EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2016 LUKE 16:1-13 I didn't know what a Virginian was, but I knew my grandmother had a crush on him. I must have been five or six and she was, well, she was old enough to know better. He was tall, dark and handsome, wore a black cowboy waistcoat, sported a black cowboy hat, rode a white cowboy horse, herded multicolored cowboy cows, loved a cowboy girl, and kept law and order on his cowboy ranch. I didn't know what all the fuss was about. But my grandmother had to watch him. Every week. It's only in the last few years that I discovered the big deal with that 1960s Western, and the irony of a man from the East coast becoming a cowboy in the West; and being rather good at it. But like all good stories it was about relationships – a man and his friends, a man and his wife, a man and his son, a man and his workmates, a man and his cows, a man and his adversaries.

So, two weeks ago I made my personal pilgrimage to the land of the Virginian. Minus the cowboy accessories, but with two of my sons and my daughter-in-law. It was also about relationships. Because all good stories are about relationships.

In Jamestown it was the relationship between... (read the full Sermon here: The Good Crook.pdf )