Sermons by Jacob Theunisz, BSc, BTh, usually preached in St. Anna and St. Mary’s Haarlem.
I am sure you are familiar with it, if you have a garden or a balcony. You have some plants or seedlings growing, and before you know it, there is some grass or some weeds growing as well, sometimes even more aggressively than what you planted yourself. And most of the time [...]
It doesn’t happen very often, nowadays, that the media refer to Bible stories. Recently, however, I read at least two references to today’s gospel reading about king Herod. First of all the pope, on a visit to Asia, compared those who build walls and separate children from their parents, or hold them in prison camps, [...]
The gospels contain many stories of miraculous healings, both by Jesus himself and by the apostles. But even in the Bible there are also many cases of people who are not healed, like Paul’s famous thorn in the flesh, and the illnesses of Epaphroditus, Timothy and Trophimus. It is important to realise that in the [...]
When I say “distractions”, what comes to mind? I think one of the top distractions of today must be our smartphone. If we are not careful, it uses up all our spare time, time which we could have used to reflect on things, like the direction of our lives, on how to forgive someone, or [...]
The Saturday before Easter used to be a popular day to be baptised. You were given a white robe, and you would wear it until this Sunday, the Sunday after Easter. Then the real challenges would start, how to live your ordinary life in a Christian way. The ecstasy was nearly over, now you had [...]
This morning we are as it were invited to join the crowds at the shore of the lake of Gennesareth. Imagine you have come to listen to this strange new teacher, Jesus. He has already performed several miracles, like casting out an unclean spirit in Capernaum, healing Peter’s mother in law and then healing or [...]
In today’s gospel story, James and John are lobbying to sit on the right and the left hand of Jesus in His Kingdom. In St. Luke’s version of the story, it is the mother of James and John who does the lobbying. Now in itself there is nothing wrong with wanting to be close to [...]
All three of today's readings are about strength and new courage. Strength to continue, strength to make a new beginning, especially if a long period of setback, of failure or uncertainty has preceded. And finding the strength to help others. How do you do that as a human being? And how does this work as [...]
Some years ago, Revd. Sam van Leer, who is now our Area Dean, shared a video clip with a funny cartoon about St. Patrick. Two Irish brothers ask St. Patrick to explain the Trinity to them in simple terms, because they don’t understand difficult theological language, or so they say. So St. Patrick tries several [...]
It was in the middle of January 2016 and the ecumenical service in the RC Bavo Basilica was over. Two people were rushing into the vestry when I was just about to leave. One of them commented on the organ intro and called it dreadful and unsuitable. The other, an altar server at the Bavo, just [...]
