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Rude religion

For the fainthearted . . .

Lines from David Copperfield came to me forty years after I might have used them

Growing up accustomed to the gentle tolerance implicit in the beliefs of people in rural Somerset, moving to Northern Ireland in 1983 came as a severe shock. Of course, we had all heard of the Reverend Ian Paisley and his ilk, but there was a tendency to imagine that the views he expressed were the rants of an extreme minority and that the majority of ordinary people were reasonable, attached to a rational view of …

A Sermon for Sunday, 12th January 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

” . . . when Jesus also had been baptized” Luke 3:21

The letters A, B, C and D can help thoughts about the story of the baptism of Jesus: A for “all”, B for “baptized”, C for “Christ”, and D for “dove.

A is for “all.” Saint Luke uses the word “all” three times in the verses of the Gospel reading: “all were questioning in their hearts concerning John”, says Verse 15; “John answered all of them,” says Verse 16; and “when all the people were baptized”, says Verse …

Tell me the old, old story

For the fainthearted . . .

The early episodes of the television series Heartbeat seemed to treat of more serious themes than those more recent.  There was a comic element in Bill Maynard’s character Claude Greengrass but the situations faced by PC Rowan seemed more rooted in the realities of rural life.

Religion was still a part of the weekly life of ordinary people.  In Heartbeat country, religion meant ‘chapel’.  In our village in the 1960s, there were three chapels and two churches.  Two of the chapels still function at a reduced level, the church just …

A Sermon for Sunday, 5th January 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

‘Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’ John 1:17

There is a always a sense of thanks to God for reaching the beginning of a new year.

For Anglicans, the words of the prayer of General Thanksgiving from the Book of Common Prayer express that sense of God with his people through time:  ‘Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all men. We bless thee for our creation, preservation, …

A Sermon for Sunday, 29th Dedember 2024

For the fainthearted . . .

“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 …

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 …

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