THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2014    MATT 18:15-20

 

They call it pivoting, and when it is done well no one even notices.  It’s the skill of being asked a question and giving a long, and very impressive reply - on a completely different subject.  And if you practice hard, study the dark arts deeply enough, and have so little conscience that you could fool a lie detector, you can pull it off so magnificently that no one will notice that you completely failed to answer the question.  It also helps if you’re running for office, or have worked in the British civil service, where they run courses on this.  But we’ve all done it, haven’t we?  I remember my French and German teacher.  Mr Strauss, his name was.  At the equivalent of 10th Grade British kids go through a hideous trial by fire.  It’s a series of public exams, compiled in places like Oxford and Cambridge; and they are so important that you carry your success or failure with you all the way to the grave – and even beyond it in the case of the exam on Religious Education.

 

But what a friend we had in Mr Strauss.  He had a foolproof way of coaching us so that we would all pass.  In the modern language exams there was a question that accounted for a quarter of your overall result.  The question consisted of six pictures that when looked at sequentially told a story.  And you had to describe in French or German what was happening, and use your imagination to turn those images into an interesting tale.  Now.......

 

Read the full Sermon here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3196491/Matt_18v15.htm