Preached at Carlisle Cathedral

Carlisle Cathedral has a special form of torture that it reserves for its friends. It invites them back to preach on its feast day, which is wonderful, and Jean and I are so glad to be here – and then confronts them with the Trinity as the obvious subject for the sermon. Ouch! Having to live up to Bishop Michael Curry who is so fresh in folks’ memory just adds insult to injury. I am reminded of the new curate, a short chap like me, who was told by his vastly experienced six-foot incumbent to preach on Zacchaeus. Not so bad, you might think, but he was incapacitated with nerves; so on ascending the huge pulpit he kept his sermon short: “Zacchaeus was a little man. So am I. Zacchaeus was up a tree. So am I. Zacchaeus got down. So will I. Amen.” Read more of this post