Sharing some thoughts

Just the one sermon today and nothing next week ! If you would like to read another sermon for then have a look at http://mysundaysermon.blogspot.com One day, Saint Thomas Aquinas, the great teacher and philosopher, and his Dominican brothers were gathered for their hour of recreation. They were all talking, laughing, and enjoying one another's company before going back to their work, prayer, and study… Someone asked Saint Thomas , "If the world were to end in fifteen minutes, what would you do?" He replied, "I would continue doing exactly what I am doing right now." Given that question I wonder what our answers would be – would it be to spend time here in Church with our Christian brothers and sisters, worshipping, praying, celebrating God’s love, or would it be rushing off to sort out some problem with someone or to try and resolve some long argument, or perhaps just to go off and be with family… I guess we all wonder whether we would greet a moment li...

Normally Monday sermons aren't put on, but this is especially for Allan, continuing to wish him a good and speedy recovery !! I’m going to begin this evening with two short stories… There was a new Priest at a Parish who was very nervous before preaching his first sermon – and as he got up he could hardly speak. Before his second appearance in the pulpit he asked the senior Priest how he could relax, and the Priest said, ‘Well next Sunday it may help if you put a bit of vodka in your water glass and had some of that to settle you – after a few sips you should be fine.’ The next Sunday the new Priest followed the advice and felt really good, in fact so good he seemed on a real high – however upon returning to his house he found a note from the Senior Priest, which said, ‘Dear Father, 1) Next time sip the vodka rather than gulp 2) There are 10 commandments not 12 3) There are 12 disciples not 10 4) We do not refer to the cross as the ‘Big T’ 5) ...

Today we have just heard the gospel account of Jesus teaching about those who wear the fine garments at the Temple, but who live lives very different to the things they teach, and then he sits opposite the Treasury as money is put into the Temple – many rich people put in large amounts, but one widow came along and put in just two small copper coins. Whilst her contribution would have been almost invisible to the Temple , Jesus recognised that she had given all that she could, and that equated to far more than any of the other people were giving. (Mark 12:38-44) And this is rightly used very often as a text for discussing stewardship in the Church, and for considering what we give to God, but on this Remembrance Sunday it also draws us to consider those who have given everything in wars, wars to bring lasting peace and freedom, wars to end all wars. At a place called Zorgvleit, one of the districts of The Hague in the Netherlands , there is a palace. Round about it are delig...

Yesterday after the The Royal British Legion silence in Trafalgar Square , the following poem was read out : There Lie Forgotten Men They lie there in their thousands The last rays of sunlight Catching the white of the gravestones Lending a poignancy to the moment Numbering in their thousands they lay Deserving remembrance And yet the scarred green fields are empty Nothing remains here The processions of people vanished with the years Their sacrifice all but forgotten She stands there alone At the edge of the silent place And she is shocked New wars brew and these forgotten men Will play no part in them The dead silence warn no ears but hers In great halls, in moments of great decision What they fought for is forsaken And by days end, new gravestones Appear on the blood red ground She finds what she seeks 'Sgt John Malley Age 27' His life brutally ended And she stands by his grave But he can give no answers And she we...

The American evangelist Tony Campolo tells a true story about a time when he was preaching at a Pentecostal College . I’ll quote the story as he says it, ‘Several years ago I was invited to preach at a small Pentecostal College . Before the Chapel service, several of the members got up and took me to a side room to pray with me. I got down on my knees and the six of them put their hands on my head and prayed for me, asking the Holy Spirit to fill me up and use me effectively as I spoke to the students. Pentecostals seem to pray longer and with more dynamism than we Baptists do. These men prayed long, and the longer they prayed, the more they leaned on my head. They prayed on and on and leaned harder and harder. One of them kept whispering, ‘Do you feel the Spirit ?’ To tell the truth I felt something right at the base of my neck, but I wasn’t sure it was the Spirit. One of the members prayed at length about a particular man named Charlie Stoltzfus. That kind of annoyed me. I ...

I was reading some jokes this week about cows – they’re all clean and decent don’t worry ! The question was how, if you owned 2 cows, they would be dealt with under different political systems – for example if you have 2 cows under a socialist system, you give one to your neighbour. Under a communist system you give the government both cows and they give you some milk back; in a traditional capitalist society, you sell one cow, buy a bull, and the herd begins to grow and then you sell them and retire on the profits. In France , you begin with 2 cows, but go on strike because you want 3 cows. Anyway this has got very little to do with the sermon today except for the number 2, and the fact that when Jesus is asked ‘Which is the greatest commandment of all ?’ he comes up with 2 parts to his answer. The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and the second is to love your neighbour as yourself. Jesus had managed to condense all of th...