Category: Sermons

Epiphany 2: Who are you really?

Vaccaro, Andrea; The Infant Christ with the Infant Saint John the Baptist; The Bowes Museum; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/the-infant-christ-with-the-infant-saint-john-the-baptist-45149

2nd Sunday of Epiphany
18/1/26

Isaiah 49:1-7
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
John 1:29-42

In the Epiphany season we are encouraged to look, see and find afresh. The wise men saw a star, followed it and found Jesus, King Herod saw a threat and tried to eliminate it.

In John’s Gospel this morning, John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him – two days in a row! John called those around to look and see the Lamb of God. The Christian life is a continual cycle of looking, seeing and finding. It is part of what we are called to do.

It is rather fitting that the first recorded question Jesus asks his disciples is ‘what are you looking for?’ I think it is still a relevant question for us today too. In terms of your faith, what are you looking for? In those deep places within, what are the desires and drives of your faith?

As we move into a new year what are you hoping for, expecting, asking for, looking for in your Christian life? Anything? Nothing? Same Same? Something? Do you know? It is worth giving some time this week to ponder the question as though Jesus was sitting in front of you and asking ‘what are you looking for out of your faith?’

It is not an easy question. Fear not if it has thrown you already! The disciples gave a rather lame answer to Jesus. The best they could come up with was ‘Rabbi, where are you staying?’ As though Jesus was asking them if they had lost their keys or a jumper. Jesus’ question is much deeper than that. The disciples had just heard John the Baptist’s exclamation of ‘here is the Lamb of God!’ and had started to follow Jesus; at least physically follow Jesus if not yet spiritually.

‘Who are you really?’ is more likely the question the first disciples was trying to ask. The disciples, as followers of Judaism, would have been waiting for the Messiah.

The reading from Isaiah this morning is among the oldest and best known parts of the Old Testament. There are 4 passages in Isaiah known as the Servant Songs. These Songs introduce and share the profound idea of salvation through suffering. This was not how people thought about suffering or salvation at that time. If you suffered you had done something wrong; think the Book of Job.

The identity of the servant is revealed gradually from song to song but it is still concealed. In Isaiah 49, the servant speaks for the first time in his own voice and in a very individual way. He has been chosen by God to carry on the mission of Israel where Israel had failed.

The mission was to restore the people of God (the Jews). God is going to give the servant as a light to the nations, that salvation may reach to the end of the earth. This means to everyone – not only the Jews.

If the disciples recalled any of these passages, it would have been an overwhelming experience and would most certainly require something of them. Jesus’ answer also required something of the disciples as it was an invitation to ‘come and see’.

So they went and saw where Jesus was staying and spent the whole day with him. What a day that would have been! The disciples obviously saw something that day that changed them forever. If the answer to ‘what are you looking for?’ ends up being ‘come and see’, will you be willing to go and see?

What about this year?

How about you as a person? Are you looking for more life? Time? Money? Health? Belonging? Certainty? Affirmation? Consolation?

Jesus’ invitation to come and see is an invitation to leave our comfortable places, an invitation to challenge what we think we know and change our perspectives. Come and see is an approach to life that is expansive, dynamic and exposes us to new experiences and ideas. When Jesus offers this invitation it is to be fully seen and fully loved by the one who created us.

Like all invitations that come to us, we have the option to turn it down. To stay where we are and not see anything new. We have a choice of what we look for, what we prioritise.

When Jesus looks at us, He sees our deepest desires, hungers, curiosities, needs and wants. He saw it in those first disciples and called out to them. Jesus is still calling us now. As followers of Jesus we are to take the braver path, the follow where He is leading us.


Baptism of Christ

11/1/2026
Isaiah 42:1-9
Matthew 3:13-end

Happy New Year! Christmas is officially over. It is not just because Easter Creme Eggs have appeared in the shops! I find the transition from Christmas to Epiphany a bit jarring. One minute, we’re gazing at a swaddled baby. Next, we’re whizzing past a toddler, an array of gift-bearing Magi, a young family fleeing to Egypt, a twelve-year-old boy in a temple, and a mother, pondering all these things in her heart. And today we are standing on the banks of the Jordan River, waiting in line with Jesus watching John the Baptist baptise people who believed his message.

Epiphany starts with the visitation of the Wise Men to Joseph, Mary and Jesus. The significance is that this visit sent the clear message that Jesus came for everyone – not only the Jewish people. The revelation, this epiphany, was a life changing event for them and for us.

Over the next few weeks we will look at the epiphany moments of significant Biblical characters. Today we look at Jesus’ baptism.

Three of the four Gospels recounts the baptism of Jesus with varying degrees of detail. Matthew 3 begins with John calling for repentance with urgency and harshness; accusing the religious elite of being a brood of vipers and hypocrites before Jesus appears.

Mark has a shortened version of Matthew.

Luke has an even shorter version with no mention of John doing his baptism.

John’s gospel alludes to Jesus’ baptism but rather strongly alludes to it.

Up to this point, John has been calling people to prepare themselves to meet the Messiah when he comes. This involved confession and repentance of sin through the water of baptism. This was also a temporary measure and John knows it. When Jesus arrived at the river that day, the baton was passed.

Jesus was not being baptised for repentance or salvation; he was being baptised into ministry. See the picture for a moment – the crowd of people having confessed their sins and then standing in the river to be baptised. Then Jesus comes along after they’ve made their confession.

Jesus and John standing in the Jordan. Jesus is baptised; he was drenched in the same waters where they had confessed their sins. This is all about symbolism but do you see Jesus almost wearing the sins they had confessed in those waters?

In the waters of baptism our sin is washed away through the work of the Holy Spirit – this is the baptism that Jesus offers us. The crowd who were listening to John that day were full of expectation. They had heard John preaching about a baptism of repentance, probably not easy to listen to. John had previously referred to his listeners as a brood of vipers!

He was not preaching a message of fluff and ‘just be a good person’, or ‘as long as you don’t hurt anyone else’. John was preparing them not for salvation but for repentance, he was preparing them to encounter Jesus, the only one who could bring them salvation.

Sin is significant. It has a significant impact on your life and those around you.

Beth Moore: I believe they (the people being baptised that day) were quite specific confessing their sins. In all likelihood they were crying out these confessions, maybe even wailing them. They may have been weeping over their sins. Then came Christ. We know He was not coming to be baptised unto repentance. He was the spotless Lamb of God. Complete perfection. The only One who had no confession to do that day in those waters. He came for John to baptise Him.

There is power in the water of baptism. Do we live like there is? What an amazing privilege it is to be baptised. We never have to feel insignificant again. We are called by name into the deep waters of baptism where He is always with us. He took on our sin and paid the price for us.

After Jesus was baptised, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove. The voice of God ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ This little glimpse of heaven! Jesus was about to be taken into the wilderness for his 40 days of temptation. I would like to believe that the sound of that voice stayed with him.

The voice that called down from heaven is the same voice that calls our name. He is with us when we pass through the waters and the rivers and in the deep waters of baptism, we are significant; and we should be expectant.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Day: All Around Us

Christmas Day
25/12/25

Isaiah 62:6-end
Titus 3:4-7
Luke 2:1-20

God our Father,
whose Word has come among us
in the Holy Child of Bethlehem:
may the light of faith illumine our hearts
and shine in our words and deeds;
through him who is Christ the Lord.

One of the many things that I love about this season is how the story of the first Christmas comes alive. We see it in the pictures on Christmas cards; we hear it in the words of Christmas carols; we see the drama played out in Christingle and Crib services. Even in the commercialisation and secularisation of our society, the story of that first Christmas does get told. Not always in words but in the symbols and pictures; seen if we pay attention to the world around us.

This morning we come together to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The baby laid in a manger. We need to not only look at the manger but in the manger. In the simple manger, in the smallness of a baby, we get a glimpse of the greatness of God.

Luke very deliberately mentions the manger and the child lying in it in three separate verses. Yes of course he was lying in the manger; no crib for his bed and all that.

Mary laid her firstborn son in a manger.

The angels tell the shepherds about the child lying in a manger.

The shepherds went with haste and found the child lying in the manger.

The manger was the sign to the shepherds. It told them which baby they were looking for. It showed them that the angel knew what they were talking about. It was important to give the shepherds their news and their instructions.

Why does this matter? It was the shepherds who were told who this child is. This child – the Saviour, the Messiah, the Lord.

Yet the manger isn’t important in and of itself. The manger is a signpost, a pointing finger to the identity of the baby boy who’s lying in it.

The shepherds’ arrival may have helped Mary and Joseph to confirm what had been their own secret up to now. What would it have been like for Mary and Joseph as the shepherds arrived? The secret is now out! I am not sure if you have had the experience of a secret being let out!

It can be quite shocking and uncertain. What happens next?! Who knows!? Maybe it was a relief after all that they had been through that God was faithful to his word. God is faithful to his word. Always. What a relief that is. In this uncertain world and in uncertain times we can look to the manger and know that God is faithful.

We also need to look in the manger, not just at it. Many people, Christians too, come to see the manger but they never look in it. For some Jesus remains the baby forever. A baby that is easily contained in the manger that gets brought out once a year, looked at, and then put away again.

When my nephew Riley was 5 years old, he and my sister had a bedtime conversation that went like this:

Riley: ‘Mom, how old are Great Grandma and Great Grandpa?’

Sister: ‘they are both 90’

Riley: ‘Mom, when will they go to heaven?’

Sister: ‘I am not sure but Jesus will be waiting to greet them when they go.’
Riley: ‘Mom – how old is Jesus?’

Sister: ‘Well he was born 2000 years ago but Jesus doesn’t age and has always been around.’

Riley: (with all the exasperation of a 5 year old) ‘Mom – Jesus is a baby!’

It is quite easy to take this view whether we are 5 years old or not. Jesus was never meant to be contained to the manger. Nor did Jesus just appear one night in Bethlehem as if out of nowhere. Jesus has always been around; part of God and the Trinity. He is more than a Baby!

The name of Jesus will go on forever.

Jesus. The very name at which one day every knee will bow.

Jesus. The very name at which every tongue will confess.

Jesus. A name with no parallel in any vocabulary.

Jesus. A name with power like no other name?

The angel Gabriel tells Mary, ‘he will be great’. Oh yes he is.

As we celebrate today, let’s spend a little more time at the manger worshipping the baby born to us. The baby who becomes the Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

I love these names. I can identify with each of them as titles for the Child that has been born to us. He is my Counsellor when I struggle; Mighty when I am weak; Everlasting when unwanted changes come my way; the bringer of Peace when I am distressed.

I hope that you will know and experience the great love God has for you this Christmas. Not just at Christmas but at every moment of every day of your life; when things are calm and happy but more so when you are stirred up throughout.

I hope that you will know the Lord’s favour upon you.

I hope the name of Jesus falls sweetly on your ears and off your tongue.

The Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace lead you and guide you always.

St Nicholas Carol Service: Is It True?

Benefice Carols – Sunday December 21st

Christmas
John Betjeman (1906–1984)

The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that the villagers can say
‘The church looks nice’ on Christmas Day.

Provincial Public Houses blaze,
Corporation tramcars clang,
On lighted tenements I gaze,
Where paper decorations hang,
And bunting in the red Town Hall
Says ‘Merry Christmas to you all’.

And London shops on Christmas Eve
Are strung with silver bells and flowers
As hurrying clerks the City leave
To pigeon-haunted classic towers,
And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children’s hearts are glad.
And Christmas-morning bells say ‘Come!’
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,
A Baby in an ox’s stall ?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me ?

And is it true ? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare —
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.

I hope that you have been satisfied with the selection of carols today. It is a fairly easy process to choose them: what has been done in the past, what is in the carol sheet, what Niky can play and the ones I like best.

Of course, the greatest Christmas album ever made was in 1979. A Christmas Together by John Denver & the Muppets. Fozzie, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and Kermit – not to be missed. They sing some silly stuff along with more serious carols.

Many carols hold special meaning for people – tradition, memories of school nativities or church carols or cribs and just good old sentiment. All comforting and add to the magic and mystery of the Advent and Christmas season.

We sing these carols and many people love them. I wonder, though, do we really read the words? Along with the familiar pictures of Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus in the manger, the shepherds, angels and Wise Men – there are some deep theological truths in these precious verses.

Is it true?

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him,
Nor Earth sustain.
In the bleak mid-winter
a stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty Jesus Christ.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light ;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight

Is it true? Will your hopes and fears of all the years be met in the stable-place? We all have them.

Beneath the angels’ strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring:
Oh, hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing.

Looking at the state of the world today – it is hard to be joyful or see signs of peace. Are we capable of listening (which means hushing up) – not just to each other but for God? Even the angels at Christmas?

I love the characters of the Christmas story – the shepherds and the Kings from the East. We learn from them too.

While shepherds watched
Their flocks by night,
All seated on the ground,

They were just doing their job in the middle of the night. Nothing special – another night shift in the wilderness about Bethlehem.

‘Fear not,’ he said for mighty dread
Had seized their troubled mind)

Sure did! God called them to witness the most amazing thing ever to have happened.

O star of wonder, star of night,
Star of royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.

The Kings, foreign strangers, not the same culture or religion, following a star. I marvel at the curiosity they must have possessed. Faith came later – once they arrived (probably a year or 2 later) to where Jesus was, carrying gifts to be delivered and seen with their own eyes. Curiosity turned to faith.

People are still curious about God.

Is it true?

Then let us all with one accord
Sing praises to our heavenly Lord,
Who hath made Heaven
and Earth of naught,
And with His blood
mankind hath bought.
Nowell, Nowell

The holly bears a berry,
As red as any blood,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To do poor sinners good (that’s you and me)
Oh, the rising of the sun and the running of the deer.

Myrrh is mine: its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding and dying,
Sealed in a stone-cold tomb.
O star of wonder.

John Betjemen’s poem Christmas was first published in 1947. The second World War was only recently over, this country was in the early days of recovery. The poem captures the mix of commercialism and the true religious meaning of Advent and Christmas.

The true meaning seems to be subsumed in the fripperies, however well intentioned they might be; bath salts and tacky ties. Mounting debts, family fights and fallings out – for what? There has to be something more, something greater.

We fall into tradition as being the reason for doing what we do. Tradition is good but it is not permanent; it changes as people come and go. We may long for how Christmas used to be and we may get glimpses in photo albums and church services singing the old songs.

Maybe we are occasionally left wondering, hoping that this tale of the baby, shepherds and kings might just be true. It could be a moment’s reflection brought about by the striking words of a familiar carol, or perhaps it’s a sense of wonder as we hear the nativity story told again.

So is it true?

As we come to the end of the service we will sing:

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love.

There is no greater wonder than the love of God. It is not arbitrary or conditional, it matters not on the past or the present. It is love that will carry us into a glorious future.

Hail, the Heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail, the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings.
Mild, He lays His glory by,
Born that we no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of Earth,
Born to give them second birth.

Is it true?
Absolutely.

Advent 4: Mary & Joseph

Advent 4 – Year A
Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25

I am struggling to believe that it is the Fourth Sunday of Advent. It has gone by way too quickly. My well-intentioned plans for a reflective and attentive Advent have largely fallen by the wayside. Roll on Christmas.

The Gospel readings for Fourth Sunday always revolve around Mary as she completes the picture of our Advent journey. I looked back over the lectionary (as I did for John the Baptist) to see which stories of Mary are used on this particular Sunday. Year B has set Luke 1 which is the Annunciation; when Mary was visited by Gabriel who brings her the good news that she will bear a son. Year C has also set Luke 1; the Magnificat in which Mary proclaims the greatness of the Lord who has looked with favour on her lowly self.

But every third year in Year A, the Gospel reading switches primary focus to Joseph with Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus. Matthew seems to focus his attention on Joseph much more than on Mary. You might not have noticed this but Joseph never speaks.

We never hear his voice in any of the accounts. Mary speaks and there is great focus and attention on her. In comparison, we know very little about Joseph and there can be a temptation to push him to the side-lines. I want to take the opportunity to look a little closer at Joseph. Without him the whole Christmas story would have faltered.

In many dramatisations of the nativity, Joseph is portrayed as a responsible but passionate younger man who was deeply in love with Mary. When Mary returns from visiting her cousin Elizabeth with a very obvious baby bump, Joseph is devastated, angry, grief-stricken, embarrassed. As viewers, we were confronted with a range of emotions and conversations between Mary and Joseph that were likely experienced but are not mentioned in the biblical story.

In Matthew’s account, Joseph is told about Mary’s baby and in a breath decides to quietly divorce her and save her from public disgrace. Here we see the loyalty and dignity, the faithfulness of Joseph.

It is not until the angel appears to Joseph in a dream to explain the whole situation that he believes Mary’s story when he wakes up.

We would make a mistake to sanitise Joseph’s consent as being an easy decision to come to. We diminish his humanity by overlooking his humiliation and doubt. In a culture and religion that was bound by rules, Joseph would have been in a lot of pain.

We so often want to separate ourselves from the pain of other people, we can feel so helpless in the face of it. In Joseph, we see that God’s favour is not always a shiny, happy thing. Whatever thoughts Joseph had about his family’s future were upended. His ideas of fairness, justice, goodness and purity are shattered. Being chosen by God is not always so attractive.

Joseph’s story is one that can give us hope. Many of us will know what it is to struggle to do what has been asked of us. Sometimes the decisions are difficult and the choices are limited. Joseph struggled. He was prepared to do the honourable, arguably easier thing but that was not what was asked.

So he struggled more and came to the decision that was far harder but the right one. He woke up and did what the angel commanded him. Little wonder that the angel’s opening line was do not be afraid. Joseph was needed as it is through him that Jesus’ connection to the House of David is made. If you read through the opening verses of Matthew chapter one, it is a cabaret of characters who did some interesting things.

Debie Thomas wrote, ‘Interestingly, in the verses that immediately precede our Gospel reading, Matthew gives us a genealogy of Jesus’s ancestors. He mentions Abraham — the patriarch who abandoned his son, Ishmael, and twice endangered his wife’s safety in order to save his own skin. He mentions Jacob, the trickster usurper who humiliated his older brother. He mentions David, who slept with another man’s wife and then ordered that man’s murder to protect his own reputation. He mentions Tamar, who pretended to be a sex worker, and Rahab, who was one. These are just a few representative samples.

Notice anything? Anything like messiness? Complication? Scandal? Sin? How interesting that God, who could have chosen any genealogy for his Son, chose a long line of brokenness, imperfection, dishonour, and scandal. The perfect backdrop, I suppose, for his beautiful works of restoration, healing, hope, and second chances.’

Not only was Jesus born into a messy world, but a messy family. Joseph helps to remind us that what God asks of us is often messy and unexpected. We should however expect to have our own ideas upended and challenged. Yet do not be afraid. I hope as we come fully into this Christmas season and new year that we are not afraid to love more deeply, pay more attention to what God is doing or asking of us. It might be messy.

Do not be afraid of the mess. It is in the mess that Jesus our Saviour was born.