We live in a very questioning culture; a culture in which the wrong kind of questioning is becoming more and more common. You’ll have heard examples of the wrong kind of questioning on Radio & TV news and current affairs programmes, from journalists whose aim is to catch politicians out by, for example,  repeatedly asking them for some statistical detail which they haven’t committed to memory. 

The wrong kind of questioning is the kind that we find in today’s Gospel – a trick question designed to catch Jesus out.

Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor or not...

Zoom Worship October 2023 ‘Harvest’    see email for login deatils

Introit: Festive music for Trumpet and Organ

LOBE DEN HERREN played by Hans Huber and Norbert Duchtel

Welcome

O Lord, open thou our lips;

And our mouths shall shew forth thy praise.

O God, make speed to save us;

O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son:
and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Praise thee the Lord;

The Lord’s name be praised.

Hymn

We plough the...

St.Luke 2023

Luke the beloved physician was a medic and painter as ell as a Gospel writer. Legend has it that his ikon of the Madonna and Child now housed in the Kykkos Monastery on Cyprus and which I have seen was, it is believed, painted from life and is therefore an actual image of Mary. Luke was also the companion and friend of St.Paul and is mentioned three times in Paul’s letters. It is also to St.Luke that we owe both the Gospel account that bears his name and the Book of Acts which is its sequel.

We are...

Isaiah 5:1-7

What we have just heard read is wonderful poetry. As you know poetry can speak louder than prose and in doing so make a point more strongly. In this piece Isaiah is using a well worn technique of Hebrew literature, that of inserting poetry into the body of prose in order to make a significant remark. In this case the beautiful, pastoral words build us up and then in verses five and six dash us down.

He begins with the phrase:

“Let me sing for my beloved.”

This is Isaiah writing from God’s perspective, that is in God’s...