• Not drowning but thriving – sermon from 10 August 2014

     

    Turn your eyes upon Jesus
    Look full in his wonderful face
    And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
    In the light of his glory and grace

     

    When I was growing up – that’s exactly the kind of thing that I would have been singing on a Sunday morning.

    And it came to mind when I was starting to think about what to say about the gospel this morning.

    You see, the gospel reading that we have today tends to lead to sermons which represent that kind of mawkish sentimentality that suggests that Jesus will solve everything.

    I’ve found in life that Jesus doesn’t solve everything. If he did, the world would already be a very different place.

    I’ve learned that if Jesus does anything he calls us to build that better place not simply with him but with people of goodwill wherever we find them.

    Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

    That’s the thing about this passage – the evangelist lays on that sentiment with a trowel. Peter leaps out of the boat and starts to sink – only when he looks at Jesus is he safe. And thus, so many sermons will say – we need to fix our eyes on the saviour and all will be well.

    Well, I certainly think that Jesus can be a brilliant inspiration and I look on him as Saviour and Lord.

    But when I look at Jesus I find that he is looking at the world and asking me to gaze with compassion upon it with him. (more…)

2 responses to “I’d like a Featherlight Brexit and no-one is offering it”

  1. Meg Rosenfeld Avatar
    Meg Rosenfeld

    I’d help if I could, but I’m a Yank with worse problems than yours (I think–maybe not?)

  2. Eamonn Avatar

    It all depends on whether you think the referendum result was binding. Are we governed by referendum or by Parliament? Why was the Prime Minister’s speech yesterday not made in the first instance to Parliament? Why does David Davis appear to think (as reported in the press) that brexit will go ahead whatever Parliament decides? These questions are particularly relevant in the light of Teresa May’s entirely correct assertion that we are a country with firmly-grounded democratic institutions.

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