Monthly Archives: August 2023
Sermon: Righteous Outlaws
Together, the Hebrew midwives, Pharaoh’s daughter, the daughter of Levi who is Moses’ mother, and the girl who is the baby’s sister and his mother’s daughter, have disobeyed Pharaoh and saved Moses from death. Because of their actions, Moses will grow up to become the liberator of his people and their great lawgiver. If the Pharaoh had really wanted to destroy the Hebrews he should not have overlooked the women, because it is their acts of civil disobedience that change history. Continue reading
Sermon: Joseph’s Princess Dress
We know that God always makes use of the last and least for God’s purposes. That the nation of Israel came from the younger brother, Jacob, rather than elder brother Esau, is one example of that. What the story of Joseph tells us is that these ‘last and least’ have included someone whose gender could be described, in twenty-first century terms, as non-binary, maybe someone like the drag queens who mobs are now protesting against here in Melbourne. Among its other messages Joseph’s story reminds us that is room for everyone, of every gender, and in every style of dress, in the community that Archbishop Desmond Tutu described as ‘the rainbow people of God’. Continue reading
Sermon: In a boat battered by the wind and waves
I said that the Bible remained important to me, but I did not think I could just pick a verse, “like Matthew 14:27,” I said, making up a verse at random, and have it mean something for my life. A little later in the conversation my flatmate and I decided just to have a look and see what Matthew 14:27 said, and we found that Matthew 14:27 is the verse I just quoted. It could not have been more relevant to a discussion in which I had confessed that I was finding the one holy catholic and apostolic church deeply problematic as I learned more of its history, but that I could not bear to leave Christianity because if I did “I would miss Jesus”. Continue reading
Sermon: Wrestling with God
What does it mean to be those who struggle with God? For me, it means that I am never going to wake up one day to find that God has miraculously cured me, and I am no longer mentally ill. It does mean, though, that as I go limping through life with a brain that is sometimes broken I know that I do so accompanied by the God who also blesses me. Continue reading
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