Scripture for the fourth Sunday of Lent (Mothering Sunday): 1 Samuel 1.20-28; Psalm 127 (sung); Colossians 3.12-17; John 19.25b-27 “You who are on the road / Must have a code that you can live by.” So wrote Graham Nash for the song Teach Your Children Well in 1968. We are all on the pilgrimage road […]
Archive | Themes
Theme of each week.
Theme for the second Sunday of Lent, 8 March 2020
Scripture for this Sunday: Genesis 12:1-4a; Psalm 121; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17 Those of a certain age will remember a rhyme by A.A. Milne: Where the wind comes from where the wind goes no one can tell me nobody knows. It’s flying from somewhere As fast as it can, I couldn’t keep up with […]
Theme for the first Sunday of Lent, 1 March 2020
Scripture for this Sunday: Genesis 2.15-17; 3.1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5.12-19; Matthew 4.1-11 This year’s Lenten study series at Santa Margarita, based around parts of Les Miserables, deals with questions of sin, judgement, reconciliation and redemption, ostensibly through the lens of how human beings treat one another, and how they apply their faith in that […]
Theme for Sunday, 16 February 2020
Scripture for this Sunday: Sirach 15.15-20; Psalm 119.1-8; 1 Corinthians 3.1-9; Matthew 5.21-37 Apparently, late US President Harry Truman, in frustration at equivocating economists, said: “Give me a one-handed economist. All my economists say, ‘On the one hand … on the other.’” He must have found some warmth in Jesus’ words about being direct and unequivocal, […]
Theme for Sunday, 9 February 2020
Scripture for the fifth Sunday of Epiphany: Isaiah 58.1–9a; Psalm 112.1–9; 1 Corinthians 2.1–12; Matthew 5.13–20. Apparently the most memorable thing that I have said about salt and scripture is to mention the Flor de Fornells gourmet salt products from reclaimed salt mines Menorca. Otherwise, salt seems to be something that we generally just take […]
Theme for Sunday, 26 January 2020
Scripture for this Sunday: Isaiah 9.1-4; Psalm 27.1, 5-13; 1 Corinthians 1.10-18; Matthew 4.12-23 Last week’s reflection upon the calling of disciples left us with the question: what are we looking for? Today’s reading, describing the calling of Jesus’ first disciples from a different point of view, makes it clear that whatever we may be […]
Theme for Sunday, 19 January 2020
Scripture for this Sunday (Epiphany 2): Isaiah 49.1–7; Psalm 40.1–12; 1 Corinthians 1.1–9; John 1.29–42 “What are you looking for?” Jesus asks this question of two disciples of John the Baptist who approach him. It’s a fundamentally important question for all followers of Jesus to address. In his book, Freedom Is Coming, the Bishop of Leeds, Nick […]
Theme for Baptism of Christ, Sunday 12 January 2020
Scripture for this Sunday: Isaiah 42.1–9; Psalm 29; Acts 10.34–43; Matthew 3.13–17 I have conducted two baptisms in the sea during the past five years, and there is something quite mystical about connecting the blessing of the water of baptism with the blessing that water gives to humankind on our planet. In fact, to baptise […]
Theme for the first Sunday after Christmas, 29 December 2019
Scripture for this Sunday: Isaiah 63:7-9; Psalm 148; Hebrews 2:10-18; Matthew 2:13-23 In 1863, in the midst of the American Civil War, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem, “Christmas Bells:” I heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old, familiar carols play, and wild and sweet The words repeat Of peace on earth, good-will to […]
Theme for Christmas Day 2019
I have an issue with one of the Christmas carols that we sing: Away in a Manger. The problem? “No crying he makes.” What? Why not? Was there something wrong with him?! I was present at the birth of my own child who no crying did make – and the paediatric cardiologist who fortunately happened to be […]