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Humility

Palm Sunday ’26

You’d have heard them before you saw them. This great crowd pouring into Jerusalem for the festival. It wasn’t unusual to sing the Psalms, particularly those called the Psalms of Ascent, sung by pilgrims as they approached Jerusalem.
But this crowd has taken up a different song, a different shout. “Hosanna to the Son of David!”, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”, “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”. It’s a declaration of praise, of victory, of unbridled joy. The Psalms of Ascent drowned out by the sound of a crowd praising God not for what he has done, but for what he is doing. No wonder the people of Jerusalem are in turmoil.

Baptism of Christ ’26

I wonder if you’re familiar with the concept of Easter Eggs. Not the ones that are already in the shops ahead of Easter, but where those making a film of TV show hide references to either other parts of their own franchise or to other shows or films within their film or show… The same is true of today’s Gospel reading.

Trinity 16 ’25

Life, it’s all about you. Isn’t it?
We’re nearing the end of a big block of teaching, most of which is exclusive to Luke. But as this section draws to a close he rather fittingly brings in the response of the Apostle’s to all of this. There’s just been the parable of the rich man and Lazarus which we heard last week, then there’s just been some teaching on not causing others to stumble and the need to forgive, and do so freely. And what do the Apostle’s say to all of this challenging and difficult teaching? Lord, increase our faith.

Trinity 15 ’25

Have you ever met someone who was doing something not because they cared about it, but because of how it would benefit them? I’m not so much talking about the world of work here as the world of relationships. Have you ever come across someone who was friends with someone else because they had a great house with a pool or because they had contacts which would benefit them.

Trinity 11 ’25

What is your worth? How do you know that? And how do you get there? Questions that go right the core of our identity, questions which go right to the core of Jesus’ two little parables today.

Jesus is at the house of a leader of the Pharisees. And at this dinner he’s being watched to see what he might say or do. He’s just healed a man, and healed him on the Sabbath at that, but the religious leaders have remained silent. And now the watchers become the watched as Jesus points out how they are acting.

Feast of St Bartholomew ’25

Whenever we celebrate one of the Apostle’s it always feels to me like we’re celebrating a titan of the faith, someone great. But what is greatness? Who is great according to Jesus?
Bartholomew is a tricky Apostle. Normally on days like today, with Saints who appear in the Scriptures, we have a passage set with them involved, not so today. He’s notably absent. So why is that? Well, he certainly does pop up in the Gospels and in Acts, he’s there in the lists of the Apostle’s in Matthew, Mark, Luke & Acts, listed with the others, but that’s all we know about him.

Easter 5 ’25

Jesus tells us today that the hallmark of his disciples is our love for one another. Which means we’re faced with the same question posed by Haddaway in his 90’s dance hit: What is love?

Ash Wednesday ’25

Lent, despite what it’s become in the wider mindset, isn’t New Years mk 2, another chance to have a stab at cutting down on chocolate (a resolution which you managed to break at approximately 2pm on January 1st). Lent goes much deeper than that. We can easily default to ‘Lent is about giving stuff up’ without really thinking any further about why. So what is Lent for?
It’s an annual trumpet call to return to God, to come back when we have wandered off. Lent is about coming back to our first love.

Kingdom 2 ’24

Jonah is a fairly small book, tucked away amidst the other minor prophets, and yet this story packs quite the punch. We often associate it with children, it’s a nice little story about a runaway prophet who gets swallowed by a big fish. But if we dismiss it because we associate it with children we’re missing out. The story and book of Jonah have quite the challenge for us, especially on this Remembrance Sunday.

Trinity 21 ’24

So we’ve been working our way through this section of Mark’s Gospel for a few weeks and perhaps you’re getting a sense of Déjà vu. A few weeks ago we heard the reading about the disciples arguing about who was the greatest. And since then all sorts of things have happened, and lots of what we’ve been looking at has in some way linked back to that theme of pride. But now here we are with James and John requesting to sit in the places of honour beside Jesus when he is King. It’s like we’re back to square one.