Latest Sermons

I was in a helicopter flying over mountain ranges in Kosovo. My father was alongside me. Also alongside were relatives from other bereaved families.

Have you ever met someone who you thought was holy or even a saint? Following this last week in British political and national life it seems hardly surprising that we have all grown a little wary of those who set themselves up as role models or representatives of virtue.

Four weeks after my ordination as a deacon I knocked on the door of a family who were mourning the loss of their father. This was to be the second funeral I’d ever taken.

When I reflected upon todays reading I realised there are plenty of things to say about what it means to give the Emperor those things due to the Emperor. But then I suppose it depends on who at this present moment you think the Emperor is.

It is so good to be with you all this morning, especially during the ‘Just as I am’ disability conference. Today marks the start of my sabbatical and what a way to start it.

The parable that Jesus tells that we hear today from Matthew’s Gospel is a hard-hitting allegory, much more so than any of his other parables.

We’ve just heard a parable told by Jesus about work. It’s a parable that follows hot on the heels of the Apostle Peter reminding Jesus that he and the other disciples have left everything to follow him, and expressing a concern about what reward they’ll have for doing so.

There’s been a major change in our culture in the last 60 years: being a Christian is no longer a normal thing to be, and going to church is no longer a conventional thing to do.

There is a prayer that many of you will have read perhaps on cards you find in Cathedral gift shops, or on religious t-towels. It’s called the serenity prayer and it’s attributed to the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.