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Dealing with Sundays like this

24 July 2011 By 1 Comment

This was one of those weekends when the sound of preachers ripping up their previously prepared sermons could be heard across the land.

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes you just can’t get into the pulpit with what you have previously prepared, for the world has moved on. Everything has changed and something needs to be dealt with.

The classic example of that was the Sunday morning when everyone woke to discover that Diana, Princess of Wales had been killed overnight.

It happened to me in a more local way when the terrorist attack on Glasgow airport took place on a Saturday afternoon just before we were due to do a Radio 4 Broadcast service on the Sunday morning. Ten revisions of the script later, I preached one of the best sermons I’ve ever done and St Mary’s seemed to say something that was of national significance at a very tense time. The service was an object lesson in why worship needs to be done live on the radio and not pre-recorded.

That came over to me very strongly again this morning when the Radio 4 service was from the Keswick Convention. Though they got someone in to do a live prayer and head it up at the beginning, there was no hiding the fact that the service that had been recorded on Tuesday was intended to be heard in a different world to the one that pertains today.

There has been such a run of horrible news. The corruption that the press scandals have revealed, prominant figures dying, the extremely serious nature of the European and World economic stresses and then these terrible attacks in Norway have combined to produce a time when people are asking profound questions and looking for ways to think about our place in what feels like an utterly broken world.

Having to deal with days like today is part of what churches and religious people do. It is part of what we offer to the world. We can do it best, I suspect, when we have the full range of experiences of Holy Week in our spiritual repertoire.

Today, the congregation listened with rapt attention to the reading from the epistle, Paul’s incredible assertion of the power of the love of God in all circumstances.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,
‘For your sake we are being killed all day long;
   we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able
to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Similarly, after the sermon, the place fell quiet and we sank into an unusually deep silence.

As it happened it was Cedric who was preaching this morning, who preached an excellent sermon (available below).

Some weeks one preaches for laughs. Sometimes one preaches to beguile. Sometimes to educate, ellucidate or entertain. And sometimes you preach because it feels as though life itself depends on it.

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Vocational Preaching

29 June 2011 By Leave a Comment

Many blessings upon the Rev Cedric Blakey, the Cathedral’s Vice Provost whom I still think of as my new colleague, even though he has been here since the start of December. It is Cedric’s anniversary of priesting today, St Peter’s Day. Many congratuations to him on the anniversary.

He was preaching about it on Sunday and it is a sermon worth hearing again if you were there, or listening to if you didn’t catch it the first time.

I think that often, the kind of preaching that is the most enjoyable and fruitful, is preaching where the stories and images that relate to the preacher intermingle with both the stories and images of the biblical text in question and also those of the community amongst whom the sermon is preached. It takes a little while to find those images when you move to a new congregation. However, I got a sense of that happening, when Cedric was preaching last Sunday.

So, blessings upon Cedric today. I’m delighted he is here and I know that members of St Mary’s are appreciating his ministry hugely. One of the best blessings you can give a priest is to listen to their preaching and engage with it from your own place and think about it in the context of your own stories and images.

So, here’s last Sunday’s sermon.

Take a listen and have a ponder yourself.

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Triduum #3 – The Three Hours

22 April 2011 By Leave a Comment

St Mary’s is actually the first church that I’ve worked in which has had the tradition of three hour devotions on Good Friday, so I know well enough that its not the only thing to do on Good Friday. However, its a very particular devotion and one that I’ve grown to love. Indeed, its hard to imagine not keeping it.

The idea is that the church marks the time between 12 and 3 pm on Good Friday – the time at which Jesus was on the cross.

Here in Glasgow, the time is usually spent with readings from the Passion, preaching, music for meditation and above all silence. I’m usually amazed at how the time passes and like quite a lot of people, I’m always there for the whole thing. However, some come and go. Its always a hard thing to judge how many people come to church for this part of the triduum because of the coming and going.

The music tends to be solemn and beautiful. I often don’t know until the last minute quite what it will be. The default position is organ music for meditation but usually there are other offerings from Cathedral musicians, some of them stepping forward in Holy Week itself to volunteer something for this service.

The preaching is thoughtful, calm and measured today. Sometimes one person preaches the whole thing and sometimes (like today) its shared. I’ve done the whole thing a couple of times and its a marathon. Those who are more disciplined than I am write an address each week during Lent so that by the time Holy Week comes around all is more or less ready.

The tradition is seven sermons during the three hours. If its one voice, its a real test of a preacher to keep people focused and involved by the end. Sometimes people base it on the seven last words from the cross – the things that Jesus actually said on the cross that are recorded in the gospels. Sometimes its simply preaching on the Passion texts. (That’s what we’re doing today). I’ve known other schemes though too. I’ve heard a whole three hours devoted to the senses – including a wonderful sermon on the smell at the cross. I’ve also heard it done by preaching in the voice of the different participants – Peter, Mary, Pilate, the Centurian and so on.

Sometimes in St Mary’s the Cathedral Choir sing a service at night. If not, like today, when the St Mary’s Chorale is singing in the evening then the choir come for the last hour of the three.

The devotion ends with the singing of the Reproaches – a strange text which captures the bewilderment of the crucified one. “O My people, My people what have I done to you, how have I offended you answer me!” These are not words that Jesus said from the cross at all but an attempt to get inside his experience and to sing something from his perspective on what has happened. They describe the various ways in which God tried to save people in the Old Testament only to be rejected and spurned and see the cross as a continuation of that experience.

Its a long devotion. Its a worthy devotion. Its a holy devotion. And it is worth keeping well.

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Jazz Mass Sermon

30 June 2009 By 7 Comments

Here is the sermon that I preached at the Jazz Mass on Sunday. It is preceded by a fanfare organ improvisation from Frikki Walker, to get me up into the pulpit, which if I'm not mistaken was based on a song from Michael Jackson's Bad album.

Here is the text:

Can I say how wonderful it is to have jazz in church today. We don’t do this kind of thing often enough. I know of a number of American churches which have built up a special ministry, scheduling jazz vespers several times a year and reaching out to a whole new set of people who find their own spirituality reflected in the music.

Indeed, it is great to be able to have the jazz musicians with us today in celebratory mood. The last time I had jazz in a service it was at a funeral, probably the biggest funeral that I’ve ever taken.

It was for a University Principle who died in office. I’ve taken a number of similar services and I have learned that Universities tend to go to town on funerals for their great and their good. This one was no exception. Several thousand people gathered for it and it took place in the local town hall. Not only because none of the churches were big enough, but also because the man who had died was not supposed to be a believer. As I planned and prepared for the service, I kept getting told the same thing – He was an atheist, you know. Make sure you don’t mention God. [Read more...]

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Sermon Posted

26 August 2008 By 11 Comments

This week’s sermon is now posted on the preaching page.

I filmed John Riches from a different pillar to that from which Caroline was filmed last week. I think the one of Caroline looks better. The stained glass adds more backlighting than I had expected. Some bright spark this week suggested that I film the whole thing upside down (to get a better angle) and then just “flip the video the right way up in the computer later”.

Does anyone know how long it can take a computer to flip 12 minutes of high definition video the other way up? The answer is about four hours. My thanks to Bright Spark for the idea, however, experience, as so often, lends wisdom.

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Sermon upload

17 August 2008 By 4 Comments

This morning’s sermon by the Rev Caroline McKillop has just been uploaded to the sermon page.

I’ve uploaded it in two different forms this week. A video version for those who want to see and hear and an audio version that will be more accessible for those using dial up. We are inclusive like that around here.

Caroline was preaching on the Canaanite woman who in the face of apparent rejection by Jesus said, “…but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” It comes in Matthew 15.

She also referred to the healing of the Roman centurian’s young man in Matthew 8 (or Luke 7) which will be familiar to members of the LGBT group as this was the subject of a recent Bible study.

LGBT group meets tomorrow. More details from me.

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More sermons

24 July 2008 By 8 Comments

Have put another couple of sermons up on the Cathedral’s new website, including the one I did on the radio last year, the day after the terror attack at the airport. (“A kingfisher! Right in the heart of the city!”)

I was always rather pleased with the kingfisher sermon. In the end it was such a relief to preach it as it had been rewritten over and over again on the Saturday, as the news of the airport incident changed. The text and original comments are here.

To listen in, take a look at the preaching page once again.

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Preaching tomorrow evening in Ayr

26 April 2008 By 1 Comment

Just to note that I’m preaching tomorrow evening in Ayr at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. They are celebrating 100 years since the church was consecrated.

Kick off is at 6.30 pm. All welcome.

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