Tag: faith
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prayer, obedience, and growth
Biblical Text: Mark 6.44-52 Today’s lectionary reading comes from Mark’s Gospel, a text that barely pauses to take a breath as it describes Jesus’s ministry. Mark doesn’t give us any birth narrative, but starts with John the Baptist proclaiming Jesus, and then wham, Jesus is here. Baptised, tempted, and beginning his ministry. Miracle follows miracle,…
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when temptation comes…
Biblical Text: Matthew 4.1-11 The spiritual life is not a string of mountaintop experiences. Anyone who tells you that is lying or in a cult…or perhaps both. You don’t need to read much scripture to realise this, but it is tempting to believe it nonetheless. Our faith points us to Jesus, the Son of God…
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knock knock…
Biblical Text: Luke 11v1-13 We talk a lot about prayer as Christians, so I want to take a moment to consider one of Jesus’s brief mentions of prayer in the Gospels, specifically Luke 11. It’s worth noting that although prayer is clearly important for Jesus – he teaches his disciples to pray, he goes away…
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what would you give?
Biblical Text: Matthew 13.44-52 £15 million pounds. That was the advert I saw from the National Lottery. But this lottery draw was different, because someone was guaranteed to win. Someone in the UK has ended their week £15 million pounds richer. So, let’s try a brief thought experiment. Imagine I have that winning ticket in…
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worthless slaves?
‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later…
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repentance and rejoicing…
Biblical Text: Nehemiah 8.9-18 On Christmas Day last year I began my sermon by reading the first line of a few different books to see if people could name where they came from. As it went down well I thought I would play a similar game today. I’ll warn you now, this one may not…
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forks in the road…
Biblical Text: Luke 9.57-end There’s a theme throughout the book of Luke, and indeed the gospels as a whole. It’s the invitation to follow Jesus. I say, invitation, but that’s not quite right. Sometimes Jesus invites others to follow, and sometimes others seemingly make the first move. Our reading today has both. Two people say…
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take nothing…
Biblical Text: Luke 9.1-6 Sometimes it can be hard to know what to make of a gospel passage. What does this brief story in the life of Jesus say to us in the 21st century? Jesus’ sending out of the twelve in Luke comes just after he has healed a woman from her bleeding and…
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for those that are lost…
Biblical Text: Luke 15.1-10 The verses that we heard this morning, are perhaps not quite as well known as the story, the parable that comes directly afterward. That, of course, is the parable of the prodigal son. But the parables Jesus tells of the lost sheep and the losy coin, and then of the prodigal…
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choose life
Biblical Texts: Deuteronomy 30v15-20; Psalm 1; Luke 14v25-33; Philemon 1-21 You may remember when the first Matrix film came out. At the time it was groundbreaking. A movie with an intriguing plot coupled with mind-bending special effects, the legacy of which we still see in films today. But aside from the effects, one part of…