[A prayer for Sunday 21 February 2021 To listen to the sermon and the prayer, click here] Lord, you know us far too well. Better than we know ourselves; Better than we want to know or be known. We are not proud of our lives. Oh, yes, there are things we have done and things we have achieved. But we have failed some of the more important tests: We have not been the loving children we could have been; We have not been the loving parents or partners we could have been. We have been chasing dreams instead of creating memories. Looking for treasure instead of building relationships. We have lived ..read more

Photo by Mimi Moromisato from Pexels ‘Do you repent of your sin and renounce all evil?’ The first question asked at Baptism. But the Christian life is not a checklist of dos and don’ts. It is a journey into relationship. The journey may not begin with repentance, but with a welcome. ___________________________ Lent and the virus Today is the first Sunday of Lent. It is a period (traditionally) of fasting until the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. ‘What are you giving up for Lent?’ was a common question when I was growing up. Most of the time it was (r ..read more

Lord we do feel as if life has been held hostage. Around every corner, there seems to be another obstacle — Barriers that stand in our way, trip us up and challenge our faith. Lord we confess that our hope is not fully in you, Our faith is not in your loving power at work in the world. We so often put our faith elsewhere. We put our hope in a new president, In the activities of politicians, In the work of scientists overcoming Covid-19, In the improvement of the economy and our finances. But while we pray for all these things, Only you can save us, give us hope and bring us safely through. Re ..read more

Are you the one? John’s disciples asked it of Jesus, and we ask it of our day-to-day ‘heroes’ we hope will set us free — will this President fix the economy (and Covid-19)? Will this Lotto ticket win? But there is only One, and he promises that ‘whatever it is that holds life hostage is about to be defeated.’ Prepared for the Scottsville Methodist Fellowship, Pietermaritzburg, 13 December 2020 (Third Sunday in Advent ..read more

See also: The Greatest Commandment: A sermon for Pentecost 23 Let us pray Lord, your love for us is revealed in so many practical ways. You touched the leper, welcomed the outcast, blessed the children and responded to a mother’s cry. You loved even those who rejected you, and you gave your life for every one of our sins. And you call us to love. You declare that our love for others is your love in action. Lord, we confess that we limit your love. We love those we like And we turn away from those we fear, those who challenge us, those who oppose us. We limit our loving to what we think we can ..read more

Readings: Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17; Deuteronomy 34:1-12; Matthew 22:34-46 Being remembered What are you going to leave behind? And I don’t mean houses and bank balances. But how will you be remembered? Of course, we don’t like to answer that question, because we know all too well what some people in our lives are going to remember. So, we prefer to answer a slightly different question: ‘How would you like to be remembered?’ No doubt we’ve all got ideas about that. But that suggests another question, doesn’t it? What are we doing about it? How are we living and engaging with people so that they wil ..read more

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 86:1-10; Genesis 21:8-21; Matthew 10:24-39 Happy Fathers’ Day. I’m sorry, fathers, but you know how it is. Mothers get all the love in Mothers’ Day sermons; fathers usually get the lectures. Mothers are told how wonderful they are, and the sermons are addressed to everyone else, telling them how to love their mothers and be like their mothers. Fathers, however, get told how they could be, and how they should be, better fathers. I’m not saying we don’t need it, I’m just sayin’. Part of the problem is that so much is expected of fathers. I’m not suggesting for a moment that mot ..read more

  Let us pray Lord our creator God, You allow us to call you Father, our parent. We also claim the title ourselves, Yet we fall far short of the ideal and practice of parenthood. Forgive us for our failures, Forgive us fathers, especially, for the ways in which we have given fatherhood a bad name; For our abuse of power and our fear of love; For our criticism, our negativity, our controlling ways. Forgive us when we have destroyed or contributed to the destruction of a family. You are the God who hears, and we live in a world desperate to be heard. There are cries for lives and for livel ..read more

This sermon can also be found an the following video link: Being sheep in a Covid-19 world – A sermon for 3 May SCRIPTURE:  Psalm 23; Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10 LockdownFive weeks of Covid-19 lockdown! How has it been for you? I remember, just before we went into lockdown for the initial three weeks, thinking, that’s a long time. What will we do for three weeks? And now five weeks have passed and (in South Africa) some of the doors are beginning to open. How has it been for you? People have spoken about the opportunity to reflect, to realign, to reorganise (or ..read more

Let us pray Great Shepherd, you invite us to know you, to trust you and to obey you. But, Lord, we confess that we don’t like being sheep. We don’t like waiting for others to tell us what we are allowed to do. We confess that we have been irritated by this lockdown. We are also afraid of this virus, Lord. We are afraid for our lives and for those of our loved ones. We are afraid for our jobs and our livelihoods. We are afraid that there may not be a place for us in the post-lockdown world. Lord, we confess that we have sometimes let loose our fears and frustration on our families. We have for ..read more