Category Archives: Religion

A Sermon for Sunday, 30th March 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

“Son, you are always with me” Luke 15:31

On this Mothering Sunday, the word “mama” gives an acronym to help people to remember four words from the story of the Prodigal Son: man, anything, music, and always.

The four words help thoughts about those who care for families.

Thinking about the letter “M” for man, there are the words from Saint Luke Chapter 15 Verse 11, “There was a man who had two sons.”

Jesus does not tell his listeners much about the man in the story, other than …

A Sermon for Sunday, 23rd March 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

”  . . . unless you repent, you will all perish as they did”. Luke 13:3

On a wall of a building where Jews hid to try to escape the Nazi persecution were scratched the words, “I believe in God, even when he is silent.” It was an astonishing declaration of faith, that despite the overwhelming evidence against God, the writer still believed.

In Saint Luke Chapter 13, Jesus responds to those who would have questions about the suffering of innocent people, to those who would have questions about why …

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 …