Fr Luke Miller

This annual sermon was instituted  in the will of John Norton, d 1612 to be preached annually at the beginning of Lent in S Paul's Cathedral. Readings 1 Kngs 19:1-9   Matthew 9:14-19 We began with the Elgar Ave Verum Corpus  sung so brilliantly by the choir of the Stationers' Crown Woods Academy . John Norton was granted the office of King's Printer in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew in 1603, following the accession of James I. Norton, a Shropshire man who started out in the printing and book trade in Edinburgh, was a great supporter of the new King. Indeed he was probably involved in the machinations behind the scenes in 1601 to ensure that James would succeed Elizabeth I, and in 1603 his press in London rushed out James’s manifesto on good government, Basilikon Doron selling thousands of copies in London before the King himself arrived in the south. In this Norton demonstrated the development of his business: the first Edinburgh edition of 1599 sold just seven ...

Ecclesiastes27:4-8 1 Cor 15:54-58 Luke 6:39-45 Danke für die Einladung auf Deutsch zu predigen. Ich hoffe das Wort Gottes nicht durch mein schlechtes Deutsch behindert werden wird.  Ich habe viel zu lernen. Und das ist der Bedeutung von unserem heutigen Predigttext. Wir haben alle viel zu lernen. Ein Junger steht nicht über dem Meister. Unser Meister ist Christus, und egal was unsere Sprache ist, es ist von ihm dass wir lernen müssen. Und was müssen wir denn lernen? Was ist unser Lernziel? Jüngern Christi zu werden und gute Fruchte hervorzubringen. Es geht in unserer ersten Lesung um ‚die Prüfung‘ und die Erprobung des Menschen. Und im heutigen Evangelium spricht von dem ‚guten Menschen.‘ Die Jungen Christi sind ganz menschlich; und laut Heiliger Irenaeus: Das Leben des Menschen ist die Schau Gottes; der Jünger steht nicht über dem Meister, aber, muss wie sein Meister sein. Wir müssen deswegen überhaupt wollen wie Christus sein. S Benet's Ke...

A Sermon preached at the church of S Sepulchre without Newgate, at the Institution of The Rev’d David Ingall Titus 2:1-14; Luke 17:7-10 Titus 2:13  Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. Why are we doing all this? Pomp and circumstance, celebration and legal formularies; all to mark the beginning of something which began some time ago. It is not, David, because of you. Do not get me wrong, you have done an absolutely brilliant job, and we are all really grateful to you for all the work that you have put in. It has been wonderful that the Patrons have agreed with all of us locally that there is no one else more suited to carrying forward the work here at S Sepulchre’s. But actually, we would not mark that with all of this. The Lord is clear with a message almost harsh in its austerity: “ when y ou have done everything you were to...

Fr George Congreve In 1866 Fr Benson, Father Founder of the Society of S John the Evangelist, ( SSJE ) conducted an interesting correspondence on the matter of vows with Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford in seeking his original permission to establish his ‘college of clergymen’. Responding to Wilberforce’s initial refusal to allow the new Society vows, Benson wrote: “ the blessedness of a vow consists in the faith that God will give special gifts as a covenant to those who thus definitely give up some possible future of earthly enjoyment for him ” naturally, it would be “mischievous to make a thing accidentally sinful to ourselves which would not be sinful naturally.” Faith however “seeks to give up natural possibilities for divine promises.” Writing in 1896 George Congreve, a slightly younger member of the Society became in the 1890s the great teacher in the Church  of England about  how to form  and live the Religious Life. also commented on Vows: “the Religious vow...

Dedication of a memorial plaque to seven Jesuit priests hanged drawn and quartered at Tyburn and interred at S Giles in the Fields A sermon preached in the week of prayer for Christian Unity at Evensong to mark the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the burial at S Giles in the Fields of seven victims of the "Popish Plot". Bishop Paul McAleenan, Auxiliary Bishop in the Diocese of Westminster was in choir, and the plaque was unveiled by Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, Parish Priest of The Church of the Immaculate Conception Farm Street 1 Cor 1:25 The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men The Plaque at S Giles Church A little while ago we were having one of those meetings in which we were thinking about the mission action planning of the church over the next few years. Then in the midst of all this strategizing, someone asked simply, Do we expect persecution? A foolish question? But the foolishness of God is wiser than m...

A Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Family Luke 2: 41-52   Luke 2:49   “ Why were you searching for me?”  he asked.  “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Our Father who art in Heaven ; at the very beginning of our prayers is the language of the family. It is repeated all through scripture, and is characteristic of Christ’s teaching about God. He could have used the language Lordship, “you call me Master and Lord, and rightly so, for so I am.” ( John 13:13 ) But he preferred the titles of relationship and love: Son of Man; Son of God. He said that anyone who does the will of the Father is “my sister and mother and brother.” ( Matthew 12:46-50 ) The language of family relationships is used in Scripture to describe the profundities of our relationship with God: the church is the “bride of Christ” and Christ is her Head as the husband is the head of the household. ( Ephesians 5:25-33 ) Despite the failure of some fathers, and concern about ...

When He came into the World He said, “Behold I come to do your will.” Hebrews 10:5;7 Are we nearly there? Some homes are full of children brimming with excitement. Others are just jaded with weeks of anticipation. We have gone through Black Friday  and Cyber Monday and goodness knows what. Office Christmas parties and school plays and lunch club Christmas lunches all the other anticipations of Christmas make almost any assertion of the need to keep Advent seem out of touch at best, and at worst, so stubbornly insensitive most people’s experience that we are making ourselves irrelevant by hanging on to the purple and the restraint and saying ‘yes, we are nearly there, but we are not there yet.’ We are very nearly there: but not quite yet! The Christ Child is with us: His incarnation began when He took flesh in His mother’s womb. Nine months ago on Lady Day, the Feast of the Annunciation , 25 March we celebrated his coming to earth. Angels in Nazareth; the unexpecte...