Sermons & Other Words

For fear.


Sermon Year B – 2nd Sunday of Easter
Acts 4.32-35, John 20.19-end
Revd. Matthew Peat

Alleluia. Christ is risen.

He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

Keep your voice down someone will hear. At least that’s the response I imagine in the scene before us in today’s Gospel for ‘the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews.’

It was finished, or so they thought – they were still reeling from Mary Magdalene’s proclamation that she had ‘seen the Lord.’ Left wondering how could that be?

This morning we find them afraid of being found and facing the same fate as the man they had followed. So, ‘the doors were locked for fear’.

This image of locked doors seems so apt for us at the moment. Especially as we recall that tomorrow the locked doors of shops, and gyms and pubs (well, as long as you are sat outside) will be opened again.

And we, a little later than some churches will open our doors next Sunday for public worship, and it will be good to see some of you again, although facemasks and distancing and not singing will be with us for a while yet.

And as the vaccination continues to be rolled out, the locked doors of many in our neighbourhood will be opened again to family and friends. And yet I suspect we shall continue to live with some degree of fear.

For- some will fear what opening their doors will look like, having avoided supermarkets and trips out for over a year but beyond the pandemic we fear all sorts of things.

Continue reading “For fear.”

Sir, we wish to see Jesus


Sermon Year B – Passion Sunday
John 12.2-33
Revd. Matthew Peat

Some Greeks in today’s Gospel tells us they ‘we wish to see Jesus.’ And that desire remains, we wish to see Jesus too.

And though we cannot see him physically, we interpret the word seeing as being more than what our eyes can take in. But going back to the Gospels I wonder if they ever did see Jesus, the text is ambiguous.

The conversation moves from what we assume is his inner circle to ‘the crowd’. And it is to the crowd that Jesus says that ‘when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’.

Here Jesus is anticipating what is to happen next, when he is lifted up on the wood of the cross. And there he is seen in a different way. He is dying and we imagine that those few who saw it for themselves were traumatised.

Perhaps they would not have asked to ‘to see Jesus’ if they knew where it ended. Yet if we are to see Jesus then we must see the cross. A cross that comes into focus through these days of Passiontide and Holy Week and reminds of how through it the redeeming love of God is revealed once and for all.

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Sometimes things don’t turn out as we expect…


Sermon Year B – Trinity 3
1 Corinthians 1.18-25, John 2.13-22
Revd. Matthew Peat

Sometimes life takes a surprising turn. That can be a good thing. Think of Captain Tom Moore who at almost 100 years old started pottering about in his garden and then raised millions for the NHS.

But it can a bad thing too. Think of the last year, and the how plans made have been postponed or abandoned altogether.

Sometimes we can be surprised when but then things don’t quite work out as we expect, and here we turn to our Gospel this morning as we think of the PTC.

The PTC, the Parochial Temple Council who thought that a few tables selling things would both help those who went, and make a bit of money too – to help pay for the new roof or whatever it was.

But then it all got rather out of hand. A few tables became a thriving marketplace. And so coming to the temple became less about worship and more about an exchange of money.

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It matters.


Sermon Year B – Lent 2
Genesis 12.1-7, 15-16, Mark 8.31-end
Revd. Matthew Peat

To understand more fully the Gospel we have just heard we need to read the verses before in which Jesus asks his disciples ‘”Who do people say that I am?”’ He goes on ‘”But who do you say that I am?”’ and Peter replies “You are the Messiah.”

Peter and the other disciples have journeyed with Jesus.
He called them and they followed.

And when they followed they saw healings.
They heard teaching with depth and authenticity.
They witnessed thousands fed with five loaves of bread and a couple of fish.
They saw him walk on water.
They saw a girl restored to life.

Jesus asks ‘“who do you say that I am?”’ And Peter replies ‘“You are the Messiah.”’

That’s the backdrop to the scene described in today’s Gospel when Jesus unpacks what it means to affirm him as Messiah.

He speaks first of the journey, of how before him lies ‘great suffering’, rejection and death.
Peter cannot quite believe it.

And yet Jesus is clearsighted, painfully describing his companion as Satan and then going on to say more about what following him will look like for them.

He talks of taking up of the cross. Of losing life to save it. Challenging stuff that follows the question ‘”but who do you say that I am?”’

Of course, we are all on a journey with the question too and maybe we never quite feel able to answer as Peter does. Yet it is the question.

Continue reading “It matters.”

Living the Transfiguration


Sermon Year B – Sunday next before Lent
2 Kings 2.1-12, Mark 9.2-9
Revd. Matthew Peat

Train from Leeds to Edinburgh. Edinburgh to Glasgow. Glasgow to Oban. Ferry from Oban to Craignuire. Bus from Craignure to Fionnphort. Ferry from Fionnphort to Iona.

It would have taken less time to get from Leeds to Paris than from Leeds to Iona. But when I boarded the ferry for the short crossing to the island. Tears ran down my face. And I had a strange sense of homecoming.

Whilst I run the risk of being an Iona bore – I know this is not the first time I’ve mentioned my pilgrimage there. It is relevant for today because Iona has become for me a place of transfiguration because I don’t think I really got what it was about until then.

For it seems to me that this moment described in our Gospel this morning in which Jesus is revealed with startling clarity is not just a singular event but part of an ongoing revelation given to invite and encourage us to see things differently as we go about our daily lives.

And that’s why I began with Iona because there I learned about this. For there the normal pace of life is suspended; you stop rushing about and take the time. To truly see the person before you. To savour the bird song. To appreciate the light. To see more deeply. To listen.

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Step in. Step out to see the big picture.


Sermon Year B - Second Sunday before Lent
Colossians 1.15-20, John 1.1-14
Revd. Matthew Peat

Most of the time we live just getting on with life. Wake up. We get up. We step into the day with its tasks and challenges. We eat. We drink. We rest. We go to bed and so it goes on.

But then occasionally, hopefully we sometimes step back too and consider whether we are in the right career, or the right home, or even the right relationships. We step back to consider the big picture.

It’s true of our life with God too. Much of the time we get on with it, we say our prayers perhaps, read the Bible, come to church, receive the sacrament. e step into our life with God daily.

But then every so often, if we are wise we step back and consider how that life with God is going perhaps accompanied by a friend or counsellor, whether we feel God close or distant.

Sometimes this stepping back happens painfully when we are confronted by something specific our mortality, an illness or a grief for example.

But it can happen at other times too, when we reach a significant birthday for example, or as we pay attention to an underlying sense that we are not as fulfilled as we might be.

Continue reading “Step in. Step out to see the big picture.”

Party People still?


Sermon – Year B – Epiphany 3
Revelations 19.6-10, John 2.1-11
Revd. Matthew Peat

If we were to undertake a survey to try and discover what people have missed most since we began this journey we are on. I imagine the answers would include, seeing friends and family, having a hug, family celebrations like christenings and weddings and anniversaries and birthdays and so on.

And we miss these things so because fundamentally we are made not to live isolated lives (as I am at the moment having tested positive for the virus on Wednesday last week) distanced from one another but to be together. To be in communion.

In the story of creation as we have it in Genesis we read that ‘the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone;‘(1) We are meant to be together. 

And whilst the Gospel for today often comes round at this time of year, it feels a bit as though its rubbing salt into our wounds at the moment. For we have not been together, we have not had a party to celebrate for ages, birthdays of note have passed, anniversaries celebrated differently.

Continue reading “Party People still?”

References

References
↑1Genesis 2.18

Who do you think you are?


Sermon Year A – Trinity 5
Genesis 25.19-end, Matthew 13.1-9,18-23
Revd. Matthew Peat

Who do you think you are? We are a people immersed in story

‘Who do you think you are?’ asks a television programme that explores some celebrity stories. From Judge Rinder to Ian McKellen. Mary Berry to Julie Walters.

What often makes the programme memorable is how relevant and helpful it is for people to learn how something of their ancestors’ story lives on in them. Of how they shared similar interests and motivations – knowing about them helps them know more about themselves.

As the youngest of six children I didn’t know my Mum’s parents at all. And though I knew my Dad’s indeed Nanny came to live with us for a time they were aged and not so interested in a youngster.

So, most of my sense of those who went before me comes in the form of the memories of others. Of hearing their recollections about what they were like, what they did and so on.

For example, there’s the entertaining Uncle. The not so nice Great Grandfather. The deaf Aunt with a lovely smile. I’m sure you all have similar stories to tell.

And to return to that beginning and the question ‘Who do you think you are?’

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