If we are dreaming of a good future for God’s church, then we needn’t necessarily embrace Pentecostalism; but we must embrace the Spirit of Pentecost. When we call on the name of the Lord we shall be saved. When we pray, ‘Come, Holy Spirit’, God will come. Each morning that we open ourselves afresh to the the Holy Spirit, begins a good day in the journey of faith we share with so many different, wonderful, others, here and across the world.

A talk for Pentecost, 28 May 2023.

Find the text to this and all my talks at ⁠bit.ly/johndavies-talks⁠.

The followers of Jesus are haunted by a vision of all his earthly promises being fulfilled. The more we devote ourselves to this wonderful vision, the more it comes to life; and this awakening is enabled by One who the Church calls a 'ghost'... a Holy Ghost...

A talk for the Sunday after Ascension, 21 May 2023.

Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.

Our culture ‘sacrifices’ those who are deemed disposable: the sick, the lost and the lame, the unproductive, the unemployed, the foreigner. We know how these are always the first to be abandoned in a society which prioritises private gain over public well-being. Isn’t it a theme of our times that those who are struggling the most, are repeatedly told that they must sacrifice even more, for the greater good of all? We hear privileged economists telling struggling workers ‘to accept that they’re worse off’ and to stop demanding pay rises, hypocritically preaching that ‘we all have to take our share’. And we find ourselves complicit in this system where those we undervalue are forced into punishing sacrifices for the sake of our comfort and ease - like Bangladeshi workers producing clothes in squalid factories for less than a dollar a day, so that we can buy them at bargain prices. If we accept that the economists are today’s High Priests, we can see how universal was Jesus’ message at the Sheep Gate. Wherever a society’s victims are told by its gatekeepers, ’There is no alternative’, ’There is only one way’, ‘There is only one gate’, here comes Jesus, saying, no, there are other ways to live. For ’I am the gate for the sheep. ... Whoever enters by me will be saved'.

A talk for The Fourth Sunday of Easter, 30 April 2023. Referencing Acts 2.42-47⁠, ⁠John 10.1-10⁠ .

Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks

The story of the two disciples on the Emmaus Road, and all the other stories of Jesus’ resurrection appearances show us that our God is a God of surprises: always seeking to surprise us with joy.

A talk for The Third Sunday of Easter, 23 April 2023.

Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks

Nature, scripture and experience teach us that death shall have no dominion. Or in other words the power of death is too weak to overcome us; the effect of death is not enough to defeat us; there are greater and brighter powers at work in the world and in the heavens than death. Death shall not dominate us. This is the meaning of eternal life.

A talk for The Second Sunday of Easter, 16 April 2023.

Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks

Reflecting on the influence of his elders in his early years, the late Paul O’Grady once said, ‘Comedy, your funny bone, is formed in childhood’. Was the nod of Jesus formed at home, as he soaked in the gallows humour of his working family struggling to afford food? Was the wink of Jesus formed in the temple, where in his youth he sat among the teachers and learned that God had little time for those who wielded worldly power at the expense of the poor? Is that where he came to see that the way of love involved challenging those powers-that-be, not by force, but with a smile?

A talk for Palm Sunday, 2 April 2023.

Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks

Can God breathe new life into a devastated people? It's a question which connects the struggling societies of today with Ezekiel's people, the Israelites deported to Babylon in the year 597BC. From Martha and Mary to all the bereaved; from the Israelites in exile to all of today’s uprooted peoples, this is God’s pregnant promise:  ‘O my people. I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live ... then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.’

A talk for The Fifth Sunday of Lent, 26 March 2023.

Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks

Mothering Sunday is a day for celebrating the many women who nurture and sustain us, who fight for our right to flourish in life, who save and support us. Scripture sings their praises, role models all; and for celebrating the life-giving, nurturing, protective, compassionate sides of the Divine Trinity.

A talk for Mothering Sunday, 19 March 2023.

Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks

A talk for The Third Sunday of Lent, 5 March 2023.

Following a conversational reading of the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, John 4.5-30,39.

'He told me everything I have ever done!' - finally, a man who had come to know her fully, to understand her entirely, to love her wholly, to accept her as she was. No wonder she was so transformed that day. No wonder that her story made such an impression on those who heard it; because she may have been the most notorious addict for love in the city of Sychar; but everyone else in that place shared that ache to be accepted, that longing to be loved. This is one of the many Bible stories where women are the central characters. Women who discover that in a world where they are usually suppressed by men, God gives them agency. 

Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks

Rebirth is something we experience often in life. It's part of the call to joyful renewal which is the charter of the season of Lent.

A talk for The Second Sunday of Lent, 5 March 2023.

Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks