Holy Trinity Winchester Podcast

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“Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.”Worldly CrisisThe story of the birth of Jesus Christ begins in a rather odd way, at least from a human perspective. We can see this if we put ourselves in the shoes of Joseph, the man who was betrothed to Mary. Who knows what hopes and dreams t...

Today’s Gospel reading is fascinating. If we understand what is being said, it is devastating, addressing some of the deepest questions of life and faith. Let’s open our hearts and listen closely. John’s QuestionIt begins with John the Baptist in prison, hearing about the deeds of Christ. He sends a question through his disciples, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”Paus...

John the BaptistOur reading today is about John the Baptist and his baptism. Let’s begin by observing that John the Baptist would not have come across as a respectable character but as a madman. We do not have time to go into it in detail but, although he was from a priestly line, he was nevertheless a marginal figure – “The voice of one crying in the wilderness” – wearing a camel’s hair garment a...

“You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”May I speak in God’s name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. The Coming of the Son of ManThe context for our passage today is the coming of the Son of Man, meaning the return of Christ. This is a basic part of our orthodox profession of faith: ‘He shall come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead’, as...

A King Without a CrownToday, we celebrate the feast of Christ the King of the Universe. Why, then, are we given the text that we have just heard? We have just listened to a story in which this supposed king is taken to a place called The Skull and crucified by the Roman Empire between two criminals. The clothes of this condemned man were stripped and divided between the soldiers: he would not need...

“Teacher, when will these things be?”At the beginning of our Gospel passage, some people speak to Jesus of the Temple, saying that it is adorned with stones and votive offerings. Jesus replies in an unexpected way: “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”His disciples ask him when these things will...

How blissful the destitute!“Blessed are you who are poor,” says Christ in the translation we have just heard. I would like to use a slightly different one:“How blissful the destitute!”The word for “blessed” or “blissful” (makarios) has been translated various ways including “happy”, “fortunate” or “prosperous”. But in my view “blissful” is the best because the original word had connotations of div...

How can a person be right with God? This is one of the most central questions to all of human existence. It’s probably true that most religions are an attempt on some level to answer this question. When considered seriously, human beings know that it is not an easy question to answer. Most of us have some awareness of what Christians would call “sin”. That is, that we fall short of the moral stand...

“Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel…”2 Kings 5:15Naaman the SyrianI’ll start with the story of Namaan, commander of the army of Syria. This was a period of peace between historic enemies Israel and Aram. Namaan was commander of Syria’s armies but a man afflicted by leprosy or a similar skin disease. Through apparent chance, an Israelite girl knew of the prophet Elis...

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,but the righteous shall live by faith.”Habakkuk 2:4The Faith that Moves Mulberry TreesToday I’m going to be talking on the subject of faith: a small word with immense importance. We begin with our reading from Luke’s Gospel. The context is that Jesus has just told his disciples that they must continually forgive those who sin against the...

Now war arose in heaven…In a departure from my normal practice, I am going to speak today on our New Testament reading which comes from the Book of Revelation, chapter 12:7-12. This passage describes a war in heaven between Michael and his angels and the Great Dragon, Satan, and his angels. Michael prevailed and the Dragon was thrown down to the earth along with his angels. A loud voice is heard,...

‘To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.’The Lost SheepWe begin today with a familiar scene from the life of Jesus: tax collectors and sinners drawing near whilst the Pharisees and scribes grumble. Now, the objection of the Pharisees and scribes is not elaborated but it is fairly sure to say that they were concerned about maintaining sepa...

The Ascent of HumilityI begin my sermon today with a quotation from the Rule of St Benedict. St Benedict said the following to the monks with whom he shared a common religious life:And so, my brothers, if we wish to reach the highest peak of humility and if we wish to attain quickly that heavenly exaltation towards which we climb by means of the humility of this life, we must set up for our ascent...

A Conflict on the Sabbath DayOur Gospel reading begins with a conflict between Jesus and the ruler of the synagogue on a particular Sabbath Day. Jesus had called a woman with a disabling spirit to himself. He had laid his hands on her and healed her. The ruler of the synagogue had taken exception to this, arguing that this counted as work and that it could have waited till one of the other days of...

“Is not my word like fire, declares, the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” Jeremiah 23:29Fire Upon the Earth“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!”At first glance, today’s Gospel reading might be hard to understand. It might also be hard to accept...

“Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes…”The Future Shapes the PresentWhat we believe about the future shapes how we live in the present. We spoke last week about how God can set us free from slavery to the God of Mammon, from anxious toil and restlessness. Today we hear from Christ something about how we to think about what is to come. Before we look more closely at...

Ecclesiastes – The Futility of LifeIf you have never read the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes, I really recommend it. It’s about the complete pointlessness of life. Even arch-atheist Richard Dawkins has, at points, declared his admiration for this book particularly in the King James translation. Ecclesiastes is an unflinchingly honest analysis of the problem of the human condition, namely its v...

“Lord, teach us to pray.”Our Gospel reading this morning begins with Jesus praying in a certain place. When he finishes, one of his disciples makes a request: “Lord, teach us to pray.”At these words our ears should prick up for a couple of reasons. Firstly, we may be aware that there is no comprehensive account of the spiritual practices of Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospel accounts. We are sometime...

The short story of Mary and Martha occurs only once in all of the Gospels. And yet throughout the history of the Church is has attracted much attention. It has been taken to be a commentary on the interplay between the active and contemplative life, with Martha representing the active life of service and Mary representing the contemplative life of prayer and devotion. As such, the questions it pos...

In one sense, the literal meaning of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is quite clear. We could summarise it by saying that we ought to prove ourselves to be good neighbours to those around us, to those who are in need. Perhaps it is simply this that Christ’s wishes to tell us. But let’s not rush too quickly to this interpretation. Let us consider first the symbolic meaning of this story. The earl...

In our text this morning, we witness Jesus sending out seventy-two people to various towns and places to prepare the way for his coming. He gives them encouragement and instruction which are still relevant for his followers today.“The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few”What does Christ mean by this statement? To begin with, for those he was sending out, there was great opportunity for...

The Christian life is to be a follower of Jesus, which means listening to him, being like him, and doing what he did but in our own day and in our own lives. In our passage today, we receive some very deep insight into what this means. This insight is, in fact, so deep that we can only touch on it briefly. To summarise what we just heard, we begin with a Samaritan village rejecting Jesus and his m...

A Legion of DemonsIn great misery and nakedness, he wandered among the graves of the dead. He was in utter wretchedness, leading a disgraceful life. He was a proof of the cruelty of demons and a plain demonstration of their impurity. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on LukeThese are the words of the early Church Father Cyril of Alexandria, describing the plight of the man possessed by a legion of d...

Pentecost 2025For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.”Isaiah 30:15The Turmoil of the World and the Silence of God ContrastedIn silence, not in the turmoil and noise, God enters into the innermost depths of our being. Father Marie-Eugene de l’Enfant-Jésus was right when he wrote…“This divin...