Why Candlemas is an.enlightening feast.
Monday, February 02, 2026
Sunday, February 01, 2026
Liking the Kingdom of Heaven
Sermon for Septuagesima
"The Kingdom of Heaven is like..."
Our Lord says these words
several times,
but He usually goes on
to compare the Kingdom of Heaven
to something that doesn't
seem to make sense.
The Kingdom.of Heaven
is like workers working in a vineyard.
But it's also like a grain of mustard seed.
It's like leaven in bread dough,
treasure in a field,
a merchant man seeking goodly pearls,
a net cast into the sea,
a householder with treasures old and new,
and a marriage for the King's son.
Eight times Our Lord
tells us what
the Kingdom of God
is like
and all only in
St Matthew's Gospel.
We hear Our Lord
describe a situation
in a parable
nut leaves us looking
for where the Kingdom of Heaven
actually is.
Look at this parable
of the vineyard,
we see the labourers
some come at the beginning
of the day
agree a fair price
and start work.
We see some labourers
coming in the middle of the day
even at the eleventh hour
and getting the same wages.
This is what
the Kingdom of God is like,
but it's a struggle to see
where it is.
[PAUSE]
We can see the King,
that's clearly the owner
of the vineyard.
But who are his subjects?
The labourers?
Does that mean
that the Kingdom.of Heaven
contains people
who are invited in
to do some work
for wages?
Does that mean
that the Kingdom of Heaven
contains people
who complain about
how much they are being paid?
That doesn't ring true
with the idea of
the Kingdom of Heaven
being a place of everlasting joy.
In this parable,
we see the king
but where are his subjects?
[PAUSE]
Perhaps we're looking
at the wrong thing.
We have an idea
of there being eternal joy
and bliss
in the Kingdom of Heaven,
but perhaps
in these eight parables,
these eight ways of saying
what the Kingdom of God is like
we aren't actually looking at it
like a place on a map.
We aren't looking about
who is the king
and where is his castle
and what the Lord Chamberlain
had for breakfast.
Perhaps these parables
are more about
how Our Lord
governs His Kingdom.
[PAUSE]
This makes sense
for this parable of the vineyard.
The focus is not
on the labourers
it's on the fact that
the Owner gives
the same fair wage
to those who came late.
It's about his fairness
(no one gets diddled)
and his generosity
(he can use his money how he likes).
This is what we can expect
the Kingdom of Heaven
to be like.
The generosity of God
is so great
that it is scandalous
to those
who have a worldly way
of thinking.
The invitation for us
to enter Kingdom is there
and our work for that Kingdom
will not go unrewarded.
It is interesting to note
that only those
who complain about their wage
get told to go their way.
In refusing to see generosity
and accepting that
this is the way things are,
they find themselves
out if the vineyard
with their wage
but none of the appreciation
of the Owner's willingness
to give good things.
[PAUSE]
God shows us
how He rules His kingdom.
He shows us the terms
that we can expect
and the price of entry,
but also how warm it is,
how full of love and joy.
We accept it
on His terms,
not ours.
He is King
after all,
and Who is like Him?
Monday, January 26, 2026
Sunday, January 25, 2026
Conversion Contradicted
Sermon for the feast of the Conversion of St Paul
There are those
who read the bible
looking for any excuse
to find contradictions.
The story of St Paul's conversion
is mentioned three times
in the book of Acts
but they are not all the same.
The conversion is related
by St Luke as part of the narrative
in chapter 9
and then twice more
in chapters 22 and 26
as St Paul tells the story to others.
People tend to focus on
the fact that these accounts differ.
There is some inconsistency
about whether everyone ses the light
or hears the voice,
or whether everyone falls down.
If you read these accounts
for yourselves,
you might come away
not really knowing
how those travelling with St Paul
bear witness to what happened.
But does something happen,
or is it all in St Paul's head
- a result of a seizure,
or a stroke,
or an hallucination?
[PAUSE]
First,
we can be sure that
something is happening.
Before Damascus,
Saul is breathing out
fire and threatenings
against Christians.
In Damascus,
Saul becomes Paul
and seeks to serve
the One whom he persecutes.
In many ways,
the evidence of St Paul's ministry
speaks for itself.
You know his letters.
They are reasoned,
passionate,
compassionate,
intelligent,
spiritual
and full of the praise of God.
That's evidence enough
that something is happening
on the Road to Damascus.
Second,
those around St Paul,
are affected.
St Paul himself may not be
fully aware of what others are seeing
but then, he is rather more concerned
with the Voice calling him out
for persecuting the King of Heaven.
In the confusion,
some of the others may see the light
some may hear the voice,
some may understand the voice,
some may have fallen down.
It depends who you ask!
And in the confusion
not all may experience
exactly the same thing.
What matters
is that the event is about
one man's conversion,
one man's redemptiom
and one man's shame being turned
to his praise.
This is his experience
and that experience
can be supported
by those who were there
and by those who owe
their coming to faith
by the persecutor
turned apostle.
[PAUSE]
And the conversion
still has an affect on us,
twenty centuries later.
We have to reconcile
the persecutor with the apostle.
We have to reconcile the man
rejoicing in the death
of St Stephen
with the man rejoicing
in the strength of the Church
as the executioner
ends his life.
They are the same man.
And it shows why
we must love those
who persecute us.
We can't hate Saul,
because then we hate Paul.
How can we hate Paul
even when he is Saul?
To see him
before his conversion
is to see ourselves
before ours.
We have to start
somewhere.
The Christians that Saul kills
are those Christians
who welcome him into heaven
with cries of joy
and warmth and love.
That's how we need to be:
loving our enemies,
accepting persecution with joy!
This attitude makes us
contradictions in this world
but perfect sense in heaven.
This attitude
helps Sauls become Pauls
and allows Heaven to ring with joy
over each repentant sinner.
And if Sauls become Pauls
then the Christian faith
is enriched upon the earth
allowing
for more conversions
from contradictions.
Monday, January 19, 2026
Sunday, January 18, 2026
Witnessing Epiphany
Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine on the Second Sunday after the Epiphany
If the Wedding at Cana
is Our Lord's first miracle,
why is it only St John
who records it in his gospel?
Why is it not mentioned
by Matthew, Mark or Luke?
This is clearly
an important miracle -
so important
that we remember it
as the only miracle
Our Lord performs
at the Feast of the Epiphany -
and yet,
only John records it.
Why?
[PAUSE]
Let's look at this
from a slightly different angle.
Who is invited to this wedding?
Well,
first we are told
that the mother of Jesus is there.
It isn't Jesus first.
For this reason,
we could say that
perhaps
Our Lady was known
to the couple getting married.
This would make sense
as it is on the strength
of her invitation
that Our Lord is invited.
And because He is invited,
so are His disciples.
His disciples?
He has disciples
before He performs
miracles?
Which ones?
[PAUSE]
It's there in the Gospels.
St Matthew says that
before He starts ministering
in Galilee,
Our Lord already has
Peter, Andrew, James and John
with Him.
St Matthew won't become a disciple
until Our Lord's ministry
is well-established.
So we see a reason
why St Matthew
doesn't record the Wedding at Cana.
St Luke and St Mark
are not apostles,
so they aren't there either
and, while
they get their information
from St Peter and Our Lady
they clearly do not receive
the eyewitness testimony
of the Wedding at Cana.
But St John is there.
St John sees
and St John tells us.
St John
is an eyewitness
to the Wedding at Cana.
Who are the other witnesses
to the Epiphany?
[PAUSE]
Our Lady sees the Magi,
and she must be the one who tells
St Matthew.
St John Baptist
is a witness to the Baptism of Our Lord
and all the Gospel writers
mention it
though only
St John and St Luke
go into detail about it.
So,
of all the Gospel writers,
the only one
who has a direct link
to the Epiphany
is St John.
And this is quite remarkable.
[PAUSE]
St John sees Our Lord
as his best friend
and His True God.
While the other Gospel writers
are completwly faithful to their sources
such as St Peter, St Andrew
and Our Lady,
only St John's Gospel
Is written
in that space where
God and Man
can be seen to meet.
In St John's Gospel,
the Baptism of Our Lord
is immediately joined
with the Wedding at Cana.
Why?
Because what St John shows us
is the nature of the sacraments
which bind us to God.
The Baptism of Our Lord
is linked inextricably
with our baptism.
His presence at a wedding
sanctifies that wedding
giving grace to
our human relationships
and enriching our earthly life.
And, later on,
there is one more miracle
performed by Our Lord
that is so unique
that it is the only miracle
mentioned in all four gospels.
Just one.
The feeding of the 5000
which St John
directly links
with the Holy Eucharist.
[PAUSE]
Of course the other Gospels
are in their own ways
uniquely important
in telling us the same good news.
All four are equally authoritative
and give the truth about Our Saviour,
but each one has an emphasis
that gives us a view
of Who Our Lord Is.
[PAUSE]
Only St John tells us about Cana,
because St John
is the one who speaks
of his experience
in touching the Divine.
He shows us Cana
as something
which nourishes us
as we feel the sweet wine
trickling down our throats
and gladdening our hearts.
And He shows us
that this wine that Jesus gives us
is ours at our asking
for Eternity.
No disrespect
to the other Evangelists,
but only St John can show us that.
But what he shows us
is that we can believe
his testimony is true.
And his testimony
backs up
the testimony
of the other Evangelists.
Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John
aren't recording stories,
they are recording history
and they are recording truth
about Our Lord's Epiphany.
Not just the Epiphany
of Magi, Jordan and Cana,
but the full Epiphany
of the whole Incarnation
of God-made-Man.
This is the truth
and we believe it
and, as a result,
the gates of Heaven
are wide open for us
as we continue in the truth
of the same Epiphany of Christ.
Monday, January 12, 2026
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