Monthly Archives: March 2023

Sermon: A man born blind

We are just as prone to blaming the victim as the religious authorities in this story. I have preached before about the deeply human tendency, and we have just seen an appalling example of it in the Robodebt Royal Commission. We will need to wait for the Commissioner’s final report to know exactly how things went wrong, but I have been listening in to the live stream as I have worked, and the apparent attitudes of some politicians and senior public servants to people who need to access Centrelink have been dreadful. ‘Robodebts’ were illegal, unethical, and inaccurate, and yet they seem to have been imposed because of a false belief that welfare recipients must be ripping off the system. Continue reading

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sermon: A woman at a well

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church Third Sunday of Lent, 12th of March 2023 John 4:5-42 Today’s story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well is one of my favourite stories in the entire Bible, with one of … Continue reading

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sermon: An imagined community

The church is another such imagined community, and one that is both local and global. Everyone who participates in the service here each Sunday is part of this congregation, whether they attend in person, listen online, or read a paper version. And all these members of North Balwyn Uniting Church are members of an imagined community we call the one holy catholic and apostolic church. Continue reading

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment