sermons

Today the Church honours St. Joseph who carried Jesus, led him by the hand, fed and clothed him and trained him at his carpenter’s bench as this 1847 painting by John Herbert illustrates. May 1 is International Workers’ Day celebrating workers’ achievements with street marches demanding fair pay and better working conditions. In 1955 St […]

A little branch of the vine can bear an enormous cluster of grapes because it is a conduit of life giving sap. A little faithfulness to Christ in scripture and eucharist and prayer can be enormously vitalising if it expresses a desire to be rooted in absolute dependence upon Our Lord and undoubting confidence in

St John the Evangelist’s recently had its clocks refurbished. The church spire is very prominent in Burgess Hill and people look to it from all over to tell the time. I think of St John’s with its fast growing congregation as a spiritual lighthouse for the town having a membership so open to the Holy

All prayer is a reaching of heart and soul into the outpouring of God’s love. Sometimes my prayer is like sunbathing, resting on Christ before the Father in the Spirit. Other times it’s more like being enfolded, my life being hidden with Christ with God. On occasion, as I centre myself on God, it’s like

On Easter Sunday we celebrated the rolling back of the stone of Christ’s tomb and his first appearance. The dynamic of Easter continues in today’s readings with disciples meeting the risen Lord on the move walking to Emmaus in the Gospel and a crippled man finding healing, ‘walking and jumping and praising God’ on the

Abusing people for selfish satisfaction seems an unthinkable use of power but that’s what’s coming out at us, day by day, as episodes like the murder of Sarah Everard, rest her soul, are evaluated. Today at the start of Holy Week we get a window into what’s ultimately the case concerning the God of power

The weekday reading from the book of Daniel Chapter 3 has Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walking in a fiery furnace accompanied by a fourth man in the fire who ‘had the appearance of a son of god’. Christians are taught to read Scripture in the light of the coming of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. In

It’s a privileged ministry to be a Chalice bearer at the eucharist. In a profound sense though all of us are chalice bearers as we carry the cup of hardship with as good cheer as we can muster through the grace of God. This is a powerful witness. As the French writer, Charles Peguy, wrote:

How do you welcome God’s love? Go in your heart and mind to the cross of Calvary. Thomas Merton wrote: ‘As a magnifying glass concentrates the rays of the sun into a little burning knot of heat that can set fire to a dry leaf or a piece of paper, so the mystery of Christ

Thinking about today’s Gospel saying about people being ultimately defined in relation to God’s loving truth and not our own self-identity brought me back to Tom Butler’s interview with Esther Ghey in last Saturday’s Times. It was brilliant to read of her urging compassion for the parents of her transgender daughter Brianna’s killers.   found today’s