Learning from Anne Scargill's encounter with a lovely woman who had got her facts all wrong about Arthur.

A talk for The Seventh Sunday after Trinity, 14 July 2024. 

Referencing ⁠Amos 7.7-15, Mark 6.14-29, and a story from Ian Clayton, Anne Scargill, Betty Cook, Anne & Betty: United By The Struggle.

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Throughout scripture, God speaks directly to exiled and oppressed peoples in the words which Bob Marley used in his freedom anthem, ‘Get up, stand up, Stand up for your right; Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.’

A talk for The Sixth Sunday after Trinity, 7 July 2024. 

Referencing Ezekiel 2.1-5, Mark 6.1-13.

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That the “last will be first” and the “least will be greatest” are not clumsy statements of class war. They are affirmations of God’s truth that the healing of the whole body politic, the healing of us all, will come when society attends first to the needs of the poorest. Lessons in equity from Mark's gospel and Taylor Swift.

A talk for The Fifth Sunday after Trinity, 30 June 2024. 

Referencing ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Psalm 30, Mark 5.21-43.

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Temple, or Church: “Anger is the force that protects that which is loved.” If our anger with it expresses our deeper love for the institution, then it might just help to save it.

A talk for The Third Sunday of Lent, 3 March 2024. 

Referencing ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Exodus 20.1-17, John 2.13-22. 

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"We have beautiful crosses on our churches, in our lapels and around our necks," preached the late evangelist Billy Graham. "And yet the Bible says the cross is a stumbling block, an offence, a scandal among men, a base and despised thing.” Graham was a fine example of how to ‘take up one’s cross and follow Jesus’.

A talk for The Second Sunday of Lent, 25 February 2024. 

Referencing ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Genesis 17.1-7, 15-16⁠, ⁠Mark 8.27-38⁠.

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The ‘bogus baptism’ debate is a testing feature of the volatile world in which we live. Taking inspiration from the slaves and their Spiritual songs, can we follow Jesus out from the wilderness of this world into the dawning of a whole new age?

A talk for The First Sunday of Lent, 18 February 2024. 

Referencing ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Genesis 9.8-17, Mark 1.9-15.

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What (or who) are you following at the moment? We are all followers. An exploration of discipleship and where it might take us.

A talk for The Second Sunday before Lent, 4 February 2024. 

Referencing ⁠⁠⁠⁠Proverbs 8, John 1.1-14.

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Who will bring consolation to Israel? It's an age-old question with relevance to us all. Will the answer be left solely those who use force of violence, or are there other traditions of Israel which we can draw on?

A talk for The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Candlemas), with Holocaust Memorial Day, 28 January 2024. 

Referencing ⁠Hebrews 2.14-18, Luke 2.22-40.

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New Year is a good time for pondering. For going over what has been, and considering what is to come. It’s a good time for re-setting ourselves if we think that life has bent us out of shape. It’s a good time for putting life in context, and remembering the larger reality which may otherwise be crowded out.

A talk for The First Sunday of Christmas, 31 December 2023. 

Referencing Isaiah 61.10 - 62.3, Luke 2.15-21.

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Is 'Peace on earth' achievable? Christmas gives us an opportunity to hone our peacemaking skills - in those rooms and around those tables where we are placed, sometimes uncomfortably, alongside people we may see only once a year - maybe some of whom, if we were honest, we’d prefer to see even less often. 

If we admit to ourselves our reluctance to let old wounds heal, or our strategies of avoidance of people we disagree with, or of sidestepping uncomfortable conversations, then we are at the start of building peace on earth. For the beginning of making peace from within is to ask ourselves why we act that way, and prayerfully, carefully, begin to work out what we might be able to do to change.

A talk for Christmas Eve, 24 December 2023. 

Referencing ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Titus 2.11-14, Luke 2.1-20.

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