I had been expecting Nicodemus but to my horror Diotrephes turned up instead. I was preaching at a service for the Heswall council of churches, which in those days would have had a big congregation. My sermon, based on the lectionary reading from John’s Gospel, was to be focussed on Jesus’ response to Nicodemus, the Jewish leader who came to him by night. So I stood in the pulpit to hear the passage to be read by a prominent member of another church. However, rather than