Sermons

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16 1 Timothy 6:6-19 Luke 16: 19-31 Heaven all the way to heaven                                      ©Suzanne Grimmett    George MacLeod was a Celtic prophet who sought in 20th century Scotland to live always the way of compassion. On the day of his death when word came to the Island of Iona, John Philip Newell describes the hour-long pealing of bells and the gathered community reading prayers MacLeod had written. The prayers concluded with this one; Be thou, triune God, in the midst of us as we give thanks for those who have gone from the sight of … Read more

SERMON Jeremiah 4.11-12, 4.22-28 Psalm 14 1 Timothy 1.1-2, 1.12-19a Luke 15.1-10 Sunday 11 September 2022                                     \     ©Suzanne Grimmett What shepherd would leave a hundred sheep and go in search of one? A very, very foolish one. Imagine if a wolf came for the others while the shepherd was off looking for the one? What woman would stop everything she is doing and clean and search her whole house for one coin? Well, either one with time on her hands or one who did not have so many coins that she could afford to lose one. So Jesus may say, … Read more

SERMON Luke 14.25-35 Sunday 4 September                                                           ©Suzanne Grimmett Turning and turning in the widening gyre    The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere    The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst    Are full of passionate intensity.    This is a portion of a famous poem of William Butler Yeats called The Second Coming which was written after World I…which explains the despairing tone and its imagery of a blood-dimmed tide and a loss … Read more

Luke 14.1, 14.7-1 Sunday 28 August 2022 Laugh and shame the devil                                               ©Suzanne Grimmett “That’s right, little one….I like what you’ve done” You see these words spoken over a child by their parents and you will see a little boy or girl glowing under the affirmation. I saw plenty of these kinds of affirming encouragements spoken by parents yesterday at the Funfest as they learnt woodworking skills with the Men’s Shed or sculpted a truck or shaped a flower arrangement.  I loved the party atmosphere and the unconditional welcome extended by our community here and the joy we had in … Read more

SERMON Psalm 71.1-6 Hebrews 12.18-29 Luke 13.10-17 Sunday 21 August                 Standing tall                                     ©Suzanne Grimmett “To you, Lord, have I come for shelter: let me never be put to shame” I love this cry we hear in the Psalms because we can recognise it as a deep cry from our own hearts. Shame is something that has the toxic capacity to cripple us and rob us of life. The highly popular research work of Brené Brown into the subject offers this definition; “Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love, … Read more

SERMON Luke 12.49-59 Sunday 14 August 2022                                                    ©Suzanne Grimmett James was a 28-year-old trainee paramedic when he was killed with a single punch to the head by a 19-year-old man named Jacob. James’ mother, Joan had to walk the hard road of terrible grief and deal with her own anger at this young man who had taken her son’s life and yet received a very short prison sentence. With the help of counsellors and victim support, Joan decided to pursue the answers to her questions by making contact with Jacob, the man who had killed her son, via … Read more

©Suzanne Grimmett Ninth Sunday after Pentecost Isaiah 1.1, 1.10-20  Psalm 50.1-8, 50.23-24 Hebrews 11.1-3, 8-16 Luke 12.32-30 When you die, I wonder if someone will write on your tombstone, “A person of faith”? Does such a question make you anxious? Or would you even want to be remembered in such a way? How you react to that proposal will reveal a lot about your interpretation of that little and powerful word, “faith.” I was asked by someone in Scotland who heard I was a priest if my priesthood was religious or humanist? To me that was a question of where … Read more

Hosea 11.1-11 Psalm 85 Colossians 3.1-11 Luke 12.13-21                             ©Suzanne Grimmett Bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and all who live in it languish; Together with the wild animals And the birds of the air, Even the fish of the sea are perishing. (Hosea 4:3-4) These are words from earlier in the book of the prophet Hosea which speak of the rupture of relationship of the people of Israel and the ties which hold together the life and health of the earth, its people, and their connection to the oneness of creation and creator.  We see too much … Read more

Sunday July 10 Amos 7.7-17, Psalm 82, Colossians 1.1-14, Luke 10.25-37 Richard Browning If you want to hand over the entire truth, placing in the other’s the ‘whole thing’, even though it may well take years or a lifetime to make sense of what is right in front of them, you tell a story. The shortest bridge to sharing truth is story. And today we encounter Jesus the master storyteller. Maybe the entire Gospel is hidden in what we call the Parable of the Good Samaritan. For nearly 25 five years I have been carefully spreading a rumour. It goes … Read more

2 Kings 5.1-14 Psalm 30 Galatians 6.7-18 Luke 10.1-12, 10.17-24 A viral pandemic of peace                                                  ©Suzanne Grimmett What does the word peace mean to you? Jesus tells us he comes to bring peace, and the disciples sent out are to offer peace to those whose house they enter. In the West we tend to think of peace as an absence of conflict. But is that really what Jesus is saying here? Is he saying, “I give to you a time where there is no fighting and no violence.” Are the disciples to enter houses with a presence that meant there … Read more

2nd Sunday after Pentecost 1 Kings 19.1-15 Psalm 42 Galatians 3.10-14, 23-29 Luke 8.26-39 19 June 2022 The joy of not being God                                                              ©Suzanne Grimmett “It’s not necessary that you believe in God. What’s necessary is that you know you are not God.” This is a quote from an unknown pastor to an Alcoholics Anonymous group. It strikes me as a powerful and foundational statement, deceptive in its simplicity. So much so that I was tempted to simply sit down again after delivering it, but I probably do need to trace the connections to this morning’s readings, and why I … Read more

Trinity Sunday Proverbs 8.1-4, 22-31 Psalm 8 Romans 5:1-5 John 16.12-15 12 July 2022 The dance of life                                                                ©Suzanne Grimmett “Now what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.” These words of the character, Thomas Gradgrind are among the most famous of literary first lines.  It is from Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, a satirical masterpiece about the evils of utilitarian philosophies which based moral choices around the greatest good for the greatest number, using so called statistics and averages to determine … Read more