Sermons

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on / and our little life is rounded by a sleep.” Familiar words of Prospero to his future son-in-law, from Act IV of Shakespeare’s entrancing and slightly mystifying play The Tempest.  Dreams and sleep play their part in the Passion narrative in...

Maundy Thursday. I always thought the meaning had something to do with mourning, but if we translate the Latin meaning, this is Commandment Thursday. The day Jesus gave us the command to serve each other, the command to commemorate him in bread and wine at Holy Communion, and the command...

Today is Mothering Sunday.  How gentle that sounds at a time of continuing pandemic and the horror of war in Ukraine, with its destruction of people and places.  The cards, flowers and gifts that mothers will receive today as expressions of gratitude for all the love and support they have...

Glen, could you just introduce yourself to us and give us some sense of your background and life prior to your move last July to be curate of St Andrew’s, Moscow? Thank you very much for welcoming me, it’s strange to think that this time last week I was in...

One of the strange things about the last two years of lockdown and restriction is the deleterious effect upon one’s memory. I had forgotten what we did for ashing last year in 2021 and needed to be reminded of how we managed. Today is actually a day for memory. Remember...

From today’s reading of the Gospel of St Luke, 9: v28 & v35: AND it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, Jesus took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying...

Jesus’s visit to the Temple aged just 40 days old, and celebrated as the culmination of the Christmas Season at Candlemas, is arguably one of the most exquisitely crafted accounts in Luke’s Gospel. The symmetry of it with, on the one side the two parents bringing their child before God...

In today’s Gospel reading we learn that Jesus came down from the mountain where he had called and chosen his disciples and stood on a level place with a crowd of his disciples and a multitude of people who had come to hear him and to be healed of their...

Seventy years ago this morning, King George VI died in his sleep at Sandringham. His heir presumptive, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary aged just 25, acceded to the throne, on the first leg of a Commonwealth Tour the King himself was too frail to make. In a moment I shall read...

In today’s Gospel reading we learn that Jesus, in accordance with the law of Moses, was presented in the Temple in Jerusalem as ‘every first born male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’.  We also learn that Simeon, a prophet and High Priest of the Temple, rejoices in...

From Isiah 43, v 1 Fear not: for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. And from St Luke 3 v 22 Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. Welcome to St Marks on the Feast of the Baptism...

A Christmas letter came from an esteemed parishioner. His wife told him not to “be boastful, smug or complacent.” He continued – there was nothing to boast about, because they had not done anything all year; in their country cottage, where they spent most of the lockdown, they were content...

  On your marks, get set, go! Looking back over the decades to my school sports day I remember those words being shouted out at the beginning of races which, I hasten to say, I was not very good at but I enjoyed the stimulus of the run.  There were...

Do you know the Jonah-man Zazz? It opens:   Nineveh city was a city of sin The jazzin’ and a-jivin’ made a terrible din Beat groups playin’ a rock and roll And the Lord when he heard it said, “Bless my soul!” Jonah is in the great prophetic tradition of...

Communication and Connection: Our relationship with God’s Word From the readings for today: God the Father speaks through his prophet Isaiah: Isaiah 55: v 10 – 11 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it...

WG:  Today’s sermon is a little different from normal. Penny and I are seeking to present a major discussion document endorsed by the House of Bishops to help the Church of England reflect on Church teaching about marriage and created identity, as society’s understanding of these things is evolving very...

The theme of my sermon today is ‘expectation’. In the second Act of Shakespeare’s Henry V, the Chorus describes the scene that is taking place in preparation for war against France.  He declares that the ‘youth of  England are on fire’ and ‘Expectation’ sits in the air.  Expectation that the...

From the Gospel for today, John Chapter 6, Verse 61: ‘When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? And Verse 67 ‘Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?’ Perhaps you enjoyed “One more croissant for...

In the opening sentence of today’s Gospel reading, Jesus poses the question to his disciples: ‘Who do people say that I am?’ This leads into a dialogue about his identity as the Messiah. What, though, was Jesus like as a person?  If I was asked to describe his personality I...

The theme of my sermon today is mystery.  The quest for knowledge and understanding has formed part of human history since man first walked the earth.  Yet the mystery of faith remains.  As St Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians, now we ‘see in a mirror dimly and...

Give us this bread John 6 v 33 – 35 33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. 35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the...

Did you have an embarrassing aunt when you were young? I was brought up with many aunts, more than I could count, and they are all gone, they all had wonderful names of a particular type, Freda, Mavis, Joyce, Phyllis, Nora, Nora, Lucy, Hester, Muriel….. One of the Noras had...

What remarkable and unique factors come together today! At the very kind permission of the Chapel Royal and the Duchy of Lancaster, the peculiar status of this historic place permits the ordination of a Diocese in Europe Deacon, Glen Ruffle to serve at St Andrew’s Moscow. St Andrew’s may need...

The theme of my sermon today is perseverance. I am sure that most of us, at one time or another, have felt the desire to give up when things are not going well.  I certainly have, though my boarding school years taught me to keep going and persevere when sensing...