Irreverend: Sermon Audio: Recent Episodes

J.A. Franklin, T.J. Pelham, Daniel French

Weekly sermon audio from reverends Jamie Franklin, Daniel French and Thomas Pelham. Preaching the Scriptures and demonstrating their eternal relevance to our lives and to this world. Please join us! This is the sister podcast to Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, a weekly discussion show in which we talk about contemporary events from the perspective of Christian faith and theology. To listen to our sister podcast, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com!

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Ash Wednesday. Joel 2:1-2,12-17.

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A sermon for Candlemas, taken from Luke 2:22-40, given by the Rev'd Dr Jamie Franklin.

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Speaking from Matthew 14:22-33, Rev Jamie Franklin encourages listeners to shun the empty futility of the demonically busy world and adopt instead the practices of Jesus in silence, solitude and prayer. And this in preparation for the great storms of life that we all face.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Rev Daniel French's sermon given at Holy Trinity Church based on Luke 9. 28-36 reminds us that as Christians there is a mountain to climb and a Christianity without the mountain is no Christianity at all. 

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Speaking from Matthew 13:44-46, Jamie Franklin asks how we are to make sense of the unblushing promises of joy and gain made to us by Christ and the Scriptures. Isn't being a Christian all about being a boring hypocrite? And how does taking up our cross fit with this talk of happiness?
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking on the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, Jamie Franklin answers the question of how we in a tolerant age can believe in God's judgment of humanity. Isn't God unloving and unmerciful to consign some of us to the fiery furnace of which Christ speaks in this passage? How can we understand and apply these most challenging words of Jesus today?
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking from Matthew 13:1-23, Rev'd Jamie Franklin challenges us to hear the voice of God with desire, depth and attention and to recognise the joy that bearing fruit in the Christian life will bring to us.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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For Trinity Sunday, Jamie Franklin speaks about the way that the persons of the Holy Trinity reveal the truth of the statement in 1 John 4:16, "God is love".
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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In this sermon for the feast of Pentecost, Rev Jamie Franklin says that those who receive the Holy Spirit can be set free from fear and know true and lasting peace and joy in this life. And not only that but that disciples of Christ can be empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry out the Lord's calling in their lives.
He also offers some thoughts about how you can go about seeking the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. There are many ways.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Rev. Jamie Franklin speaks from 1 Peter 4:13-16 and John 17:1-11 on what it means (and what it does not mean) to share in the sufferings of Christ for faithfulness to God.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking from John 10:1-10, Rev. Jamie Franklin explains why the claims of Christ for his own self-importance are so shocking and uncompromising, why the voices of false and antichrists must be rejected, and he encourages to listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd and enter the doorway which leads to life.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking from the story of the Road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-35, Jamie Franklin encourages listeners that, though the Christian faith acknowledges the great darkness that we all encounter at times, nevertheless the presence of the risen Christ is offered to us if we are able to receive him with the eyes of faith.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Alleluia! Christ is risen! Happy Easter friends. In this special sermon for Easter Eve, we ponder the glorious implication of Christ's redemption: the redemption of our souls, bodies and the rest of the universe.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Today, we are reminded of the greatest saying of Christ: not only that he gives us what we need for life, but that he islife itself, and that he will bring us through death and into life, both now and forever. Speaking from the story of the revival of Lazarus from the tomb, Rev'd Jamie Franklin exhorts us to seek the life-giving power of Christ in this life and to put our trust in him for eternity.
The two Scripture readings referenced today are Ezekiel 37:12-14 and John 11:1-45.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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For the Third Sunday of Lent, Jamie Franklin speaks about the literal-mindedness of various characters in the Gospels including the Samaritan Woman, who we encounter today in our reading from John 4:5-42.
It is easy to laugh at all of these comical misunderstandings but do they reveal something to us about the poverty of our own spiritual condition and our need to take hold of the penitential season of Lent as a remedy? What can we learn about the difference between literal food and drink and the heavenly food and drink about which Jesus speaks, and how does this apply to our own desires?
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking of the story of Christ's temptation in the Wilderness, Jamie Franklin contends that suffering is a normal part of life and offers us an opportunity for growth towards holiness and change. This should be embraced rather than avoided and that is what the season of Lent is all about.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking from Leviticus 19:1-2 and Matthew 5:38-48, Rev'd Jamie Franklin demonstrates the connection between ethics and participating in the character of God and offers the encouragement that this change happens gradually as we make day-to-day decisions to be faithful to him.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking from Matthew 4:12-23, Jamie Franklin answers the central questions about the necessary practice of repentance: What is repentance? Why is it necessary? How do we go about it? How often should we do it? And what are its fruits? He encourages listeners that is only through repentance that we can draw closer to God and heal our broken relationships with other people.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord from Matthew 3:13-17, the Rev'd Dr Jamie Franklin shows us that the Gospel is God's gift to the world and not something that we conjure up by our own efforts. He also reflects upon the significance of baptising his infant child Alexander and the responsibility of parents, godparents and the household of faith towards children.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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During this Christmas season, we must recognise that Jesus Christ was born into the midst of a cosmic battle between good and evil. He would bear the light sacrificially through his life of witnessing to the truth. In him, we are called to continue the struggle. Rev'd Jamie Franklin speaks from Isaiah 9:1-7 and Luke 2:1-14, encouraging us to take our place in this battle wherever and however we are called.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Rev Daniel French preaches on Isaiah 35.1-10 reminding us that God has not created us for perpetual  spiritual exile but in Jesus offers a Holy Way out.  When times are really tough or we are in deepest anxiety the Bible  wants us know that God’s will draw us out. 

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The wild man in the desert preaches a gospel of repentance to prepare the way for God's Christ. Are we prepared to allow God to interrupt our socially comfortable and respectable existences and to address our souls in the way that he chooses?
For this second Sunday of Advent, Rev'd Jamie Franklin speaks from Matthew 3:1-12 and encourages listeners to heed the words of John the Baptist: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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The modern world does everything in its power to numb our spiritual senses and distract our souls from longing for the presence of Christ in our lives. Advent gives us a special opportunity to push back.
For this First Sunday of Advent, Rev'd Jamie Franklin encourages listeners to heed the words of Christ in Matthew 24:37-44: "Watch, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming."
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking from Luke 20:27-38, Rev'd Jamie Franklin looks at Christ's teaching that there there will be no marriage in heaven. What can we learn from this passage about the nature of the resurrection, and marriage, family and single life here on earth?
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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In this sermon for All Saints' Day, Rev'd Jamie Franklin argues that the Church is the community in which saints are made. Far from an individualistic and atomised understanding of the Christian faith, All Saints' Day helps us to consider the saints around us and in heaven and how these many images of Christ call us onward in our journey towards holiness.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking from the Luke's Gospel on the story of Zacchaeus the chief tax collector, Rev'd Jamie encourages us, like Zacchaeus, to recognise that our deepest need is met only in Christ and to realise that only his grace can truly lead to our transformation.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking from Jesus' parable in Luke 18:9-14, the Rev'd Jamie Franklin asks how we can cultivate humility and repentance in our Christian lives and avoid the peril of self-righteous religious pride.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube.
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking from Luke 17:11-19 and 2 Timothy 2:8-13, Rev'd Jamie Franklin asks what lessons we can learn from the thankful Samaritan who returned to Christ to give thanks for his healing from leprosy. Rev'd Jamie reminds us that no-one is disqualified from seeking the grace of God and that God is seeking that we remember the giver along with his gifts.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube!
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking from Luke 17:5-10, the Rev'd Jamie Franklin encourages listeners to have "mustard-seed faith" in daily acts of entrusting ourselves to God.
Seeing the world with the eyes of faith is also central to Harvest Festival, which the Church of England celebrates on Sunday 2nd October. In this festival we remember that all we have is a gift of God and that our offering of ourselves is an offering of what he has already given to us.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube!
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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Speaking from Luke 14:1,7-14, Rev'd Jamie Franklin invites us to shun religious pride and follow in the path of Jesus in humbling ourselves before God and men. We can do this by showing patient endurance in affliction, practicing daily repentance and serving those who cannot repay us.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube!
The music on this podcast was composed and recorded by Jamie Franklin and is to be set to the words to "Just as I am without one plea" by Charlotte Elliot.

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"Lord, teach us to pray," said the disciples to Jesus. Many people feel that they would like to pray more and better but they feel lost and without direction. In the words and actions of Jesus, we can find guidance and strength to draw closer to God. In this sermon we focus on our desires, our habits and what we might say to God when we pray, taking our cues from the great prayer that our Lord gave to us.
Our Scripture is taken from the Gospel of Luke 11:1-13 and was recorded by Revd Jamie Franklin.

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Revd Jamie Franklin speaks on the transforming power of God's love in Christ - how it changed the life of the Apostle Peter and how it might change us still today.
This sermon is taken from the Scriptures Acts 5:27-32,40-41, Rev. 5:1-11 and John 21:1-19.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube!

"Nottingham" (8.8.8.6) composed by Jamie Franklin.

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Rev Daniel French reflects on part of the apocalyptic discourse of Christ in Matthew 24. 4-14, "wars and rumours of wars."  This short talk is also a summary of the the first Lent talk that Daniel gave last Thursday.  The podcast is going out also on the Catacomb FM podcast.  How can raise Christians resilient to this difficult age?

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Speaking from Luke 4:1-13, Rev'd Jamie Franklin reflects on the temptation of Christ in the Wilderness. The Devil tempts Christ with bread, authority and a dramatic display of his power. But what is wrong with these things and how does imitating Christ in his rejection of them affect our own discipleship? Additionally how might we resist temptation during the season of Lent and more generally in our own lives?
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube!

"Nottingham" (8.8.8.6) composed by Jamie Franklin.

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Rev Jamie Franklin speaks from Joel 2:12-17 and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 on the challenge and promise of Lent.
What is Lent and how should we engage with it? How can we guard ourselves from legalism and hypocrisy? What special opportunities does Lent hold out for us as we seek to draw closer to the Lord through repentance, prayer and devotion?
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube!

"Nottingham" (8.8.8.6) composed by Jamie Franklin for use with "Just as I am, without one plea" by Charlotte Elliott.

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Speaking from Luke 6:39-45, Reverend Jamie Franklin gives some ideas about how we might pursue a non-judgmental approach to life. Christ's teaching helps us to see that, rather than going around pointing the finger at other people, we should first focus on repenting of our own sin and learning from godly examples that the Lord has put around us.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube!

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Reverend Jamie Franklin speaks from 1 Samuel 26 and Luke 6:27-38 on one of the hardest aspects of our Christian life: loving our enemies. What does it mean to do this? Why does God ask us to do such a strange and counterintuitive thing? And are there are practical ways that we can approach this to make it easier?
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube!

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Speaking from Isaiah 6:1-8 and Luke 5:1-11, Rev Jamie Franklin touches on themes of faith at the point of weakness, repentance in response to God's holiness and the grace of God's absolution and forgiveness.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube!

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In this sermon based on Jeremiah 1:17-19 and Luke 4:21-30, Rev'd Jamie Franklin talks about the way that the Church and Christians can arrogantly reject the work and the word of God when it arises in their midst because it runs contrary to their expectations or because it hurts their religious pride. In place of this mindset, he suggests that, in order to be truly prophetic, we must be attentive to our sinfulness, cultivate humility and practice love for the world around us.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube!

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In this week's sermon, Jamie Franklin speaks from Nehemiah 8:2-10 arguing that, like the people of Israel at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Church today can be renewed through attention to the word of God and its faithful proclamation.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube!

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Rev'd Jamie Franklin speaks from John 2:1-11, the marriage at Cana in Galilee at which Jesus turned a lot of water into a lot of wine.
Jamie references three significances to this action: the wine of God's material provision for us in this life and our need to ask for it after the example of Mary; the wine of Jesus' blood, shed upon the cross to save us eternally from sin and death; and the wine of the Kingdom, which we will enjoy eternally with God at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Jamie encourages us to hold fast to faith in God's material and spiritual provision for us in Christ and to the hope of eternal life and rejoicing that await us.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube!

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Rev'd Jamie Franklin speaks on Luke 2:1-14 for Christmas Day. The story of Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem: Christmas is both subversive and saving. But we must humble ourselves to understand its mystery in God.
Thank you for supporting the sermon audio podcast this year. We hope you have enjoyed listening. As always our sister podcast Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs can be found on all major podcast providers and on YouTube!

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Rev'd Thomas Pelham's Christmas message for the service traditionally known as Midnight Mass.

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Rev Jamie speaks on Gaudete Sunday on our need to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ by ridding them of anxiety and the desire for material things. Only then can we truly rejoice in His presence with us.
This sermon is taken from Luke 3:10-17.
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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Humanity has always had two parallel stories, the official narrative and the  God story.  Rev Daniel explores what this can mean for Advent. 

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What are the signs that precede the end of the age and how should we live in light of them? How are Christians to read the signs of the times and what should our attitude be in the midst of fear and the distress and perplexity of the nations? Rev Jamie Franklin speaks from the teaching of Christ on all of these issues.
This sermon is taken from Luke 21:25-28, 34-36.
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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Sunday marks the end of the liturgical year with the feast of Christ the King. In this sermon, Rev Jamie Franklin speak about five marks of Christ's Kingdom and how they compare with the kingdoms of the earth.
The readings for the sermon are taken from Daniel 7:13-14, Revelation 1:5-8 and John 18:33-37.
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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This audio sermon is a sample of an introductory guide to Christianity that Daniel is working on with ten other writers.  Please free to share and comment. He would welcome any feedback, suggestions for subjects to be explored.  We hope that this will be published sometime next year in the UK and US.  His email is cybervicar@gmail.com

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In this special sermon for All Souls Day, the Revd Jamie Franklin speaks on the subject of the faithful departed. What is a Christian view of death, dying and grief? And how does the death and resurrection change our perspective on these most significant parts of life?
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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In this sermon for All Saints Day, Revd Jamie Franklin encourages listeners to make it their aim in life to join in the worship of the Communion of the Saints in heaven. The world will oppose us and try and co-opt us into its agenda, but we must resist and keep our eyes on the prize!
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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Taken from the story of Bartimaeus the blind man, Rev'd Jamie Franklin speaks about the broken image of God in humanity and how the realisation of our sinfulness and God's grace invites us to call out to Jesus Christ for mercy.
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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Sermon by Rev Daniel French for harvest.. This sermon is based on Matthew 21. 33-44. The parable of the wicked tenants highlights what trying to construct a way of life without God looks like.   Here we should not worry so much about the fuel running out as the love and compassion.   A world without God at the centre easily becomes a tyranny.  

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A slightly different type of sermon this week as Rev Jamie Franklin shares his thoughts on St Cyprian's saint's day, which falls on the 16th September each year. Cyprian was an extremist both in his radical discipleship of the cross and in his love for the Church. What can we learn from him and from other extremists today?
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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In this week's sermon, Rev Jamie Franklin speaks about the cross of the Messiah: its uniqueness, its subversive power and its calling on our lives.
The readings for this particular sermon come from Isaiah 50:5-9 and Mark 8:27-35.
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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In this week's sermon, Rev Jamie Franklin speaks about the way that the Church occupies the times between Christ's two comings and what this means for her mission and ministry.
The readings for this particular sermon come from Isaiah 35:4-7, James 2:1-5 and Mark 7:31-37.
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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In this week's sermon, Rev Jamie speaks to us from Mark 7:1-8, 14-23 on the topic of good and bad religion. What is bad tradition? Is there good tradition? What is bad ritual? Can there be good ritual? And why does everyone's favourite religious bad guys, the Pharisees, get this so wrong?
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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A short sermon based on St Paul's Ephesians 6 'Armour of God'. Rev Daniel French ponders on the fact that since Covid19 many people are contacting him acknowledging that reality of the New Testament vision's of forces of darkness.  How should churches respond to this? Are we too invested in materialistic world vision that we dismiss this out of hand.  Daniel argues that we must live knowing that the Kingdom of God, the Light, is infinitely more powerful than the darkness.  Finally, we have to present the Church on Earth as the ark of God, and not a pleasure yacht.  

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This continues the series on John 6 by looking at verses 41 to 51 and asking whether during times of crisis we can all too easily jettison our core Christian beliefs. 

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This is a sermon by Rev Jamie Franklin taken from three passages from Sunday's lectionary: Jeremiah 23:1-6, Mark 6:30-34 and Ephesians 2:13-18. The people of God were far from him because they were led by false shepherds. Therefore they lacked an identity. And yet, they still had a desire to know God and to know truth. In the late modern west, we are not so different. How did we get here and how does the Gospel speak to our lost situation?
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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Ephesians 1. 3-14 is loaded with complex ideas about us inheriting blessings "in" Christ.  Paul's Letter begins with ariel view of what God has done for us.  The whole epistle wants us to be prepared for hardship, push back and oppression. So it begins by inviting us not to count our blessings (which may be difficult if we feel we have few) but instead to thank God for God, or more precisely to thank God for how Christ's blood has rescued us from the dominion of darkness.  In my sermon I recommend reading the whole of Ephesians which is six very short chapters.  

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How does God ask us to have faith in the world? What is the nature of faith? Why is God so obsessed with us having faith anyway? The Rev'd Jamie Franklin attempts to give some coherent thoughts on these matters from Mark 6:1-6.
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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Are you one of those people who is withdrawing into themselves as a consequence of lockdowns?  Perhaps you also fear speaking out because of political correctness? Maybe you no longer watch the news or even see the movies because you are tired of political subtext. So you withdraw.  God can fill the  'monastery of the mind' with light. Rev Daniel looks at the burning bush story Rev Daniel French for inspiration. 

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A sermon by the Rev'd Jamie Franklin, taken from the story of the calming of the storm in Mark 4:33-41.
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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A sermon from the Rev'd Jamie Franklin, taken from Jesus' two parables on the Kingdom of God and seeds in Mark 4:26-32.
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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Based on 2 Corinthians 4.13- 5.1 "We look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal."   As a new and timely book Laura Dobsworth's gripping 'A State of Fear' shows how we have become since Covid the plaything of government behavioural scientists.  They have been instrumental in scaring the life out of us. Our counter-op must be to find inner freedom, to pierce the cloudbase and see that there is but light and glory.  The clip I mention from the Matrix Trilogy is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR7fPyRT5Ck 

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A sermon preached by the Rev'd Jamie Franklin on Trinity Sunday. The Trinity is the most important and wonderful doctrine of the entire Christian faith and this sermon aims to explain why.
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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Scripture - Acts 2.1-4   Rev Daniel French explores the shallowness and dangers of imagining that we can negotiate religious altered states and spiritual gifts without God - as if Pentecost could be delivered in a pill form.  He argues instead for a deeper understanding of Christian religious experiences that involves not only the delightful but also the wounds of Christ and the suffering of the world. 

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Christ's ascension is real. It teaches us that Jesus is the Way, the Great High Priest and the King of Kings. And it accomplishes in us faith, hope and love.
Thanks for listening! For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com. 

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Sermon Given on the 2nd of May 2021
Gospel: John 15.1-8 

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Abide, obey, bear fruit. It's that simple, isn't it?
A sermon by Jamie Franklin taken from John 15:1-8.

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Reading Rod Dreher's 'The Benedict Option' it seems obvious that as the West becomes radically more godless churches are going to have to buckle up and knuckle under so that they can weather the storm. But, not all churches as spiritual communities are weatherproofed. So can we learn anything from Acts 4, and the Early Church experience?

"Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. " Acts 4. 32-35

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In this sermon, The Reverend Jamie Franklin talks about the implications of Christ returning to confront his own murderers. There is very good news here, but first some really bad news must be reckoned with.
The readings for this sermon are taken from Acts 3:13-19; 1 John 2:1-5 and the Gospel of Luke 24:35-48.
For our sister podcast, Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs, please go to https://irreverend.buzzsprout.com.