While it is yet day

Haddon Willmer

Church

  • Zacchaeus responds to the spirit of Jesus

    Soon, Christmas will be upon us, and we will hear words from the Fourth Gospel: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.’ That is the language of John. But today our reading comes…

  • Jesus Wept

    How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange country (Psalm 137)? How can a cheerful, or at least a cheering blog, be written in this world as it is, as we make it, as we let it go on being, as it looks like becoming? Jesus drew crowds to festivals of teaching, healing and food.…

  • Church

    Baptist Worship, July 2003 Worse  than a weary way, brought us  almost too worn to take any more at last  to The bread in the Lord’s Supper Surprise, gentle sure nourishment   How did we, ill-shod feet shuffling rough paths,  Death marching, come to such a grace station?    More  By perversity than perseverance Idle habit,  deference…

  • ‘For your to-morrows these gave their to-day’: sermon for Remembrance Sunday

    Sermon preached at Moortown Baptist Church on 10th November 2024, Remembrance Sunday. The texts for the sermon are: 14 At that time David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. 15 David longed for water and said, “Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!” 16 So…

  • Questions to ask when reading Luke’s parables 

    In a recent talk, Haddon points to a connection between Luke’s parables and Nathan’s parable in 2 Samuel 12. Luke’s stories are not like the puzzling parables which begin ‘the kingdom of heaven is like …’. They are more like Nathan’s parable in 2 Samuel 12. Nathan tells David a parable about a cruel rich…

  • What is a person?

    I wish to offer you a few comments at the beginning of this conference.  First, our question, What is a person? would appear to be a question looking for a definition as its appropriate answer. But in parallel with those in the Gospel who looked for a sign, we may say that this is a…

  • The silence of eternity, interpreted by love

    A sermon preached at the funeral of Barbara Dews, 11 April 2024. Barbara went to church and sang hymns through her long life. So they got woven into her heart and mind. They gave her language which made some sense of her experience, encouraged her, giving direction. And so it is not surprising that near her end, she…

  • Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?

    Sermon on Luke 7.18-23, preached at Moortown Baptist Church, 25 February 2024 You can watch this at the link below, from 26.40 – 56.40 minutes, followed by the hymn ‘Fold to your heart your sister and your brother‘.