(SERMON) Remembrance Sunday 2017

Remembrance Sunday is many things to many people.  Like a funeral, but on a national scale, it is a time to weep and mourn for the loss of life.   It is also a time to give thanks for  the hand of God at work in bringing justice over evil and ending tyranny by using nations to punish other nations - something God has been doing since time began.

But it is also, above all else, a time to think.  A time to think on the evil that lives in the hearts of us all and the need for a greater and better sacrifice, a greater and better love, to give true victory and peace.  That sacrifice and love is only found in Jesus as He died on Calvary; not for His friends and family, but for His enemies, for godless sinners who deserved only wrath.

(SERMON) Reformation Sunday: Nehemiah 8.1-12 and Colossians 3.12-17

Returning to my curacy church for the 500 year anniversary Reformation Sunday I preach on the glories of the Reformation.  What was the historical background that led to the explosion of the Reformation in the 1500's and how did this play into God's plan for reform of the church?  How was the light of the gospel passed down from men like John Wycliffe to a monk named Martin Luther? And what was this light in the darkness?  This wonderful light was the five great truths upon which the church of England was founded and we should build our lives:

Scripture teaches us that,
We are saved by grace alone,
Through faith alone,
In Christ alone,
To the glory of God alone.