Last Wednesday, on Christmas Day, we celebrated the coming of God in Jesus Christ into this world. This is one of the great feasts of the Christian year and we longed for it during the season of Advent. As with all good things but especially with Christmas, we can’t wait till we have it, and open our presents a bit earlier, which sometimes means we run the risk of having had our Christmas joy before…
Walking in the Way of the Cross There are few books or movies that have spoken more to people in the past decades than Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’. In this story we are witnessing the battle between the fellowship of the ring and the dark lord Sauron. It is a battle between good and evil, between freedom and slavery, between life and death. Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas lead the battle against Sauron’s armies.…
It was in the evening of 24th of June in 1859 when Henry Dunant arrived in the Italian place Solferino. That day a massive battle had taken place between the French and Austrian armies that had killed and wounded tens of thousands. Medical support at the battlefield was almost non-existent. The French army had more vets for their horses, than doctors for their soldiers. When Henry Dunant saw this, he went to a nearby village…
In this Holy Week, we are following Jesus on his journey through Jerusalem. Two days ago, on Palm Sunday we were standing on the side of the road, waving with our palm branches and our palm crosses, when He was riding on his donkey into Jerusalem. And doing so, Jesus was fulfilling the prophesy by Zechariah: ‘Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and…
Tomorrow it will be blue Monday. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this, but it is supposedly the most depressing day in the year. It is always the third Monday of January; the holidays are over, we’ve already failed our New Year’s resolutions and the summer break is far away. And like on every Monday, even the weekend seems to be ages ahead. Fortunately, as Christians, we don’t have to despair in January because…
Let the thoughts of my mind and the mediations of all our hearts always be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen. After this sermon we will confess with the words of the Nicene Creed that we believe in God the creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. It is easy for us to recognise God in the visible creation, we are every day reminded of…
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts always be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen. As you might have noticed in the past week, summer has arrived. For most of us the summer season is a source of happiness and joy. A period of rest and an excellent opportunity to set apart more time to do what we really like. Summer is however…
Today is the Feast of Epiphany, and Three King’s day. Growing up in a low (or non-) liturgical church and only being in this church for three years, I still have a lot to catch up when it comes to these kind of liturgical seasons and feast days. Three kings is quite simple, it’s an obvious reference to the wise men from the East, but it is, especially as a non-native English speaker, quite hard…