Beats as it sweeps as it cleans

I like services which have lots in them – particularly when you have to make the effort to make things which don’t actually belong together seem to be part of the same event. St Andrews, St Andrews was like that this morning – overwhelmingly focused on the early weeks of Trevor Hart’s ministry and energy simmering all over the place. So I turned up this morning for Harvest … and Dorian’s Confirmation … and they were having a preaching series on I Timothy as well. The only thing we didn’t do was to launch a ship.

The sermon was timed by a parishioner at 9 minutes. I didn’t dare to ask him whether that was the sole criterion of good preaching for him. But I had a script and, for once, stuck to it. You’ll want to know how I did it in the time – with mentions of Sudan and snakes in Hong Kong as well. Here it is