The Road to Iceland

Bombers fly overhead, in the Blitz of London during WWII. A boy opens curtains to see outside, and the bombs rain down. A family runs for a bomb shelter, and the boy runs back to save a picture – of his father. He risks everything and everyone, for that. So begins a journey of four children – sent far out of London into the country, to the home of a professor -   there are no other children around, just a housekeeper. Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are separated from their mother, for safety. And we see a rainy dreary day, in a strange old house with plenty of odd nooks and crannies. A day for playing “hide and seek” indoors – a day for going through unknown doors and finding different worlds. Doors which open into empty rooms, spare rooms, empty closets – and for sliding into a wardrobe full of fur coats. Lucy Pevensie enters the wardrobe, pushing backwards through the coats and expecting to find a back to the wardrobe, but instead there are more and mor...

When they came to the place called “The Skull”, they crucified Jesus there, along with the criminals - one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And the soldiers divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what we deserve for the deeds we committed. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he...

Isaiah 65: For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.   But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,   and its people as a delight.   I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days,   or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,   and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.   They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,   and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.   They shall not labo...

    “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” This sermon is dedicated to my Dad, Rev. Russell Vickers, who died at the end of January 2004. In going through Dad’s sermons, I found one specifically about Hallowe'en, All Hallows and All Saints. The sermon is also dedicated to my mother, Kay Vickers, whose birthday was November 1, All Saints Day. The sermon grew until it became a paper presented at a conference on Hallowe’en in Glasgow, and the following year was published in the book “Treat or Trick: About 15 years ago, I saw a news item about a family which considered Hallowe’en 'un-Christian', especially the dress...