‘Jacob said: 'I will not let you go, unless you bless me.'
…then [he] asked him, 'Please tell me your name?'
But [the man] said, 'Why is it that you ask my name?'
And there he blessed him.’
Gen 32.26, 29
The Christian story is unique because it is just that – a story. It is narrative, script, folktale; history, poetry and song, wisdom, apocalyptic visions, and law; it is instruction, admonishment, consolation, letters to friends, memoirs for a distant people…
A sermon given by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, at a service to mark the 30th anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero in Westminster Abbey on Sunday March 28, 2010.
 The Archbishop in the pulpit © Westminster Abbey Sentir con la Iglesia: 'feeling with the Church'. This was Oscar Romero's motto as a bishop – you'll see it in many photographs inscribed on the episcopal mitre he wore. It is in fact an ancient phrase, very often used to express the ideal state of mind for a loyal Catholic Christian; indeed, it's usually been translated as 'thinking with the Church'. It can be used and has been used simply to mean having the same sentiments as the Church's teaching authority.
Fourth Sunday in Lent and Mothering Sunday
1 Samuel 1: 20-28 Colossians 3: 12-17 Luke 2: 33-35
If you have recently tried to make a train journey on a Sunday, you will know that the British Rail timetable can be rather complicated.
Today we celebrate God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. Yet understanding the full meaning of this gift can be difficult. From time to time I get invited to preach – or share as they call it – in Charismatic and Pentecostal churches.
When they are at full throttle – and they usually are at full throttle – their manifestations of the Holy Spirit often include: beating on bongo drums, waving of flags, speaking in tongues, uttering prophetic words, sometimes leaping up and down on trampolines, and literally rolling in the aisles.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
I am not going to let Father Peter outdo me in his succinct description of the one sermon he would like to preach. You may remember his words last week, if he had one sermon to preach it would be very brief and would be "God is love". Well, mine is this: "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again". To me, when we proclaim the mystery of faith in these or similar words, the entire reason for our own joy and our own gathering together comes into focus for me: "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again." Should I say "amen" and sit down, well no, I had better not, especially if I want to be ordained to the Permanent Diaconate on 30th June. More is expected and I will now, in the next few minutes, attempt that by offering you my version of what the one sermon I would like to preach, if I only had one sermon to preach, this would be it, I think.
Isaiah 42. 1-9; Romans 10. 8b-13; Luke 4 1-13
"Sorrow for sin is indeed necessary, but it should not involve endless self-preoccupation. You should also dwell on the glad remembrance of the loving kindness of God". Bernard of Clairvaux
Lent is the time when we think of Jesus in the Wilderness and that story is the Gospel reading we have just heard. But the wilderness also belongs to us. It is always lurking somewhere, as part of our experience, and there are times when it can seem pretty near the whole of it. Most people's wilderness is inside them, not outside. Our wilderness is an inner isolation. It's an absence of contact. It's a sense of being alone, sometimes boringly alone, or saddeningly alone, or terrifyingly alone.
The tax collector no longer sits in his booth on the street corner. At this time of year he appears instead on television and the radio urging us to complete our self-assessment forms before the end of September. St. Matthew’s day is now conveniently set as a reminder of a key date in the fiscal calendar. Tax, we are told, doesn’t have to be taxing.
Tell that to my eldest son, who is setting up his own business not far from here and who is making the painful discovery of just how much of his earnings the government will claim by various means. Tell that to thousands of people like me who put off filling in their tax forms to the last possible date. In my case normally the last week in January.
Exodus 12:1-14a ; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26(27-32) ; St John 13:1-15, 31b-35
(Jesus) said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?”
In tonight’s readings and liturgy, as always (if we’re paying attention) we find good news…and bad news…or at least good news and not-so-good news…
Jeremiah 31. 31-34; 2 Thessalonians 1. 1-5; St John 12. 20-33
Laudabo Nomen Domini
Our Lenten series this year at St Matthew’s has been on the theme Mirroring God’s Love’, and over the past weeks we have been looking at ways in which we are called to reflect the love of God as individuals - as Christians - and as members together of the Body of Christ, the Church. We started by looking at the person of Jesus Christ, who is in himself the image of the unseen God, and have gone on to look at how we are called to reflect the love of God to each other, at the margins, and to the world.
Deuteronomy 10.12-22, 1John 4.7-21, St Matthew 12.28-34a
In the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of the World
When you think of the world, what do you think?
When you hear that the ice in the artic is melting that will raise sea levels and flood low levels of the country who do you think about?
When you hear global warming will lead to a draught who do you think of?
When you hear there may be bird flu coming to this country who do you think of?
When you pass a homeless person on the street who might look threatening, who do you think of?
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