Referencing ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Hebrews 2.14-18, Luke 2.22-40.

On this stage the performers give every sign of being odious human beings, who flaunt the odiousness, knowing that it maddens their opponents and electrifies their cult. What they do as presidents and primates can cause misery for millions of people; and they seem to exult in the distaste they provoke, they revel in the spectacle in which they are the star players. Which is all the more reason for us to give thanks for those things which God does offstage. To be grateful for the almost unnoticed intrusions into our daily lives, divine interruptions, which we may realise in time, change everything.

A talk for the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, 2 February 2025. 

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Sheppard and Worlock came to be known as ‘fish and chips’ because they were always found together and in the newspaper. A celebration of The Body of Christ, disabled and divine, still alive and active in the world today.

Referencing ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1 Corinthians 12.12-31a, Luke 4.14-21.

A talk for the Church Anniversary service at the end of The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Waterloo United Free Church, The Third Sunday of Epiphany, 26 January 2025. 

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Drawing on the life of Jimmy Carter, Pope Francis' 2025 Jubilee of Hope declaration, and in debt to Howard Thurman's 'Jesus and the Dispossessed', a journey with those who travel in search of the light.

Referencing ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Isaiah 60.1-6, Matthew 2.1-12.

A talk for The FirEpiphany, 5 January 2025. 

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Luke’s story of the 12-year-old Jesus in the temple: this is the story of his bar mitzvah: his becoming an adult who 'increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour’.

New Year is an opportunity for us to reflect, take stock, of everything in our lives. And to recommit to those things which sustain and help us be the best versions of ourselves.

Referencing ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Colossians 3.12-17, Luke 2.41-52.

A talk for The First Sunday of Christmas, 29 December 2024. 

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This is the special hour in our year... an hour to contemplate this child, and to offer him the hopes and fears of all our years.

Referencing ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Isaiah 9.2-7,  Luke 2.1-14.

A talk for Christmas Eve, midnight, 24 December 2024. 

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Luke does his Jesus family history research. It reveals that it's not, after all, Caesar Augustus who is 'Son of God'. But Jesus... and us...

Referencing ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Malachi 3.1-4, Luke 3.1-6.

A talk for The Second Sunday of Advent, 8 December 2024. 

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'There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress... ‘Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near,’ he said.

But how can we raise our heads with the weight of the world on our shoulders?

Referencing ⁠⁠⁠Jeremiah 33.14-16, Luke 21.25-36

A talk for Advent Sunday 1 December 2024. 

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Trouble in Bethlehem: Jesus calls it "the birth pangs of the new beginning" - and we are called to be midwives of a new kingdom in which war and its consequences - famines, disease - will be no more.

Referencing ⁠Hebrews 10.11-25, Mark 13.1-8.

A talk for the Second Sunday before Advent, 17 November 2024. 

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Referencing Hebrews 9.24-28, Mark 1.14-20

demands: "When I think about God I think of a person who would never murder or kill anyone. But when you think about it you wonder, because wasn't it God who swept the angel of death over Egypt? It makes you think doesn't it? Is God against it or is he not? I mean what had the boys done to die? It was the Pharaoh wasn't it? Now do you realise how little we know about God?

A talk for Remembrance Sunday, 10 November 2024. 

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On this All Saints Day we recall all those ghosts, saints, and souls we hold in blessed memory... from Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac to The Wesley Brothers and The Isley Brothers.

A talk for All Saints Sunday, 3 November 2024. 

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