A man had two sons

Fourth Sunday in Lent 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Psalm 32:1-8; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 Church of Scotland, Geneva, Auditoire de Calvin, March 30 2025 Twenty years ago, the Church of Scotland published the fourth edition of our church hymnary, known to most of us as CH4. Thanks to what has been called a “hymn explosion” – the …

Like a hen?

Second Sunday in Lent Genesis 15:1–12, 17–18; Luke 13:31–35 Church of Scotland, Geneva, Auditoire de Calvin, March 16 2025 The story our Bibles tell is like a Russian doll. A Russian doll isn’t just one doll, but a set of dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another. In the same way, our Bible story …

Coming down the mountain

Transfiguration Sunday Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 27; Luke 9:28-43a St Andrew’s Scots Kirk, Colombo, March 2 2025 Jesus took James and John and Peter high upon a mountain, they saw him wrapped in shining light, and their hearts were filled with wonder. Strange things happen on high mountains in the stories our Bibles tell. On Mount …

Ask what I should give you

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14; Psalm 111.1-10; Ephesians 5.15-20; John 6.51-58 St Andrew’s Scots Kirk, Colombo, August 18 2024 It’s good to be back! As some of you may remember, I was here in February with five others from the Church of Scotland congregation in Geneva, Switzerland, to look at your life …

The Easter mystery

Third Sunday of Easter Acts 2.44-47; Psalm 34 (CH4 27); 1 John 3.1-3; Luke 24.36b-48 Church of Scotland, Geneva, Auditoire de Calvin, April 14 2024 As a boy growing up in Catholic Ireland, I was always puzzled when teachers or priests, nuns or Christian Brothers, spoke about the mysteries of our faith. It took me …

All his meals, all of ours

Holy Thursday, March 28 2024 1 Corinthians 5.7b-8; John 13:1–17, 31b–35 Scots Kirk, Lausanne On the side of a hill, on the shore of a lake, in the home of an outcast, at the end of a journey, Jesus in food and drink offered to his followers fellowship with himself and a foretaste of the …

A life of forgiveness and repentance

First Sunday in Lent Genesis 9.8-17, Mark 1.9-15 St Andrew’s Scots Kirk, Colombo, February 18 2024 Our Christian faith can be summed up in three simple sentences: In practice, of course, it is never so simple. God’s love may be perfect. Our love is not. We are not the human beings God would like us …

The good news of Jesus Christ

Second Sunday of Advent Isaiah 40.1-11; Psalm 85.1-2, 8-13; 2 Peter 3.8-15a;  Mark 1.1-8 Church of Scotland, Geneva, Auditoire de Calvin, December 10 2023 In the fifth century, Patrick brought the gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ – to Ireland, before there was Ireland. A century later, Columba and his Irish monks brought …

Christ comes many times

Advent Sunday Isaiah 64.1-9; Psalm 80.1-7, 17-19; Mark 13.24-37 Scots Kirk, Paris, December 3 2023 Advent means coming, and Christ comes many times. * In the book of Isaiah, we read: “We have all become like one who is unclean,and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy clothWe all fade like a leaf,and our …

We are God’s people, by God’s grace

Homily at Cursillo #76 team-commissioning service Holy Trinity, Geneva, October 30 2023 I am the church! You are the church! We are the church together! All who follow Jesus, all around the world, yes, we’re the church together! A favourite children’s hymn in the Church of Scotland, Geneva and perhaps in some of your congregations …