<p>In offering these sermons to a wider readership I am seeking to repay a debt. It is a large debt because in many ways my Christian life has been shaped and enriched by sermons beginning with the sermons I heard in the church in Glasgow where I grew up and where Dr Harry Thompson made scripture vividly alive. My indebtedness continues through the numerous occasions when I have been ministered to by the sermons of others including published sermons&mdash;as many of my footnotes will demonstrate.</p>