Here is this morning’s sermon:

It is quite difficult to get our minds inside the kind of readings that we get at this time of the year in church. We tend to get readings (and this will go on for a week or two) which emphasis quite tricky topics. In particular, we get lots of readings about the end of the world.

I think this is difficult for most of us to make much of because we don’t live in a culture where there is much expectation of the end of the world. Yet such cultures do exist. I preached a couple of weeks ago about being caught in a whirlwind of a sandstorm once in the Middle East. Once I’d got over the surprise of being caught in such storm, I had to come to terms with the fact that very many of the local people had believed that its severity had heralded the end of the world. Both Christians and Muslims were asking whether it was indeed the latter day. Indeed, in one instance I was aware of them discussing the question together – Muslims and Christians asking one another, what does your Holy Book say? Is this it? Is this the start of the end of all things? [Read more…]