Genocide and grace
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12–14; 2:18–23; Psalm 49 (sung); Luke 12:13-21 Church of Scotland, Geneva, Auditoire de Calvin, August 3 2025 “We called the report Our Genocide because that’s exactly what it is. It is genocide against humans who live here, carried out by humans who live here.”[1] So says Yuli Novak, director …
Ask, seek, knock
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Genesis 18:17–32; Psalm 138 (sung); Luke 11:1–13 Church of Scotland, Geneva, Auditoire de Calvin, July 27 2025 “You can’t put a price on a child’s laughter.” That’s how the commercial starts. I like to listen to music on Spotify: anything from Bach to the Beatles, Genevan Psalms to Joan Baez, Judy …
The better part
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost Genesis 18: 1–14a; Psalm 15 (sung); Colossians 1: 15–28; Luke 10:38–42 Church of Scotland, Geneva, Auditoire de Calvin, July 20 2025 The Church of Scotland has always ordained women as elders and ministers. Margaret Knox, the young second wife of the more famous John Knox, was one of the first women …
Jobbing preachers
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Isaiah 66:10–13; Psalm 66:1–9 (sung); Galatians 6:2–5, 7–11, 14–16; Luke 10:1–11, 16–20 Church of Scotland, Geneva, Auditoire de Calvin, June 29 2025 I started last week by putting on our website the five sermons preached here in June by Graham, Ewart, Mark, and myself. To head the webpage, we found a …
Together on the way
Third Sunday after Pentecost 1 Kings 19:15–16, 19–21; Psalm 16 (sung); Galatians 5:1, 5-6, 13–18, 22-26; Luke 9:51 –62 Church of Scotland, Geneva, Auditoire de Calvin, June 29 2025 Today, Jesus of Nazareth sets out on his final journey to Jerusalem. There, he will be welcomed by enthusiastic crowds waving palms, arrested by the Temple …
Casting out demons
Second Sunday after Pentecost Isaiah 65:1–9; Psalm 42 (sung); Luke 8:26–39 Church of Scotland, Geneva, Auditoire de Calvin, June 22 2025 It is unusual for a national church to make a confession of national guilt. But this is what the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) did in 1945. Eleven church leaders met with representatives of …
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 …