Good Shepherd Trinity 16 Proper 21 27 September 2020

In this time of pandemic, we are hearing a lot of expert advice from scientists, and you may be feeling, as I am, a bit frustrated that they all sound very confident in their views, but they aren’t all advising the same course of action. Pondering their confidence reminded me of a true story concerning a very distinguished professor of Physics at an American university who agreed to be an expert witness in a trial. During cross-examination, counsel for the defence asked him “What qualifies you to be an expert witness...

Sunday 20th September 2020 Year A Proper 20      Trinity XV

Poor old Jonah!

When you read that passage from the Old Testament book of his name you really get to see the human side of a prophet in glorious technicolor. In fact if you read the whole of the Book of Jonah despite its brevity you see humanity expressed through out - both the good and bad sides of our nature.

The Book opens with God asking Jonah to go to Nineveh and to warn the residents of God’s displeasure. Jonah, like many of us is reluctant to...

September 13th 2020 Trinity XIV Proper 19 Year A

Genesis 50:15-21

We all know the story of Joseph and that outlandish, peacock coat that his father gave him and how out of jealousy, his older brothers sold him into slavery. When you read the earlier part of the story you can end up sympathising with Joseph’s brothers. What a prig and show off Joseph was - swanking and strutting about in that technicolour coat. What an idiot his father was for showing his out and out favouritism of Joseph over and above his elder sons. Yes! Joseph was one of the two...

Trinity XIII    Proper 18  Year A    6^th September 2020

You may remember back in 2011 the television images of the deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in court. Speaking from a stretcher in a caged dock, it was claimed that he was too ill to stand trial. A trial established by his own people; in the country that he ruled as a dictator for decades. At 83 it might be claimed that he was too old to stand trial but the fact of the matter is that he was still in power aged 83 and that if he...