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Vineyards
I cannot grow an apple tree, aromatic herbs, fresh flowers. I dig and plant and water and weed; everything dies. I drink the wine of another’s vineyard, climb the walls to scrump the orchard, cadge the...
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The wedding robe
White lace cut down to a christening robe. Later, a doll with curly blonde hair wore my mother’s leftover wedding weeds, a moulded Miss Haversham preserved in plastic, dressed for the feast, rosebud...
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Render
A silhouette against my eyelids, black on red; a name beaten out by my heart’s tattoo; the claim that staked me through and through; I render unto, surrender unto – whose image and title is this?
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Parabolic
It is often said, but bears repeating, that we have a tendency to tame Jesus’ parables. Familiarity breeds, if not contempt, at least complacency. When we stop hearing them as stories, and instead hear...
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Sheep and goats: beyond the parable
The first goat I ever met as an individual, got to know as a person, as it were, lived in an urban back garden in Oxford, England. He did not, however, necessarily stay there. One evening, doing the...
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Do not quench the spirit
From the Lectionary for Year B Advent 3: 1 Thessalonians 5:19 Do not quench the spirit, pour cold water on its fervour; be afraid of the passion it inflames; that is only the beginning of wisdom. Let...
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Annunciation and assent
Ave Accustomed to many perplexing forms of greeting from the ridiculous to the ribald, when hailed by the sublime she was only mildly bemused, hardly struck dumb at all. Maria Accustomed to the music...
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For tomorrow’s sermon: a little story about repentance
Once upon a time, I was a little girl, and that little girl had the attention span of a sphinx. I would get seriously, eternally lost in books, daydreams, and the stories and songs which soundtracked...
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Simon Peter Says
Think positive Put on a brave face Put your best foot forward Do not waver Do not speak of death and it will not happen Do not look upon the cross and it will not crush you Look on the bright side...
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Pigeon
I like to hang around the fountains, water coolers of the city, where traffic intersects, dropping crumbs of cake and gossip, lies and lives. Few notice me, but in the moment that it takes their breath...
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The strange story of Barry Baker
There are occasional joys in being a borderline hoarder. This week at Bible Study, we were looking at the Gospel for the coming Sunday, and feeling as bewildered as the poor people in the passage...
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A vain and foolish thing
Vain and foolish, one would not think that with no animal spirit, nor soul, no mind of its own, but an idle thing could inspire such passion, such pain, such tearing, such rending of hearts, of lives...
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Year B Proper 19: Jesus, losers, the cross, and The Donald
Not that Donald. That Donald isn’t keen on losers. But Jesus is a total loser, and we like him all the better for it. Don’t we? Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great...
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Better
It started out easily enough: I shaved off my hair, my pride and my vanity, and cast it in the fire. Trouble was, I just looked too damned good that way; so I broke the mirror and used the shards to...
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Threading the needle
First, unpack your camel. Divest it of its commodities: sugar, salt, and spices, unguents, oils, perfume, all excisable goods must go; hold a trunk sale if you must. Next, take off its defences; not...
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Gloriana
[Sometimes, the search for a sermon feels like a game of free association – chasing words down rabbit holes and across parklands, trying to track down an idea, the spirit of an idea, and bottle it....
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Lazarus, unbound
Feeling the ground with his hands, touching the soil with his feet, kissing the earth, Lazarus, unbound, raises his face to see his friends retreat – in fear they have let him go – stares at Jesus...
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Lullaby for the end of the world
This Sunday’s readings are a little apocalyptic; whether one reads Daniel and Mark, or Hannah’s proto-Magnificat, change is in the air, and much of it alarming. Jürgen Moltmann believes that the...
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My kingdom is not of this world
A pre-Advent poem for Christ the King The flag I did not come with fire and flood, but with tender fingertips, in flesh and squalling hunger biting through your resignation, splitting hearts and...
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The letter of Zephaniah to the Philippians, as recorded in the Gospel of John...
Wondering how to reconcile the rejoicing of Gaudete Sunday with the somewhat confrontational style of John the proverbial Baptist? Try the Glee cast approach: make of a mix-and-match mash-up approach a...
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