Recent Sermons

Stanley Spencer, The Resurrection, Cookham (1924–1927) As we continue to prepare for our renovation, I am feeling a sense of longing for this building. I realize that soon I will walk out of here and demolition will begin. What has been my refuge and place of worship for sixteen years is going to change. I am excited, yes, but there is a sadness with every change for this building we know so well will never be what we know right now. Someone was visiting last week who had bee

May the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. + Normally, I would have started this sermon by saying that we are settling into the long season of Trinitytide, and that this season affords us the opportunity for growth, marked by the liturgical color of green. But this year is different. In a month's time we will be packing up this church, having serv

And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the high-ways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. + In his hymns on paradise from the middle of the fourth century, Saint Ephrem the Syrian wrote about the new heavens and the new earth in verses that are loaded with symbolic imagery. Drawing on hints from the book of Revelation about the monthly yield of trees in the new Jerusalem, Ephrem describes paradise as a place of perpetual and accelerat

Today’s Gospel—the story of Lazarus and the rich man—embodies three sweeping biblical themes. The first is the reversal of fortunes. As we say during Evening Prayer, “He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away.” A second and related theme is the danger of wealth. The Bible never teaches that wealth is, in and of itself, bad — but it is always dangerous. The