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 …
Why are we here?
St Andrew’s Day sermon, November 30 2015 Isaiah 55, Psalm 9.7-11, John 12.20-36 St Andrew’s Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem Barbara Trapido’s first novel, published in 1982, was called Brother of the More Famous Jack, a book that redefined the coming-of-age novel.[1] My next St Andrew’s Day sermon will be called Brother of the More Famous …
God shows no partiality
15th after Pentecost, September 6 2015 Proverbs 22.1-9, 22-23;; James 2.1-17; Mark 7.24-37 Rev Páraic Réamonn, Church of Scotland Last Tuesday, Tabeetha School in Jaffa opened for the first day of the new school year. On Wednesday it closed again. Those of you who’ve been following the Israeli media more closely than most will know …
On a very fertile hill
May 11 2015 At the end of April, I caught a train from Edinburgh to Forres to visit congregations in the Presbytery of Moray and to speak to the presbytery on May 5 – my wife Vivien’s birthday, as it happens. Below is the sermon I preached in St Laurence Church, Forres, on May 3. …
A hand and a name
January 29 2015 I first visited Jerusalem in March 1992. I’d just become convener of the Middle East and North Africa committee of the Board of World Mission and Unity, not long before the Kirk divided the board – an irony that seemed lost on most people – and as a reward I had been …
Who´s that knocking on my window?
Christmas Day, December 25 2014 Isaiah 52.7-10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1.1-12; John 1.1-14 St Andrew’s Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem How are we to understand ourselves and our world? What story can we tell to make sense of it all? Well, there is, to begin with, the secular story we tell ourselves, using the sciences and …