• Jesus – the Angry Religious Man

  09/03/2015

  Here’s what I said in the pulpit yesterday for Lent 3

  Sermon preached by Kelvin Holdsworth on 8 March 2015 from St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow on Vimeo.

  The door opened. That door at the back, with its annoying squeak. And I looked up and immediately I was afraid.

  I saw someone come in and knew that I needed to do something and do it quickly.

  I checked the clock and took off my headphones.

  Either I needed to shout at everyone to evacuate the building or I had to try to do something myself.

  I looked around and decided to walk forward and try to distract him and see what happened.

  We were about to do a Radio Broadcast. A live radio broadcast and the clock was, well, not ticking because things like that need to be silent when we are recording, but the clock was moving inexorably towards 8.10 and the moment when the red light would go on and I would say, “Good morning and welcome to St Mary’s Cathedral in the City of Glasgow, a city that is still in shock.”

  It was the day after the terrorist attack at Glasgow airport. Transport systems were in a mess. The airport was completely locked down and roads were closed all over the place. People couldn’t fly into Scotland. There was transport chaos and the police still didn’t know how many other people were at large who intended harm.

  And that door right there opened right before an advertised liver broadcast and someone unexpected came in. Someone whom I didn’t know.

  And in that instant I saw a stereotype walk into the cathedral. He was young and rather swarthy looking. I later discovered that he was indeed just back from Libya and he looked like it.

  A thin white scarf around him. Khaki camouflage clothes. And a backpack.

  It was the backpack that worried me most as I walked towards him.

  Hello I said, welcome to St Mary’s.

  These are the words that I use when I think someone is about to blow me and the cathedral up.

  Hello, welcome to St Mary’s.

  Hello, he said.

  There was a pause as I looked him up and down and he did the same to me.

  Do you mind telling me, I asked – do you mind telling me what’s in the backpack. (more…)

  cleansing of the temple, Jesus in the temple, Lent 3, Sermon, turning over the tables, Year B

Previous Posts

• Blogroll

  10/11/2010

  Have restored the list of blogs I read on the right hand sidebar. (Scroll down). Notable new entries are John McCluckie Alison Peden Malcolm Round All of them are producing quality blogging and all deserve to be added to your blog reader. Wish Malcolm allowed comments and that John’s blog had a comments rss feed.…

• New to St Mary’s

  09/11/2010

  Are you new to St Mary’s? (Or still feel new?) There’s a wee course of three Friday evenings just for you. See more details here. Let me know either through the office or some other way if you want to come. This week it is a guided tour, next week I’ll be talking about our…

• News of Bishops

  08/11/2010

  My goodness, you do need to keep up to date, don’t you. Last week we had the news that the Bishop of Edinburgh has set his retirement date for the Feast of the Assumption (ie 15 August) next year. Its all change for the diocese of Edinburgh as they’ve a new Dean too – the…

• Bonus Choral Evensong

  05/11/2010

  As a special reward for being holy, you are entitled to a special bonus Choral Evensong. This bonus Choral Evensong is being sung in St Mary’s at 4.30 pm on Saturday 6 November 2010 and is being offered by a bunch of musicians who like doing nothing better than singing for such a service. Conductor…