Matthew | Ten foolish bridesmaids, embraced

Ten bridesmaids. We may hear this story as a Boy Scout lesson: Be prepared! Then we find some sick hungry homeless people, in order to earn our service badge and win the approval of our scoutmaster-king. But some of us are less confident about our belonging, and hear the story differently. Tonight from Sanctuary ... read here or listen here.

Luke | Promises, paradise, and the vastness of love

Luke's joyful gospel provides a powerful antidote to the forces which seek to scapegoat the vulnerable.

Read here or listen to an older version here.

The courage to be worthless

The parable of the talents challenges us to speak truth to power, whatever the consequences. 

Read here, or listen here.

We need to talk about hell

Some of us grew up with threats of hell, that burning lake of fire and brimstone into which the sinful will be cast at death to their everlasting fiery torment. Given how regularly hell comes up in many a church’s preaching and in popular culture, and given how graphically it is described, you might wonder why I never mention it here. Am I avoiding all the nasty bits of the Bible? Well, no—but I think it’s time we had that little chat: we need to talk about hell ...

Read here, or listen here.

Touching the untouchable in you and me

When I was fourteen, our family moved to Washington, DC. I will never forget the day we arrived. We drove downtown, and everywhere I looked, I saw tents and tarpaulins, refrigerator boxes and flapping plastic sheets. ‘What’s happening?’ I asked, ‘I mean, what’s with all the tents?’ I had never seen a homeless person before, and I didn’t understand that this is how many people live. And I never became accustomed to it: that, in the capital city of the richest country in the world, thousands of people live on the streets ...

Read here, or listen here.

Senator Anning vs Christo-Cannibalism, and the New Community of Love

For many years, our family shared Christmas lunch with friends and strangers. We’d put the word out, and eat with whoever wanted. One year, it was huge. Friends, and friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends, all turned up at our door. Some of them I knew and loved; others, I hadn’t met before. But gradually I came to realise: almost everyone there was gay. And almost everyone came from a religious family, which had rejected them because of their sexuality ...

Read here, or listen here.

A reflection on John 6:51-58, given to Sanctuary on 19 August 2018 (BP15; Year B Proper 15) © Alison Sampson, 2018.