Purple magnolia

A sermon preached by the Rev’d Natasha Woodward At All Saints', Orpington 6.30pm Evensong, Sunday 14 September 2008 (Holy Cross) Isaiah 53.1-16; 1 Cor 1.18-25 We have heard from many scientists in the media this week, and journalists trying – with more or less success – to understand and communicate what they are saying. I think it's fair to say that scientists – and most especially nuclear physicists - can't communicate to the vast majority of the world the vast majority of what they are doing. There is a sense in which what they are doing is just incommunicable to most of us – we simply do not have the will or ability or time to get to grips with this highly complex, and developed sphere of knowledge. I have sympathy for the scientists, in their difficulties of communication, for religious truths and ideas are also very difficult to communicate. But I think it's in a different kind of way. Religious truths have something about them – because they are about God –

A sermon preached by the Rev’d Natasha Woodward At All Saints' Church, Orpington 9.30am Eucharist, Sunday 3 August 2008 , Genesis 32.22-31; Matthew 14.13-21 This is the 4th instalment of the story of Jacob. Some previous parts of his story – edited highlights - have been read in church on the Sundays in July. If you read the whole story of Jacob from chapter 25 of Genesis, you might notice that wrestling is a theme of Jacob's life. Looking back, he struggled with his brother Esau, literally from the womb. He struggled with his father-in-law, Laban, he struggled with his domestic situation – he had a good old rant in chapter 31 listing all the difficulties of his adult life. The bible even uses the word "wrestling" in relation to his wife Rachel, who struggled to have a child. Here We have heard now about Jacob wrestling with this strange man – and this seems to be an image of the way that many things were struggle for him. We all know, I think, that sometimes li