Fr Luke Miller

John 20:9 Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Sermon Preached at S Mary Paddington Green Easter Day 2018 The resurrection is not described in the Gospel. What is described is the way that the followers of Jesus came to realise it had happened. Peter and John running to the tomb and finding it empty, with that wonderful human detail that makes it so real: John is younger and can run faster, but Peter, the elder, impetuous Peter, he is the one who goes into the tomb first. The women meeting the angels but, “do not look for the living among the dead.” Mary of Magdala does not recognize Him, but supposed Him to be the gardener . Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead. If they hadn’t how can we – how can we understand the teaching of scripture that He has risen from the dead? Because He has – this our whole purpose in being here today,...

S Andrew by the Wardrobe is host to an Indian Orthodox congregation. They cast petals on the ground on their Palm Sunday procession. Seeing them there as I came home yesterday put me in mind of a poem of S Therese of Lisieux, An Unpetalled Rose The text is here . The poem meditates on the first trembling steps of the child Jesus, beginning with what seems the sentimental desire to unpetal a rose 'So that your little foot might rest ever so softly on a flower.' The wobbling attempts of the toddler are but the first steps on the way of the Cross. The poet realises this as she suggests that her life should be unpetalled; not standing proud like the flowers in the vase, but unpetalled and cast on the processional path: 'The rose in its splendor can adorn your feast... but the unpetalled rose is just flung out to blow away... like it, with joy I abandon myself to you." So often we want to be heroes of the faith, obvious in our devotion, strangely selfish in our ver...

As I came back from meeting on March 21, 2017 I was called by a colleague who told me that I should look at the news. Almost the same time my phone buzzed with a message from the police chaplain. I lead for the Faith Sector across Greater London for what is known as "resilience". That means that I chair the group that tries to make sure that people of faith respond well in the face of major incidents. That afternoon I was in touch with the police chaplain was with his colleagues providing support for officers, and with the chaplain to Parliament who was locked down with MPs and peers, staff and all those others who had been in the Palace of Westminster at the time of the attack. Every incident leaves us with a lot to learn. A few days after the attack I had a conversation with the lead chaplain at St Thomas's Hospital about a vigil they were holding. Thousands of patients and staff had seen the incident and that community needed hel...

Sermon Preached at S Martin of Tours Ruislip Lent 3 2018 John 2:19 Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up Exodus 20:1-17 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 John 2:13-25 The events of today’s Gospel are set on a building site . The original Temple of Solomon  was destroyed by the Babylonians; the rebuilt Second Temple had been destroyed by the Greeks; now Herod was building a new one. But there were insecurities. In Scripture there were hints that the Temple would not last forever. Jeremiah for example predicted the destruction of the temple. The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that around A.D. 62 one Jesus bar Ananias warned of a coming destruction, and there was tension in the air, a sense of fragility and impending failure. The Future of the Church I spent quite a lot of time last week in the same kind of atmosphere of concern, tension and worry about the future of the church. You are 80 times more likely to find an 80-year-old in church then yo...

Sermon for the London Diocesan Senior Staff  26 February 2018 Readings:  Daniel 9:4-10 ; Luke 6:36-38 The church  of which I am Rector in the city of London uses only the Book of Common Prayer of 1662. This has reacquainted me with the regular use of the rite which I knew in my youth. It is famous for his bloodcurdling confessions. We are to “acknowledging and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness.” And to acknowledge that we have “offended against thine holy laws, done those things which we ought not have done”, and to recognise that that “there is no help in us.”  In this Cranmer is channelling Daniel who, in the context of the exile of the people into Babylon was clear that the cause of punishment was the failure of righteousness, treason against God, sin. Daniel’s lengthy prayer, a portion of which we had for our first reading this morning, cries out to God in sorrow and penitence. All good stuff for Lent. The Altar S Andrew by the Wardrobe ...

Sermon at the Licencing of Andrew Tyler as the Director of the S Marylebone Healing & Counselling Centre Sickness not a punishment for sin Jonah was sent to the great city of Nineveh to call it to repentance and to bring it healing from sin. We have it on the authority of the Lord himself that sickness is not a punishment for sin. Remember the man born blind, and the crowds asked him “who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” And Jesus replied that he was blind not because of his sin, nor the sin of his parents but in order that the glory of God might be revealed in him. S Marylebone Parish Church Called to reveal the glory of the Lord All of us, in sickness and in health, are called to be those in whom of the glory of the Lord is revealed. For that glory to be revealed in Jonah, he had to be cured of his disinclination to do the will of God, of his fear, and as we know, also of his self-righteousness. We all know the story. Jonah tried to run ...

A lovely evening tonight at the Pattenmakers ' Feast at the Mansion House. This was my sermon at S Margaret Pattens last year for Asension Day at which the Company celebrated the 300th anniversary of the granting of Livery . Ascenciones in Corde ‘Liftings up of the Heart.’ Shoes are a sign of the fall. As indeed are all clothes, but perhaps most clearly, shoes. Our shoes are the point at which we are connected to the ground, reminded that we are creatures of the Earth, unable to rise up above the dirt of the earth. Pattens were an attempt to lift us up over the grime of the streets; they tried to protect our fine shoes, and to keep our feet from becoming smelly – or too smelly. They are quite literally ‘little ascensions,’ raising us up, even if only a little way, above the sorrowful dirt.  The Ascension might at first seem to be an overly literal fable. A rounding off of the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus with him disappearing into the sky. If you g...