Sermon preached by the Rev Linda Green on Sunday 23rd November 2008:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.” (Matthew 25:31)
On the occasion of her 21st birthday, Princess Elizabeth (as she then was) broadcast a message to her people, dedicating herself to their service. Some seven years later, after she succeeded to the throne on the untimely death of her father, King George VI, she renewed those vows formally in the oaths which she took at her coronation in Westminster Abbey in June 1953. At the time my dad was working in an advertising agency in Park lane, with offices overlooking Hyde Park. So I was there waving my Union Jack from his office window and watching the Gold coach pass by… This was one of my very earliest memories I was really, really tiny!!!! I remember the sense of occasion, celebration and pomp and ceremony.
click link for full text: Christ the King
Sermon preached by the Rev Tim Stead on Sunday 9th November 2008:
The word remembrance is an important one. I’d like to explore it for a moment. In the Judeo-Christian tradition of worship (from which the word came)
- It means more than simply calling to mind a past event.
- It means something more like: making present a past reality for the purpose of benefiting from it today.In the Christian communion service, the word is used to encourage us to make present in our midst, the life and death of Jesus – so that we might be inspired and encouraged to more holy and wholesome ways of living.
click link for full text: Remembrance Day
Sermon preached by the Rev Dr Hugh Houghton on Sunday 2nd November:
All Saints
Revelation 7:9-17; Matthew 5:1-12
May I speak in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The beginning of the twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run
with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer
and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right
hand of the throne of God.
For me, the feast of All Saints is summed up in that phrase “a cloud of
witnesses”. It’s not dissimilar to the vision we heard in today’s first reading
from the Book of Revelation, of “a great multitude that no one could count,
from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before
the throne” of God. When I was younger, I assumed that All Saints was a
feast of convenience: once the Church had proclaimed more than 365 people
as saints, there wouldn’t be enough saint’s days left to go round, so everyone
else would have to make do with being lumped together on 1st November…!
(Of course, I now know that saints are commemorated on the day of their
death, so there never was a council of clergy sitting there discussing whether
St John the Evangelist would be OK on 27th December or whether he’d prefer
some time in May, so as not to clash with Christmas.)
click link for full text: All Saints sermon
