Monthly Archives: August 2026
Sermon: Being compassionately cheerful, or cheerfully compassionate
compassion is a gift. To care so deeply for the pain of the world that we suffer with those who suffer is a privilege. It means that we are fully human. It means that our heart and soul are congruent with our mind and body. It means that we have not been conformed to this age or to a world that tells us we should only care about ourselves and those closest to us. It means that we are imitating Jesus, who was also moved with compassion for suffering humanity. Continue reading
Sermon: Jesus the first-century Jewish man
Rather than believing that he had been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the risen Christ knew that he had been sent to all nations. I would argue that today’s encounter with the Canaanite woman was an important stage on the path that led to Christian inclusion and universalism. Continue reading
Sermon: We tried to kill him; he survived; let’s eat!
A phrase often used to describe Jewish festivals is ‘they tried to kill us; we survived; let’s eat!’ and certainly Passover, which celebrates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery after ‘a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph’ (Exodus 1:8), would fit that pattern. But here at the beginning of the Israelites’ time in Egypt, it is the Egyptians and Joseph, who now has an Egyptian name, an Egyptian wife, and who dresses like an Egyptian (Genesis 41:41-45), who save them from dying in a famine, after Israel’s ten sons have acted as villains. If there were to be a festival to celebrate this occasion, its theme would be: ‘we tried to kill Joseph; he survived and is now feeding us; let’s eat!’ That has a slightly different ring. Continue reading
Rev Doc Geek 