Preached on Sunday, 05.03.2017 By the Reverend Dr. David Sinclair         Today, the first Sunday of Lent, we begin our journey toward Golgotha and Gethsemane, toward defeat and despair, betrayal and denial, suffering and abandonment, wholeness and hope.  Today we begin to consider again what a story from a different time and a … More Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness

Preached on Sunday, 26.02.2017 By the Reverend Dr. David Sinclair So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. The story begins with Moses.  Moses … More Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts

Preached on Sunday, 19.02.2017 By the Reverend Dr. David Sinclair There was recently a captain of the Australian rugby team, admired by all, who always seemed to know the right thing to do, and was always able to do it.  His nickname was ‘nobody’; because ‘nobody’s perfect’.   ‘Perfect’ for most of us, however, is … More Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect

Preached on Sunday, 05.02.2017 By the Reverend Dr. David Sinclair You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, … More You are the light of the world

Preached on Sunday, 06.11.16 By the Reverend Dr. David Sinclair   In what tense do you live?  Our readings this morning offer us a choice of tenses, all of which can grab our attention – even perhaps our loyalty. Haggai, whose words (it must be said) do not often detain us, speaks of the past: … More God is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive

How keen are you on law? Let me put that another way: are you a ‘letter of the law’ person, or are you a ‘spirit of the law’ person? Or: how often do you read the small print of a contract? Do you see regulations and rules as enabling or as debilitating? Do they smooth the way, or do they get in the way? Do you think of codes of conduct, or legal stipulations, as ‘necessary safeguards’ or as ‘unnecessary red tape’. Are you a stickler for the rules, or a bender of the boundaries? And how are you when it comes to the idea of the law requiring to be interpreted? Would you see that as a recognition that principles have to be applied, but that the application will be influenced by the context? Or would you take the view that if a law requires to be interpreted, it must be a badly drafted law? … More I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people

But it’s worth thinking a bit more about this idea of living under siege; it’s worth remembering that cities have endured this piece of terrifying, dehumanising inhumanity throughout the history of what we like to call humanity. Think of Troy according to Homer, think of Stirling before Bannockburn, think of Vienna, think of Paris and its Commune, think of Leningrad, think in recent years of Homs, or of Fallujah, or – as we speak – of Aleppo. … More City under Siege