Christ’s foolishness and Stormzy

What do you do when Easter day and April Fool’s day coincide? We thought about the foolishness of God, and what the grime star Stormzy can teach us…

Easter 2017

Mark’s Gospel ends: “They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid”. But why? What is the Good News about that? My sermon for Easter Day explored what that means for us.

Waiting

How do you feel about waiting? What’s the purpose of waiting? How can we wait better? My sermon on prayerful waiting inspired by the Thy Kingdom Come nine days of prayer, preached at Derby Cathedral in Sunday’s Choral Evensong.

Breakfast on the beach

After the resurrection, Jesus appears to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee. What were the disciples doing there? What do Jesus’ actions and words teach us about him and about us? These are some of the questions I thought about in this sermon.

Wondering about Easter

Peter went away wondering. The disciples wondered what had happened that first Easter morning and we’re invited to join in with the wondering. What happened? What does it mean? What does it mean for us?

Transforming love

Jesus shows his love for Peter by challenging him as well as forgiving him. What does that look like for us? And, as we prepare for a General Election, what does that tell us about our actions and how to use our vote?

Holy Saturday

Holy Saturday is the (largely ignored) day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. But what does it tell us about our faith? The experience of Holy Saturday is more widespread the we realise and is more important than we often credit. This is my attempt to get us thinking about it.

God’s mission

We misunderstand Jesus’ words to the disciples after his resurrection. We often think it’s about our mission, not about him mission, which we’re invited to be a part of. We’re also too hard on Thomas!

Jesus is alive!

How do get people to think about the events of the first Easter? This year, I went for talking about the film Frozen…! And by using an piñata in the shape of an Easter egg. It seemed to work!

Christ is Risen!

Christ is Risen! That’s a much bigger statement than we always recognise, not least as it sums up the whole of Christianity. It’s also a difficult one to think about, particularly in an all-age talk…

The Emmaus road

An Easter evening sermon, based on the lectionary readings. The Emmaus road story is a great introduction to a lot of Christian life; there’s much more to talk about than is possible to do in one sermon!

Fear and trembling?

My all-age talk for Easter morning! Based on Mark’s wonderful and challenging ending to his gospel. I’m in the camp that thinks that this was the original ending, that there wasn’t an extra bit, but that this was a good way of challenging his readers and hearers. The other (lectionary) reading is vaguely referred to,…