Sermons

Sunday 18 April 2021 Acts 3.12-20 Psalm 4 1 John 2.15-17, 3.1-6 Luke 24.36b-48                  ©Suzanne Grimmett Every time I have this privilege of stepping up to the lectern and offering a sermon to this community, I do so aware that you will all come in a different place to when I saw you last. Things will have happened during the week that will have shaped you and the way you see the world. Something you have read may have sent you ever so slightly or maybe even dramatically in a new direction. The relationships which nurture your soul will … Read more

‘Fellowship in Christ’: A Sermon offered by Lauren Martin Second Easter (April 10 and 11) Acts 4.32-3 Psalm 133 1 John 1.1-2.2 John 20.19-31 My the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, our Lord and Redeemer. Amen Today I would like to invite you to help me conduct a little experiment. I would like to ask you to help me make some jewellery – this is no ordinary piece of jewellery, not physical jewellery, not tangible jewellery but something we can make – in our collective minds. Imagine we have just … Read more

Mark 16: 1-8 A sermon offered by The Reverend Ann Edwards Easter Sunday 2021 Today’s Gospel reading is, according to the earliest ancient authorities, the original end of The Gospel of Mark, a text that is now believed to be the earliest Gospel account.[1] And in those early times, The Gospel of Mark would have been written to be read aloud to a group. The Gospel was therefore heard communally, rather than read privately, likely in one sitting. We can imagine it to be a bit like a dramatic reading, and today’s text is the surprise ending. And for many, … Read more

Homily for the Easter Vigil Service Sunday 4 April 2021 This is the day                                                      ©Suzanne Grimmett This is the day when we gather to tell how God’s story has become our story. This is the story that stretches from the darkness before creation to the darkness of an enslaved peoples, to the darkness of the crucified body of God sealed in a tomb, to the darkness of our own greatest despair. This is the new day when we have courage to believe that the forces of death will never prevail over the power of love and life. Defeat and … Read more

Good Friday 2021 “What have we become?”                                                     ©Suzanne Grimmett We have stored the usual list of secrets, Of acres of guilt unforgiven, Of desires too rich to utter. Beyond that, we have a secret list of hurts, From ancient days with parents and siblings, From assorted bullies at playschool And in adult life; Some of us overly sensitive, All of us grown protective And capable of self-pity. Beyond that, we have a secret list of hopes, Some selfish and some noble, Hopes of new freedom and new reconciliation, Of new security and new recognition, Of doing well and being … Read more

John 13:1-17, 31b-35  A sermon offered by The Reverend Ann Edwards Maundy Thursday, 2021 During Jesus’s last supper, he stands to wash the feet of his friends.  The washing happens at an unexpected time – not before the meal, as was customary, but during it.  The Disciples were invited to the table as they were. They didn’t come spruced and completely clean. They arrived with tired and dusty feet from their journey. Invited to their Lord’s table, first, they were fed, and then the feet that carried them in their work were tended to by the one that led them.  We don’t approach the Lord’s table without blemish, there’s no requirement to … Read more

Trust the down                                                                    ©Suzanne Grimmett      If you could reach into yourself and remove all your fears- every single one- what would your life be like? How would you be different? Many have said that there are only really two emotions: love and fear. The others are secondary to these. In fact, it would be better to say that there is only love or fear, as you cannot feel these two simultaneously. “Perfect love drives out all fear,” we read in the first letter of John. As we enter these momentous days of Holy Week, we see clearly the forces … Read more

A sermon by The Reverend Ann Edwards 21 March 2021 5th Sunday of Lent John 12: 20-33 Do you have a favourite cross? The choices we make in the crosses we choose to wear, or to have on our walls, tell a story. The cross I wear is a vine within the shape of the timber – to me it is the sign of the life that is in Christ, that we are all grafted into and nourished by. The cross that we will mount on our wall outside here at St Andrew’s is constructed from substantial hardwood, a cross that … Read more

Fourth Sunday in Lent 13 March 2021 Numbers 21.4-9 Psalm 107.1-3, 17-22      Ephesians 2.1-10     John 3.14-21 When the poison is the cure                                                                 ©Suzanne Grimmett “Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”[1] So says Frederick Buechner, speaking words that suggest a life-giving way to orient ourselves as we make our … Read more

Sermon Lent 3 Year B Exodus 20:1-17 Psalm 19 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 John 2:13-22 7 March 2021 The Heavens are Telling the Glory of God                                                             © Jeni Nix Lord, make me a channel of your peace and grace. Amen.           Our Gospel today is one of those rare moments in Scripture where Jesus simply ‘lets fly’ with his response to what He sees. His holy rage and violent physical outburst must have been incredibly confronting for all who witnessed it; and yet we can’t imagine the horror Jesus might have felt when seeing his beloved Father’s house turned into … Read more