• Sermon - Year C

    23rd Sunday in Ordinary time

    In the light of Jesus’ demand in today’s gospel, I cannot be His disciple because I love my mum; you know, she’s the only mum I have! On the other hand, I could have qualified for that sort of discipleship when I was an angry teenager; I hated my father, and I believed I had good reasons for that. But…

  • Sermon - Year C

    22nd Sunday in Ordinary time

    ‘Do you know who I am?’ asked a man angrily at an airport check-in desk. A resolute attendant manning the desk grabbed the microphone and asked over the PA system: ‘Can anyone help? This man doesn’t know who he is.’ This is an old joke, but I couldn’t find one any better than this; and it pops into my mind…

  • Sermon - Year C

    21st Sunday in Ordinary time

    A couple of weeks ago at the High Court in Glasgow a man received a life sentence and was jailed for a minimum of 27 years. The convicted man was a taxi-driver who’d travelled 200 miles from Bradford to kill a shopkeeper he had known only from seeing videos on the Internet. The murdered man’s ‘crime’? His interpretation of Islam…

  • Sermon - Year C

    19th Sunday in Ordinary time

    There was no advance warning. The plane was approaching the airport in a controlled manner. Nothing looked to be out of the ordinary. But when the moment came for the plane to touch down, it made a hard landing. So hard in fact that oxygen masks descended and smoke filled the cabin. Then hell broke loose. Panicking passengers tried to…

  • Sermon

    Speyfest Celtic Kirk Service

    “How’s the flat you’re living in in London, Aidan?” asks his mother when he calls home to Aberdeen. “It’s okay,” he replies, “but the woman next door keeps screaming and crying all night, and the guy on the other side keeps banging his head on the wall.” “Never you mind,” says his mother, “don’t you let them get to you,…