lived happily ever after (well, Elijah did in …