Showing everything tagged as Sermon

The world is captivated by freedom; and never more so than when that freedom seems in jeopardy. Three years ago Donald Trump claimed the American presidency by telling a story that American ‘greatness’ had been stolen by politically correct élites and racial, ethnic and religious others. The same year the Brexit campaign won the day by lamenting that British sovereignty had been stolen by European bureaucrats and manipulated by profiteering citizens of nowhere.

One thing that Jesus does not shy away from is the fact that in the world there is suffering. Real suffering. In fact he tells his disciples that he himself will suffer and if they want to follow him they will have to take up the cross and suffer too.

Today is Trinity Sunday – the day the church across the world celebrates the discovery that God is three persons in one God. In the UK it is also Father’s Day… so I want to use our time this morning to look at what these two have to say to each other.

If you bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill you to break you. The world breaks everybody and if we survive we become strong at the broken places.

Richard Rohr in his new book The Universal Christ quotes the Twentieth Century English mystic Caryll Houselander who described in her autobiography how an ordinary underground train journey in London transformed into a vision that changed her life.