Sermons

Lent 3 – a sermon preached by the Vice-Provost

Sunday 11th March, 2012

Readings: Exodus 20:1-17; John 2:13-22.  Last time I was in this pulpit I spoke about pomposity. This time I want to talk about misery. Going from bad to worse, you must be thinking. But first the story we’ve just heard – the Cleansing of the Temple, as it’s often called.  By now – the Third Sunday in Lent – we’ve heard three dramatic milestones in the life of Jesus. On the First Sunday, there was the story of his temptation in the wilderness, of how at the very beginning of his public calling he went through a test of unimaginable psychological intensity, which gave him the determination and vision for all that was to come. Last Sunday, the Second Sunday in Lent, we heard the story of his Transfiguration on the mountain, of how heaven came to earth ever so briefly. Again, it prepared him for what was to come, … Continue reading →

Quinquagesima – a sermon preached by the Revd Dr Paul Foster

Sunday 19th February, 2012

Mark 2.1-11; Isa 43.18-25 Why is Jesus such a poor physician? In terms of diagnostic skills the BMA would consider him to be a liability. The best miraculous healer of his day sees a paralytic man come to his public surgery in Capernaum, a man who is lowered from the roof because he could not walk through the door and all Jesus says is ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ While the four friends that dug through the mud roof get ten out of ten for ingenuity in queue jumping, Jesus surely scores very low on the scale of rapid response and compassion. What do you think, maybe a three out of ten for some nice words but no action? However, I wonder if we have been too generous in our scoring? Is Jesus in fact being worse than simply revealing that he is an incompetent medic? Is he using the … Continue reading →

Sexagesima – a sermon preached by the Vice-Provost

Sunday 12th February, 2012

“If you choose, you can make me clean”, says the leper in the Gospel reading (Mark 1.40-45). One of the most direct, no-nonsense, and most humble prayers in the Bible. Naaman, on the other hand, in the OT reading (2 Kings 5.1-14), doesn’t compare well. Naaman also suffers with leprosy, and he’s also desperate for a cure, but he goes to the King of Israel first, with fabulous gifts. Of course the king doesn’t have a cure, so Naaman is sent on to the prophet Elisha’s little house. He rumbles up with his train of horses and chariots and demands to see the prophet. Only, the prophet won’t come out; Naaman gets Elisha’s servant instead, who tells him to do something so simple that Naaman feels insulted – wash in the local river 7 times. Naaman storms off in a pompous rage, and it takes some straight talking from one … Continue reading →

The Baptism of Christ – a sermon preached by the Vice-Provost

Sunday 8th January, 2012

Now that the 12 days of Christmas are over we enter a new phase in the Church’s calendar, Epiphany. The star of Bethlehem, the sign of the newborn King, stops over a stable and leads the wise men to their own rather private moment of Epiphany, the realisation that God’s glory has come to earth, far from king’s palaces and the great and the good. And today we heard the story of the Baptism of Jesus, one of the foremost moments of Epiphany in the Gospels: foremost because it’s the most public moment. Continue reading →

Christmas morning – a sermon preached by the Vice-Provost

Sunday 25th December, 2011

“We’re all in this together”, said the Chancellor George Osborne over and over again in his speech to the Conservative Party Conference in 2009, as he introduced his ideas for one severe cut in public spending after another. If we experience financial difficulty now – and some have lost their pensions, homes, jobs – if times are hard, then is it a comfort to know that, “We’re all in this together”? Probably not, but I don’t think Mr Osborne meant it as comfort. More a stark reminder of shared liability and shared suffering to come.

But now, gathered around this symbolic manger, imagining in our mind’s eye Christ the newborn King, shared liability and shared suffering are far from our thoughts. Now we’re basking in the newborn King’s glow, and in the joy of the angels, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and even the animals. From the highest to the lowest, “We’re all in this together”.
Continue reading →

Advent 3 – a sermon preached by the Vice-Provost

Sunday 11th December, 2011

It’s traditional in an Advent sermon to say it’s a season of waiting, and of hope. Quite so. It is. For must of us, it’s waiting for Christmas to be truly realised. It’s hope that Christmas will be as exciting and wonderful as when we were children. Only it never is quite as exciting. Which ought to make us realise that really, the hope and waiting of Advent is for something altogether more fulfilling and altogether more earth-shattering. Continue reading →

Advent 2 – a sermon preached by the Revd Dr Paul Foster

Sunday 4th December, 2011

Today is an occasion of great joy for us as a cathedral community, for this day, through baptism, we welcome William Petrick into the family of faith. Yet this, I suspect, is not the only reason for great rejoicing in the cathedral this morning. When the Provost informed me last week that there would be a baptism this Sunday, he also gave me the following instruction – keep the sermon to seven minutes. Continue reading →

Christ the King – A sermon preached by the Vice-Provost

Sunday 20th November, 2011

So, the privilege has fallen to me to give you my thoughts on this, the crowning Sunday of the church year, on the reason why Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords, across all times and all places. If I should find that privilege humbling, and I do, then it’s no less humbling than trying to face the challenge of that Gospel reading we just heard, probably the most anxiety-inducing story in the entire Bible. Continue reading →