The Bishop’s Visit

It is truly an honour to welcome Her Grace, Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy as our presider and preacher this morning. And to honour this occasion I share a story of when a bishop (of course not our bishop) had visited a church and was standing at the church door greeting the congregation as they left the Sunday morning service.   While most of the people told the bishop how much they liked her message, one man seemingly had a different opinion. “That was a very dull and boring sermon, Bishop,” he [Read more...]

Turtles

Faith. The lepers’ faith made them well, faith guides us, faith is what our religion is all about, is it not? After all one definition of faith is “strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof.” Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen often gave a lecture entitled, “On the Nature of the Universe.” One night after he had delivered it in a small town, an elderly woman confronted him, saying, “That was a brilliant lecture, Bishop, but you are all wrong. The [Read more...]

The Devil’s Pretence

In honour of St Michael and All Angels, I offer you a short story about the devil’s pretence.   There is an ancient legend which says that the devil, Master of disguise, tried to get into heaven by pretending to be the risen Christ.   He took with him his demons disguised as angels of light, and had them cry out the traditional first part of the welcome psalm: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates of heaven, and lift up your doors, and the King of Glory shall enter!”   The real angels looked down on [Read more...]

Carl & Hans

Once upon a time there was a proud man named Carl who loved to ride his horse through his vast estate, and to congratulate himself on his enormous wealth. One day he came upon Hans, an old tenant farmer, who had sat down to eat his lunch in the shade of a great oak tree. Hans’s head was bowed in prayer. When Hans looked up, he said, “Oh, excuse me, sir, I didn’t see you. I was giving thanks for my food.”   “Humph!” snorted the rich man noticing the coarse dark bread and cheese that made up the [Read more...]