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I’m an evangelical Christian because…
I get a little tired sometimes of evangelical Christianity being identified by what it’s against. “You know, they’re the ones who hate gays, and bomb abortion clinics, and oppose teaching evolution in...
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How to ‘Get a Life’ (a sermon on John 6:51-58)
Many of you in church today have had the experience of holding down a very demanding job. Perhaps it requires you to work long hours with lots of overtime; perhaps it cuts into evening hours and...
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It’s Not Always As Simple As We Wish (a sermon on John 6:60-71)
If I had a notebook full of ‘things I hear on a regular basis’, one of the sayings at the top of the list would be this one: ‘Jesus preached a simple message about love and brotherhood, and then the...
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Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing (a sermon on Mark 7:1-23)
One of my favourite quotes from Stephen Covey is ‘The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!’ It always pulls me up short, because I recognize that so many times in my life I’ve failed to...
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Wanted: Enthusiastic Christians
Mainline Christendom churches do many excellent things, but one thing we’re not good at doing is making enthusiastic Christians. What I mean is, taking secular people and turning them into enthusiastic...
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My Kingdom is not from This World (a sermon on John 18:36)
Today in the church year is the festival of the reign of Christ – the Sunday on which we reflect on the biblical teaching that God has made Jesus Christ the Lord of all, and one day his reign will be...
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Picking and choosing
In a letter to his friend Arthur Greaves written early in 1930, C.S. Lewis, recently converted to theism but not yet to Christianity, had this to say: ‘In spite of all my recent changes of view, I am...
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God Sits for His Portrait Again
‘You know what happens when a portrait that has been painted on a panel becomes obliterated through external stains. The artist does not throw away the panel, but the subject of the portrait has to...
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Passing It On (a sermon on Luke 2:41-52)
I heard a story once about an old man who was asked by a visitor if any famous people had been born in his town. “Nope”, he replied; “just babies!” The point, of course, is that no one starts out...
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‘He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit’ (a sermon on Luke 3:15-17, 21-22)
For some reason I was never a big fan of the character of Superman. I never read his comic book adventures when I was a boy, and I never went to see any of the Superman movies, even though they were...
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‘Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him’
Our gospel reading for tonight gives us the beginning of the story of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. In John’s Gospel it takes place after the footwashing, so we know for a fact that Judas was one of the...
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‘Finding Your Way Back to God’ (book review)
An excellent book for the most part. Dave and Jon Ferguson focus on the parable of the Prodigal Son under five headings or ‘awakenings’ – the Awakening to Longing, to Regret, to Help, to Love, and to...
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The God Who Suffers with Us (a sermon for Good Friday)
The Jewish writer Elie Wiesel has written a powerful book called Night, in which he tells the story of his childhood experiences in the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz, Buna and Buchenwald. He was not...
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The Easter Story – Then and Now (a sermon for Easter Sunday)
Can you imagine for a moment what it felt like to be in the shoes of the followers of Jesus – Peter and John and James and Mary Magdalene and the rest – on the evening of Good Friday? They had all come...
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‘On Not Losing the Plot’; a sermon on Luke 24:44-53
When I was reading through today’s gospel I found myself thinking of a few sayings we have in the English language, all of which seem to cluster around the same set of meanings. I’m thinking of sayings...
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John Donne, ‘Nativity’ (1610)
Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb, Now leaves His well-belov’d imprisonment, There He hath made Himself to His intent Weak enough, now into the world to come; But O, for thee, for Him, hath the inn...
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Listen to Jesus (a sermon on Matthew 17:1-9)
Mountains are great places for spying out the lay of the land. Down in the valley you can easily get confused about which direction you’re heading in and which road you should take, but up on top of...
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Random Lent Thought for Friday March 31st: Paying the Price
This morning in my devotions I read these words: ‘Then (Jesus) said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to...
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The Power of Love (a Palm Sunday sermon on Matthew 21:1-11)
I once heard a story about a city in South America with a fourteen-lane highway running through the middle of it. Scary as it may seem, at the time this story was told there were no traffic lights to...
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Random Lent Thought for the Monday in Holy Week: ‘When I Am Lifted Up’
Yesterday in the liturgy for Palm Sunday I read these words: ‘Today we greet him as our King, although we know his crown is thorns and his throne a cross. We follow him this week from the glory of the...
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