Listen to Moses, be ready to share
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 25 2016 Jeremiah 32.1-3a, 6-15; 1 Timothy 6.6-19; Luke 16.19-31 St Helen’s Church, Cockburnspath, Berwickshire When I was young, I liked to go to the cinema. I still do. As a boy, I liked to identify with the heroes in the films I watched and to hiss and boo the …
Lord God of guests
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 28 2016 Jeremiah 2.4-13; Hebrews 13.1-8, 15-16; Luke 14.1, 7-14 St Andrew’s Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem My sermon today is a tale of two hymns, one that we shall sing before communion, the other composed as a poem in 1897 by the British writer Rudyard Kipling. In that year, Queen …
Who is my neighbour?
8th Sunday after Pentecost, July 10 2016 Amos 7.7-17; Psalm 130 (CH4 87); Colossians 1.1-14; Luke 10.25-37 St Andrew’s Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem Who is my neighbour? When Amy-Jill Levine was a child, she wanted to be pope. “You can’t,” her mother told her. “You’re not Italian.” These days, that is no longer an insuperable …
If necessary, use words
7th Sunday after Pentecost, July 3 2016 2 Kings 5.1-14; Psalm 30.1-12; Galatians 6.1-16; Luke 10.1-11, 16-20 St Andrew’s Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem Great things sometimes happen when a congregation irritates its minister. Thirty years ago, in a small town in Maryland, twenty miles from the city of Baltimore, a mostly middle-class congregation did just …
Follow me
6th Sunday after Pentecost, June 26 2016 2 Kings 2.1-14; Psalm 77; Galatians 5.1, 13-25; Luke 9.51-62 St Andrew’s Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem “To share an island with the English is the lot the Almighty has assigned to the Scots and the Welsh.” This is how the late Ian Henderson begins his little book Scotland: Kirk …
Repent and forgive
4th Sunday after Pentecost, June 12 2016 1 Kings 21.1-21a; Psalm 1 (CH4 1); Galatians 2.15-21; Luke 7.36-8.3 St Andrew’s Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem At Tabeetha School in Jaffa, the pupils are busy preparing for exams next week. Or perhaps, as some of their teachers fear, they are just eating ice-cream on the beach. In …
The one who longs to make us whole
Third Sunday after Pentecost, June 5 2016 1 Kings 17.8-24; Psalm 146.1-10; Galatians 1.11-24; Luke 7.11-17 St Andrew’s Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen wie des Grases Blumen. Das Gras ist verdorret und die Blume abgefallen. This is not how I usually begin a sermon. But …
Proud towers which shall not reach to heaven
Pentecost, May 15 2016 Genesis 11.1-9; Acts 2.1-21; John 14.8-17, 25-27 St Andrew’s Scots Memorial, Jerusalem “Did you hear the gunfire?” Vivien asked me on Wednesday evening. It wasn’t gunfire, although it easily could have been. It was fireworks in the night, to celebrate Israel’s Day of Independence; but not everyone in the land or …
Out of sight
Ascension, May 8 2016 Acts 1.1-11; Psalm 93 (CH4 57); Ephesians 1.15-23; Luke 24.44-53 St Andrew’s Scots Memorial, Jerusalem The point of Christian faith, like the point of political commitment, is to take us out of ourselves and connect us to a larger purpose. But we are human, creatures of frail flesh and even frailer …
Tikkun olam
A sermon for the planet 1st Sunday after Christmas, December 27 2015 1 Samuel 2.18-26; Psalm 148; Colossians 3.12-17; Luke 2.41-52 St Andrew’s Scots Memorial, Jerusalem Two days ago, Jesus of Nazareth was born. Today, he is 12 – a rapid growth spurt, even for someone who is the saviour of the world. And when …