TRISTAN SHERWIN

BLOGS

CHRISTMAS 2025 | EMPTY WRAPPERS

‘Each year at Christmas, a mysterious visitor comes to our house—always arriving at the exact moment the tub of Christmas chocolates is opened.’

CHRISTMAS 2025 | THE CHILD AND THE DRAGON

‘The quiet, unimpressive scenes of the Nativity (and up to the Resurrection) are what the cosmic battle of Revelation 12 looked like in history.’

Advent Week 3: Joy

‘Crying may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.’ Psalm 30:5b NCV Advent agitates our thirst. All of us, in one way or another, know what it is to be thirsty. Certain terrains in our lives feel desolate and abrasive — seasons where the emotional heat is relentless, where sorrow cracks us…

Advent Week 2: Peace

‘How long must I see the battle flags and hear the trumpets of war?’ Jeremiah 4:21 NLT Advent is a season of groaning. Heartache, despair, and frustration rise from the hidden places of our souls and take shape as petitions to God. When we whisper, murmur, or even cry out, “How long, O Lord…,” we…

Advent Week 1: Hope

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God… And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that…

UTTER … DESPAIR (PS. 77)

‘Lament, complaint, and even argument are not taboo. Venting to God is not sin — it is faith. Scripture doesn’t rebuke this. It records it. It honours it. It’s still the sound of prayer.’

UTTER … (ROM. 8:26-27)

‘Prayer, then, is not the achievement of perfect expression but the surrender to divine presence.’

FREE TO GOD | THE CROSS IN A FRACTURED WORLD (GAL. 6:11-18)

‘Jesus does not use the cross as a weapon of supremacy, a marker of dominance, but as a monument of sacrificial love, not a weapon of coercion, but a tree of communion with all those who have fallen short of the standard.’

FREE TO GOD | SUSPICIOUS MINDS (GAL. 4:8-20)

‘Paul expects the Galatians, who are not Jewish, to know this very Jewish story, and to see this story as their own story, even though he does not expect them to come under Jewish law.’

FREE TO GOD | TENSION IN THE OVERLAP (GAL. 1:1-10)

‘Galatians is not just a treaty on works and faith—it’s a manifesto about God’s new creation, about belonging in the family of Abraham, and about living in the tension between two worlds.’

RHYTHM | TEARS (LK. 7:36-50)

A message about compassion and solidarity. ‘Jesus never buys into, and never imprisons people within the personas and the problems that their societies, their sin or their stories have entombed them in.’

RHYTHM | RELEASE (LK. 6:27-36)

A message about the rhythm of forgiveness: ‘Enemy love and forgiveness are an aggressive act of pitting good against evil.’

CAROL SERVICE 2024 | YIPPEE KI-YAY

‘The Christmas story is a little like Die Hard. What started in that manger in Bethlehem was an all-out war against the forces that hold us and our world captive.’

SON OF MAN | AM I DANGEROUS? (MK. 14:27-52)

‘It reminds me of those scenes in the Frankenstein movies, or Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, when the villagers gather together with their pitchforks… We can’t be trusted to decide who the monsters are.’

SON OF MAN | EPHPHATHA (MK. 7:31-37)

‘There’s no power in these gestures, or this spit, in and of themselves. But they do speak powerfully about God’s willingness to be with us.’

SON OF MAN | THE STORM (MK. 4:35-41)

‘This is the first time his disciples have ever looked at Jesus and realised that he is incredible. I use the word incredible because it not only means extraordinary, but also hard to believe.’

SON OF MAN | INTO THE ABYSS (MK.1:1-11)

‘The cascading voice of the Father, the plunging body of the Son, the descending power of the Spirit—all of God is involved and invested in this condescending, deep-delving, self-emptying mission to redeem and restore humanity.’

GRAVE TO CRADLE | EPIC FAILS (EX. 32)

‘When times get difficult, things become uncertain, and life gets hot, there’s a tendency to throw our God-given value into those fires, at which point, idols jump out.’

GRAVE TO CRADLE | NOT GOOD (EX. 17 & 18)

‘Two meetings. Two sets of relatives. Two different responses. One takes advantage and exploits a weakness. The other seeks to strengthen what is weak.’

GRAVE TO CRADLE | THE BIRTH OF IT ALL (EX 1:1—2:10)

‘For all of its grand scenes to come, Exodus’ beginnings, as witnessed in its opening scenes, are formed from the committed loving acts of compassion that take place in an ashen world.’

THE GOOSE CHASE | GIFTS, Pt. 2 (1 COR. 12:1-13:3)

‘Paul emphasises the diversity of the one Spirit’s gifts. Everyone has a gift in the body of Christ, and that gift, however great or small we deem it, is as important as the others and is an amazing expression of God’s power.’

CAROL SERVICE 2023 | ADORABLE

‘When the shepherds and Magi worshipped Jesus, it was not some response to fear or forceful manipulation. It was inspired adoration.’

THE GOOSE CHASE | FRUIT (GAL. 5:13-26)

‘This fruit is not the product of me. It is the Spirit’s fruit, as the Spirit works to transform us from Scrooge to Ebenezer; from self-serving emperors in the Kingdom of Self, to servants in the Kingdom of God.’

THE GOOSE CHASE | UNFORGIVABLE? (MATT. 12:31)

‘The Spirit is not saying ‘get out’ to anybody. The Spirit is saying ‘Come. If you are thirsty, come—anyone who wants to, come. Come and drink the water of life without charge.’’

THE GOOSE CHASE | ACTS OF THE SPIRIT (ACTS)

‘The Holy Spirit, like Miss Rabbit, is the glue pulling and holding this community together, and the driving force that keeps this community moving forward.’

THE GOOSE CHASE | BEAUTIFIER (GEN. 1; EZEK. 37)

‘Again and again, the Spirit comes to the edges of disorder and chaos, and unsettles the norms, disrupts the habitual, rouses the dead and shakes the oppressive.’

Bad at Good Habits?

Another 6 months, another visit to the dental hygienist, and the same conversations… Every time I see her, like this morning, the hygienist asks the same question about whether I have been flossing on a regular basis. By regular, she means daily, at least. ‘I must confess,’ I said, ‘I leave here and I start…

BAPTISM SERVICE | WHY ARE YOU WET?

“In his death, once again, ultimately, once for all, God brings life out of an instrument of death, defanging death, and de-weaponising it.”

CHRIST | OLD WARDROBES & NARNIA MOMENTS (Col. 3:15—4:6)

‘Paul was not underwriting hierarchy, domination or self-assertion. Paul simply wants the message of Christ, the words of Christ, the teaching of Christ to dwell among us, embodied in our relationships.’

CHRIST | WHO ARE YOU? (Col. 2:6—15)

‘In a way, we are all like carrots. Like orange carrots selectively bred by Dutch farmers, we all, in some way, select what is important in defining who we are and how we express who we are.’

CHRIST | UNRIVALLED SUPREMACY (Col. 1:15–23)

‘Salvation is found in no one else, because no one else has the means nor the authority—the substance and the status—to achieve such a thing. No one except the Son. And, if the Son, the One with unrivalled supremacy, sets you free, then you are free indeed.’

CHRIST | ACCESS ALL AREAS (Col. 1:1-8)

‘If you want to know the whole of God, the depth of who God is, the so-called “hiddenness” of God, then Jesus has revealed it all.’

VAPOUR? | THE END OF IT (Ecc. 11:1-12:14)

“In light of all the tensions we face, the unanswered questions, the pain and joy, the disorientation we feel on a daily basis, the response the Narrator gives, and the invitation Jesus puts before us is, ‘keep having a faith that worships and a faith that walks’”

RESURRECTION SUNDAY | EASTER EGGS (JN. 20:1-18)

‘The hope Christianity declares is not death, nor a luxury version of it. It is death’s defeat we sing about as we look forward to our eventual bodily resurrection.’

VAPOUR? | PAIN & SORROW (Ecc. 3:16-4:3)

‘Qohelet just leaves us looking at the brokenness and the inhumanity and, rightly, I should add, reminds us that death is not a satisfactory answer to death’

CAROL SERVICE 2021 / GOD WITH US

‘There we would be, every Christmas, messing with a fish-shaped piece of cellophane. Maybe it was just for a laugh. But could it be that maybe, if we’re honest, we were, in some way, seeking to understand ourselves.’

CAROL SERVICE 2022 / LIGHT OF THE WORLD

‘In the midst of whatever darkness you find yourself in, Jesus invites you, not to pretend the darkness doesn’t exist, but to embrace him and walk in the light he offers.’

ENCOUNTERS / I ASSURE YOU (Lk. 23:26-43)

‘In the midst of all the darkness, ugliness, brutality, violence, mockery, condemnation, ignorance, hatred and cruelty which infests this scene (and which still plague our world), this want-to-be renegade hears the truly rebellious yell of Divine forgiveness, of love over hate, of light over darkness, of peace over violence. And he wants in.’

ENCOUNTERS / GO BACK AND TELL (LK. 8:26-39)

‘The one they sought to shackle is sat at Jesus’ feet; fully clothed, in his right mind, and at peace. Jesus exposes their inhumanity and their own ability to echo chaos.’

ENCOUNTERS / I WANT TO (MK. 1:40-45)

‘Tellingly, this disease afflicts this man’s skin, making it insensitive, and the community mimic the insensitivity of his condition by being desensitised to the man … This is the Gospel: God Touches Us.’

ONE ANOTHER // DON’T SNUB AN OTHER (1 COR. 12:12-13:3)

‘Like our physical bodies, the body of Christ has an intentional and beautiful gift of diversity and distinction. The church gives us the gift of the other. But, it’s a gift that every generation of church has struggled with.’

ONE ANOTHER // BEAR (GAL. 6)

‘The identity of the Messiah’s people is not displayed by placing ceremonial burdens on ourselves or others; it’s displayed in our bearing one another.’

ONE ANOTHER // STIR UP (HEB. 10:24)

Hebrews instructs us to consider how we can start a riot of love and good works. Because of the revolutionary love of God, we are called to be revolutionaries of love.

ONE ANOTHER // BE KIND (EPH. 4)

‘If we are truly seeking to be one of another then unkindness can have no place in the body of Christ.’

ONE ANOTHER // INTRODUCTION (ROM. 12)

Jesus has chosen community, ‘one another-ing’, as the means of his expression to the world, in the world. The kind of God we really believe in is displayed in *how* we relate to one another.

EASTER BAPTISM SERVICE // PLUNGED PEOPLE

We are plunged into the nature and character of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in order to be people who are learning to express the plunging nature and character of God in our world.

CREED // CATHOLIC COMMUNION (EPHESIANS 2:14-22, 3:14—4:6)

The church is a body of people spanning across different times in history, across different tribes, languages, cultures, nationalities, age groups, denominations, branches, streams … A diverse community spread out across our world and history, meeting in different places, with differing styles and ways; yet they are all mysteriously united in one Spirit.

CREED // BURIED, RAISED (COLOSSIANS 1:11-24a)

When we say ‘[Jesus] was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again from the dead’, we’re not repeating dry historical facts. We are proclaiming that the empire of Sin, Death and Satan has been shattered through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

CREED // JESUS, GOD’S SON (HEBREWS 1:1-3)

‘We confess that the pre-existent Son of God became a particular person, in a particular place, at a particular moment in the history our world, and that through this particularity, the invisible has been made perfectly visible’

CREED // FATHER, ALMIGHTY (DEUT 32:1-18)

‘Father’ and ‘Almighty’ are images that speak of the dependable, steadfast, sustaining, feeding, nurturing, caring, protective character of God. God is parental.

ETHOS // STORIES (GALATIANS 1:11-24)

‘God uses the particular nature of our stories, bringing them together like a symphony, a collage, a jigsaw, even. And as our stories interlock with one another, as community develops, they display something larger than themselves, revealing something of the scale of God’s love.’

ETHOS // SPIRIT (JOHN 14:15-31)

‘The Holy Spirit does not possess us, as if we were merely objects or puppets. At the same time, we do not possess the Holy Spirit, as if it were an object of power to use. Instead, the person of the Spirit dwells with us, and bids us, leads us, teaches and guides us into…

ETHOS // SCRIPTURE (JOHN 5:31-47)

‘In which I attempt to describe the relationship between Jesus and the scriptures via the Invisible Man’

BE : AT // BLESSED ARE THE GROANS (MOURN) (MATTHEW 5:4)

BE : AT // BLESSED ARE THE GROANS (Matt 5:4): ‘Lament calls us to see things as they are, and to see how they should be… it is the acknowledgement that everything is not as it should be which generates both lament and it’s twin, hope.’

AN INVITATION TO PRAYER & FASTING

AN INVITATION TO PRAYER & FASTING: ‘Fasting is about cultivating space and time to be exclusively with God, in order to be moved and shaped by God’s heart’

BE : AT // BLESSED ARE THE CRACKED (POOR IN SPIRIT) (MATTHEW 5:3)

BE : AT // BLESSED ARE THE CRACKED (POOR IN SPIRIT) (MATTHEW 5:3) ‘We’re to taste of grace, not self-improvement plans. Not egotistical strategies, but human mortality and fragility that is animated by, and moving in partnership with, Divine life.’

An Announcement …

‘After much prayer, reflection, journeying and wrestling, I am honoured and humbled to share that I have accepted the invitation to be Senior Pastor at Metro Christian Centre, Bury & Whitefield.’

THE SOUND OF GOD // RIZPAH, ATONEMENT & THE CROSS (2 SAMUEL 21)

‘It is Rizpah’s bodily protest that awakens David’s sense, that enables David to realise his involvement in this act of inhumanity. It’s Rizpah’s prophetic movements that stimulate change in David and which compel David to honour life instead of defiling it.’

The Child and the Dragon

The important things and the powerful acts of God don’t always look important or powerful to us. Christmas reminds us that we need help in order to see God in the least, the lost, the lowly and the little, where God has been hidden all along.

Good Friday Reflection #2: The Black Mirror of Crucifixion

Through becoming the victim of mankind, God puts a face and a name to our evil scapegoating. God unmasks our collusion with the dark side. God becomes the black mirror. On the cross, we come face to face with the darkness within us.

Good Friday Reflection #1: The Passionate Silence

This was Jesus’ anointing. Not of olive oil, but the unwanted, yellowish-green discharge from the throats of the Roman soldiers who beat Him, declaring as they did so, ‘Hail! King of the Jews’

B86Y8C British one penny coins. Image shot 2009. Exact date unknown.

ReCollect #1: June and Lunacy

‘June the Loon’ wasn’t a name—it was a label; a persona that our society had plastered on to this lady; a caricature that her real identity had been entombed beneath.

MINE! – An Extract from Living the Dream?

An extract from Living the Dream?: “Consumerism, Materialism, and Individualism have crept into the body of Christ like a cancerous parasite. So instead of resembling an organism of blessing to the world, we often resemble a self-serving hive of ego.”

New Book Release: LIVING THE DREAM?

Some Christians are obsessed with “Life Hacks” and self-realisation, whilst others preach hate and encourage division, and then there are those who are indifferent towards our ecology and matters of justice. They all say they’re seeking God’s dream for their lives and this world, but is the Kingdom of God…

Book Review: Out of Control, By Natalie Collins

It’s been awhile since I posted a book review on my blog, as I’ve just been posting them direct on Goodreads.com. However, this book needs to be shouted about. It’s hard to find the words to describe this book. Some of that may be down to the nature of it’s…

Love in the Flesh (John 13:31-35)

We are called to bear God’s image in the world, but it is impossible to do this whilst side-stepping the command to love one another.

The Father’s Face (Luke 15)

If we really want to look like God, we better start running towards others in love and compassion, we better start humbling ourselves, we better start learning what it means to empty ourselves out, and to die to self.

Do Not Fear (Luke 5)

“I’m too much of a sinner to be around God” is terrible theology. And sadly, we’ve often led people to Peter’s theology in this passage, and not to Jesus’.

The Challenge of Water to Wine

The miracle’s not that Jesus turns water into wine, but that he transforms these purity jars from their use as boundary markers to being vessels of invitation… We either pour out our prejudices, indifference and hostility towards others, or we pour out the plan of God.

“Corinth: Spiritual Gifts, Part 2”

If we aren’t going to be motivated by love towards each other—regardless of what spiritual gifts we operate in—then we shouldn’t be doing it at all. If it’s not in love, it’s worthless, it’s irritating and it’s of no value whatsoever.

“Corinth: Division – Sermon Notes”

The church shouldn’t get its structure and culture from Rome (or Britain, or America, or Apple), but from the cruciform nature of Christ.

“Corinth: Sex and Conflict—Podcast Link”

So I had the “fun” of taking a closer look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 (the famous passage on sex) yesterday at Metro Christian Centre, and below is a link to our podcast on YouTube (feel free to subscribe to the channel): https://youtu.be/9_Z3FT83Elg Hopefully, the historical context here, and my…

“Corinth: Division”

The church shouldn’t get its structure and culture from Rome (or Britain, or America, or Apple), but from the cruciform nature of Christ.

Songs For The Road: Psalm 129, The Confidence Of The Oppressed

As I shared on my social media accounts recently, at Metro Christian Centre we’re journeying through the Psalms of Ascent. Last Sunday (20/5/18), I covered Psalm 129, which you can listen to on our YouTube podcast. Sadly though, a few minutes were clipped from the beginning of the recording, so…

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