Holy Trinity Church, HuddersfieldSunday 13th December 2020 Another week in a pandemic world, and I wish I had something more upbeat to share, but imposter syndrome is beginning to set in. I am beginning to wonder if I am capable of doing things I know I have done. The news has been positive with the …
Category: God
That’s Gnostics for you – Matthew in Advent day 13
Creeds. Those statements of belief that traditional churches use in the service as a "these are the beliefs of the church" statements. The Church of England says the Apostles' Creed at daily office (morning and evening prayer), and the Nicene Creed at communion, they are the Church's mission statement, written in response to heresies that …
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Abomination of desecration – Matthew in Advent day 12
The destruction of the Jerusalem temple happened very quickly. Herod's Temple was in fact Zerubabbel's temple, built somewhere between 538 and 520 BC. Far from being the country taken into captivity, Judah was by that time a small province, stretching no more than 25 km, 15 miles from Jerusalem. A small province had a small …
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Velocirapture? – Matthew in Advent day 11
I became a Christian in 1974 whilst at university. Only a few weeks later a fellow member of the Christian Union, a technician in the computer department, suggested I read a book called The Clock Strikes, which set about saying how the return of Christ would be very soon. Christ would take the Christians on …
All these things – Matthew in Advent day 10
There's an angel standing in the sunAnd he's crying with a loud voice"This is the supper of the mighty one"Lord of Lords, King of KingsHas returned to lead his children homeTo take them to the new JerusalemSongwriters: Mike Rutherford / Peter Gabriel / Phil Collins / Steve Hackett / Tony BanksSupper's Ready by Genesis lyrics …
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Jerusalem – Matthew in Advent day 9
Jerusalem was several things. It was the seat of power, where the civic power ruled from. It was the capital city from the time of David and in Jesus' time where King Herod had his palace. Jerusalem was a cultural centre, it had a place in the hearts of the people as it represented through …
Peace is not the absence of war
Holy Trinity Church, HuddersfieldSunday 6th December, 2020 Holy Trinity Huddersfield, taken from Mountjoy Road. It has been a week of wind, cold, rain and even snow, which landed as slush round here. The most eventful thing for me was giving a blood sample for my diabetes as the results from three months ago had come …
Persecutors, snakes and murderers – Matthew in Advent day 8
It has been building up to this. Jesus has been slowly getting stronger in his condemnation of the teachers and Pharisees. When Jesus called them white washed tombs full of dead men's bones they would have understood it to mean that Jesus was saying that they were not only ritually unclean but the source of …
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How not to win friends – Matthew in Advent day 7
A woe is a curse. In the context of Matthew 23. These woes match with the beatitudes, those short sayings at the beginning of the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5. The Greek is οὐαί, meaning not only woe, but also alas, not words we use a lot these days. Jesus is not …
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Keeping up Appearances – Matthew in Advent day 6
In the 1990s British sitcom Keeping up Appearances, Hyacinth Bucket, who insists on her surname being pronounced Bouquet, is a snob despite her family being the kind of person she looks down on. The comedy comes from Mrs Bucket getting into embarrassing predicaments in each episode. Patricia Routledge and Clive Swift as Hyacinth and Richard …
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Making an ass of myself 