A selection of sermons recently heard in St Martin's.
Baptism of Christ
By Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
Texts: Acts 19: 1-7, Mark 1: 4-11
So, here we are, barely out of Christmas, trees and decorations packed away this week, and we’ve got the baptism of Jesus for our Sunday reading. I think we could all be forgiven for thinking, gosh, he’s grown up quickly, hasn’t he? What happened to that baby boy we celebrated only the other week? I should think this is a feeling which many a parent has had…
There is a method to the lectionary madness, though. And this is my sermon in a nutshell, in case you want to spend the rest of this sermon thinking about your Sunday roast: At Christmas we celebrated Jesus’ birth into a human family. Today we remember that baptism was when God acclaimed his heavenly parentage. And the same is true of us at our baptisms.
I sometimes worry that we have become too familiar with the Christmas story. Many of you met the two Chinese students who stayed with me over the Christmas weekend. They had never heard the Christmas story before. They had no religious background, and they grew up in a culture which doesn’t even celebrate Christmas in a secular way. So I tried to give them a three minute summary about God deciding to be born into a human body for our salvation. They nodded politely, but I think I was far more successful in converting them to ‘Doctor Who’.
Christ the King
By Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
Texts: Ephesians 1: 15-23, John 18: 33-37
What does the term ‘King’ mean to you? Although no doubt there would be exceptions in either country, on the whole I think British people and Americans would respond to the title in very different ways.
When I was growing up in California, and studying history in school, we were taught over and over again how dreadful it had been when the American colonies had been ruled by a distant King in Great Britain. We were taught to be proud of the fact that we had thrown off the whole structure of nobility when we had fought our War of Independence. We had elected leaders, we were a democracy. Kings stood for unearned, unelected privilege. A king was a dominant, male sovereign who could demand obedience from his subjects.
But I should think that the average British person would see the King differently. Or perhaps the Queen, since anyone under the age of 60 has only ever known the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. To a British person the monarch is more of a figurehead, respected, perhaps even loved, as we saw when the Queen Mother died.
All Saints
By Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
I moved to Bridgend, Wales in 2001. For some years I had thought of leaving my position with NatWest Bank and going back to university to get a PhD and to lecture, preferably in theology. I was also contemplating whether I was called to serve God as a priest.
Just up the road from where I lived was the Wales Evangelical School of Theology. I decided to take some courses there to sort of dip my toe in the water. Could I still write decent essays after all my years in employment?
The college said I could apply, but warned me that, since I was a woman, I would not be allowed to lead worship or to preach. Never mind. The application form was easy to fill. What took me more time was that I had to write an A4 page telling the college of my conversion experience.
Well, that stumped me. I don’t have a single, great conversion experience to tell about. Whatever I did come up with seemed to satisfy the principal, and I was allowed to take a couple of courses. I fit them around my job in the bank.
Animal Welfare Sunday
by Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
The feast day for St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, is on October 4. Although we’re not celebrating his day per se, we are in effect honouring his commitment to the animal kingdom by our speaker next Sunday. Just to remind you, we have the local representative from our local Wildlife Trust here next Sunday. This morning I thought I’d also spend some time talking about the importance of animals in our lives, but concentrating on those in our homes, our companion animals.
It is said that Britain is a nation of animal lovers. There are those who say that they love animals more than people. On the internet you can find articles which state ‘Why dogs are better than men.’ Here are a few reasons given:
Dogs don’t criticise your friends.
Dogs think you are a great cook.
You can force a dog to take a bath.
Dogs admit it when they’re lost.
Middle-aged dogs don’t feel the need to abandon you for a younger owner.
And, in the principle of fairness, you can also find reasons ‘Why dogs are better than women’.
Holy Cross Day
by Revd Chrys Tremththanmor
The day on which Holy Cross Day is kept is, of course, 14 September, but with the freedom on which the church relies we are remembering Holy Cross Day on this Sunday. It was on 14 September, 335 AD that the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was dedicated.
But what are we celebrating? And how is our celebration today different than the veneration of the cross on Good Friday?
Holy Cross Day is also called ‘The Exaltation of the Cross’ or ‘The Triumph of the Cross.’ Good Friday is dedicated to the passion and the crucifixion of Jesus. On Holy Cross Day we celebrate the cross itself, as our instrument of salvation. Whereas on Good Friday we pray before a crucifix, today we honour an empty cross, for we know that our Lord died and rose again, a sign of his victory over the powers of evil and darkness which nailed him to that cross.
There are many ways to view what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross—the theological phrase is atonement. Somehow Jesus’ crucifixion brought us back ‘at one’ with God. Theologians have argued for centuries as to how this happened.
Mary, Mother of our Lord
Text: Luke 1: 46-55
By Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
Today we celebrate Mary, mother of Jesus, one day early. August 15 is set aside as one of her feast days in many churches. But what exactly are we celebrating?
Church lectionaries can be rather coy. Often 15 August is merely listed as ‘Mary, Mother of our Lord.’ You have to look at Catholic sources to be told that today is, traditionally, the day on which Mary died and her body was taken physically into heaven.
Of course, the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven is not to be found in the Bible. This idea came up probably in the 4th or 5th century. In 451 AD the bishop of Jerusalem let the emperor know that the emperor could not possess the body of the Virgin. She had died in the presence of the apostles, but when they had later opened her tomb, they had found it empty. It was their conclusion that our Lord would not have wished the body which gave him birth to decay, but that he wished her body and soul to join him in God’s presence. On 1 November 1950 Pope Pius XII issued a papal decree proclaiming the assumption as doctrine.
Seventh Sunday after Trinity
Text: Matthew 14: 22-33
By Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
One day a Baptist Pastor, an Anglican Vicar, and an Atheist went on a fishing trip together. They were in the boat for several hours, fishing away, and they began to get thirsty. That’s when they discovered that the thermos with the coffee had been left on the shore. ‘Not a problem,’ said the Pastor. ‘I’ll go get it.’ So he got out of the boat and walked on the water to the shore, picked up the thermos flasks, and came back.
They fished a bit longer, and it came to lunch time. Then they realised that they’d left the sandwiches on the shore. ‘Not a problem,’ said the Vicar, ‘I’ll go get them.’ And so the Vicar got out of the boat, walked across the water to the shore, got the sandwiches, then walked back to the boat again.
So, they went back to fishing. The afternoon came on, and the Vicar quite fancied a beer from the shop up the road. ‘I’ll go get it,’ said the Atheist. He climbed out of the boat, and fell into the water. As he splashed around, the Pastor said to the Vicar, ‘Do you think we should have told him where the rocks were?’ And the Vicar responded, ‘What rocks?’
Trinity Sunday
By Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
I was warned, before I was ordained, that preachers all dread preaching on Trinity Sunday. Theologians throughout the centuries have tried to understand how God can be three and also one at the same time. Last year I got around this by having Chris Ward preach at our Team Service on Trinity Sunday. This year, however, there was no escape. So I sat down at my computer and reminded myself what theologians have said about the Trinity.
During my research, I discovered that there have been many attempts to explain the Trinity in images. Here are a few ideas:
St. Patrick from Ireland used the example of a wild plant the Shamrock which has three leaves but actually consists of only one leaf. Each of the bits of the three bits of the leaf are an essential part of the leaf, but the leaf is greater than just the three parts. This is what led to a joke in one film that God is like a clover, ‘small, green, and split three ways.’
A triangle has three sides, yet it is not three sides but one triangle. Anselm compared the trinity to the River Nile. A river like the Nile has a source, it has a stream and it has an estuary. It is all the same water and yet it is in three very different looking stages.
Pentecost
by Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
Texts: Acts 2: 1-21; John 20: 19-23
Hi everyone. I have to admit that I didn’t expect to be standing up here this morning. My GP seemed convinced that she’s managed to get me a short cut through the NHS system, and that I’d be having my operation last Monday. However, when I saw the plastic surgeon it was only for an initial consultation. Now I have to wait for a letter in the post to tell me the date and time of my operation.
Times like these I’m reminded of that old Rolling Stones song, the one which goes, ‘You can’t always get what you want.’ I’d made all the arrangements to clear the diary, expecting to be off my feet last week. So Monday afternoon I was trying to put everything back into the diary again!
We don’t always get what we want. That was the experience of the early disciples. Throughout their time with Jesus they were very clear what they wanted from him. They wanted Jesus to be a military ruler, they wanted him to make Israel a mighty kingdom again.
Service of Thanksgiving
by Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
[Given at a special service offering thanks for those who help contribute to the life and upkeep of St Martin's, Welton]
One pet food company sponsors an annual competition entitled ‘I look like my dog.’ And hundreds of people, who really ought to know better, send in photos of themselves and their doggy companion. When it comes to humans, researchers have found that the longer couples stay together, the more they look like each other. It seems that this is due to shared experiences built up over many years together. So as time goes on, we are influenced with whom and what we have decided to share our lives.
There is a debate in some church circles, namely is the church the place, the building, or is it the people? Being a good Anglican (sometimes), I would like to take a middle option. I think a church is both people and place. Both are important as part of our ongoing efforts to worship God and to follow his will.
Let’s consider our own church here, St Martin’s, Welton. Worship has taken place in this building for over 750 years. I feel that a place takes on a special ambience when it has been a centre for worship and prayer for many years. Those years add to the holiness of a place. For example, have you ever tried to redecorate an old house? You find layer after layer of paint on the walls, each coat added to one another over the years. I think prayer coats the walls of a holy place in the same way. Over the years, our prayers add to those who have gone before us, layer upon layer upon layer. It is this holiness created by prayer that people often feel when they enter a church. God’s Spirit hovers in the air, part of the atmosphere which we breathe as we move around walls and between pews.
Second Sunday of Easter
by Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
Bible Text: John 20: 19-31
As I think most of you know, I live with a small bird, a green parrot about the size of a cockatiel. Her name is Xander. Yes, I know Xander is a boy’s nickname, but I named her before having her tested for her sex. When I found out she was a girl it was too late to change her name.
Xander is eleven years old and this year, on Easter day, she laid her first-ever egg. I found it in her cage, a small, white thing about an inch long. This explained why she’d been so broody the day before. I have blown the egg clean (which is harder than it sounds) and it’s drying out on a sunny windowsill.
Before you think I’ve commited infanticide I’ll point out that, unless Xander has a fella hidden away, that that egg is unfertile. It would never have hatched, which does seem a shame. All that effort made by my little girl for, well, nothing really. All that effort for nothing.
When you read the Gospels, you discover that a number of the disciples have very distinctive personalities. There’s Peter, who often leaps before he looks, getting things wrong time and again. John, who is probably the disciple who wrote the fourth Gospel, who seemed to be closest to Jesus. And Thomas, whom we heard about today. Thomas, the doubter, who refused to accept the Resurrection without proof.
Easter Sunday
Sermon by Chrys M Tremththanmor
Bible Texts:
Acts 10: 34-43; John 20: 1-18
When I was a young teenager I tried to rebel. My weapon of choice was a tattoo—I wanted to get a tattoo. Compared to what many teenagers do to their bodies these days I think my mother was getting off lightly! But my mother put her foot down. No daughter of hers was going to do anything so vulgar.
I was barely out of teenage years when I got married, and my husband had the same opinion as my mother. They didn’t share many things in common, so this was rather unique. But he too felt a tattoo was beyond the pale, not to be permitted on the fair skin of his wife.
Husband and I separated in February 2001, and in May 2001 I went to a tattoo parlour and the deed was done. My mother still didn’t approve, of course. ‘I just hope it’s not going to be obvious,’ she told me. ‘Oh, I plan to have “kiss me quick” tattooed on my forehead,’ I told her. Actually, as you’ve all worked out, the tattoo isn’t obvious. It’s high up on my left arm, so you can only see it if I wear sleeveless shirts.
Fifth Sunday of Lent
By Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
Bible Text: John 11: 1-45
A couple had two little boys, ages eight and ten, who were excessively mischievous. The two were always getting into trouble and their parents could be confident that if any mischief occurred in their town, their two young sons were involved in some capacity. The parents were at their wit's end as to what to do about their sons' behaviour.
The parents had heard that a priest in town had been successful in disciplining children in the past, so they contacted her, and she agreed to give it her best shot. She asked to see the boys individually, so the eight-year-old was sent to meet with her first. The priest sat the boy down and asked him sternly, ‘Where is God?’ The boy made no response, so the priest repeated the question in an even sterner tone, ‘Where is God?’ Again the boy made no attempt to answer, so the priest raised her voice even more and shook her finger in the boy's face, ‘WHERE IS GOD?’
At that, the boy bolted from the room, ran directly home, and slammed himself in his closet. His older brother followed him into the closet and said, ‘What happened?’
First Sunday of Lent
Sermon by Revd Chrys Tremththanmor
An orthodox Jew went into his synagogue on Friday to pray. He knelt before the Tabernacle and, rocking gently backwards and forwards, he prayed out loud to God. Out loud he said, ‘Lord God of the universe, please forgive me. In the past week I have cheated on my wife with my secretary, I have fiddled my taxes, and I kicked my dog. Please forgive me.’ The man rocked and thought for a bit, and then he said out loud, ‘Lord God of the universe, in the past week there have been earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan, people are suffering in Libya, and my cousin’s son died. Lord God of the universe, you have a lot to answer for.’ The man rocked and thought a bit longer. Then he said, ‘Tell you what, God, you forgive me and I’ll forgive you.’ He got up, dusted off his trousers, and turned around. At that moment the Rabbi grabbed him by the shirt collars and said fiercely, ‘Why did you let God off so lightly?’
What I admire about our brothers and sisters in the Jewish faith is that they are willing to argue with God. I sometimes worry that we Christians seem to think that we always have to be nice to God. We’re supposed to see everything as God’s will and just accept what happens. In particular we seem to see doubt about God, anger with God, as something negative.
Epiphany 1
Epiphany 1
Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’
As no doubt you’ve heard in sermons before, the Bible doesn’t actually say how many wise people there were. In fact, from the structure of the New Testament Greek, we don’t even know their genders. There could have been wise women as well as wise men in the group! We don’t know whether they were rulers or magicians, respected or shifty.
But we do know something rather remarkable. They knew that they were trying to find a child, and that they were willing to worship him.
I was once told off by some of my friends on Facebook because, when I’d watched the last episode in the series, ‘Merlin’, I’d put on my status the comment ‘I’m glad Merlin let the dragon live!’ So all my friends who were going to watch the episode later told me off for spoiling the ending.
Perhaps our own reading of the story of the magi is also spoiled by our awareness of the ending of the story. We know that they are looking for Jesus, King of the Jews and, indeed, King of the whole world. We know the end of the Gospel story, and we know the strong, confident adult Jesus would become.
Advent 3
By Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
Surely by now you all know of my passion for ‘Doctor Who’ and other science fiction tv programmes. But I also enjoy watching, to my shame, a number of these so-called ‘reality tv’ programmes. ‘The Apprentice’ is a great favourite of mine, and I’m enjoying the current season very much.
A couple of years ago I watched a tv programme called ‘School of Saatchi.’ It seems that multi-millionaire Saatchi is a great collector of modern art. His support enabled the careers of such people as Damien Hirst (the artist known for pickling full sized sharks and halves of sheep in large tanks) and Tracy Ermin (whose unmade bed was an art exhibit).
‘School of Saatchi’ was a tv programme following six modern artists who are set various challenges. They needed to impress Mr Saatchi because the winner would be given a studio and funding for three years.
Now, I have to admit that I’m not a fan of modern art. In fact, I’m going to sound terribly old fashioned by saying that I like to know what I’m looking at when I look at a piece of art. I like knowing that it’s a landscape, that a portrait actually looks like a person, and that a sculpture is out of solid stuff like marble or bronze. I have certain expectations of what makes art ‘art.’
Advent 1
By Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
‘It’s the end of the world as we know it—and I feel fine.’
Perhaps few of you recognise that line from a song by the rock group REM. The other lyrics in that song are stream of consciousness, referring to earthquakes, hurricanes, governments, and the rapture. It’s a rather confusing mix of images with the refrain, ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it—and I feel fine,’ almost the only comprehensible line.
End of the world stuff features in this season of the church. The Kingdom season is over, we’ve changed from red to the purple of Advent. Advent is a strange time, a time of past, future, and present.
In Advent, we remember a past event. We await the birth of Jesus, the Christ child, as a memory of something that happened over 2000 years ago. We prepare for the angelic announcement of his birth, the visits by shepherds and kings from the East, the wonder in the stable.
We await Christmas, we await this year’s celebration of Christ coming into our lives, our families, our church community. Once again we will say, ‘Thank you, Jesus, thank you, heavenly Father.’ We will rejoice in his presence, the God who was willing to come to us as a helpless baby, so great is his love for us.
St Martin's Day
By Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
One pet food company sponsors an annual competition entitled ‘I look like my dog.’ And hundreds of people, who really ought to know better, send in photos of themselves and their doggy companion. When it comes to humans, researchers have found that the longer couples stay together, the more they look like each other. It seems that this is due to shared experiences built up over many years together. So as time goes on, we are influenced with whom and what we have decided to share our lives.
There is a debate in some church circles, namely is the church the place, the building, or is it the people? Perhaps we would prefer to think that the church is the people, those who meet together for worship and fellowship. Perhaps part of our struggle with the unchurched, those people who only come to us for weddings and baptisms, is that they seem to see the church as nothing more than a building. They are not interested in the church as people, people who are trying to be a community together.
Bible Sunday
Bible Sunday
by Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
The following comes from a Catholic primary school. Children were asked questions about the Old and New Testaments. They have not been retouched or corrected.
* Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. Noah's wife was called Joan of Ark. Noah built an ark, which the animals come on to in pears.
* The Jews were a proud people and throughout history they had trouble with the unsympathetic Genitals.
* The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery.
* Solomon, one of David's sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.
* When Mary heard that she was the mother of Jesus, she sang the
Magna Carta.
* Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption.
* Jesus enunciated the Golden Rule, which says to do one to others before they do one to you. He also explained, "a man doth not live by sweat alone."
* The people who followed the lord were called the 12 decibels. The epistles were the wives of the apostles.
* St. Paul cavorted to Christianity. He preached holy acrimony, which is another name for marriage.
Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
By Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
Many years ago I was at a science fiction convention. The usual debates about religion and science came up, late one night, as they often do after people have had a bit to drink. At this time I didn’t attend church, but I still considered myself to be a Christian. ‘I could never be a Christian,’ said one young man to me. ‘How can you believe in all that stuff about God creating the world in six days?’
‘But I don’t believe that,’ I told him. ‘I accept the Big Bang and evolutionary theory.’
‘But you can’t, if you’re a Christian,’ he insisted. I pointed out, politely, I hope, that it wasn’t for him, an atheist, to tell me what I did and didn’t have to believe to be a Christian.
We’ve had various bits of nonsense in the news this week. I found myself shouting at the radio about Tony Blair and William Hague. But the news item which proved that we’re in the ‘silly season’ for news was that Stephen Hawking had decided that there was no God because the universe could start itself off. That really made me shout. It’s like that conversation with the young atheist. I’m being told what sort of God I must believe in when the truth is far more complicated.