Author Archives: Avril Hannah-Jones
Sermon: Bringing down walls
We do not need to create ourselves; we have been created by God and redeemed by Christ. That is the most important thing we can know about ourselves; that we are citizens with the saints, members of the household of God, built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God. Continue reading
Not really a sermon about Michal
The pious answer is that it is not about who David is, but about who the Lord is. The Lord remains faithful to David regardless of David’s wrongdoing. That answer makes sense if we are reading the books of Samuel through the eyes of David, but not if we try to read them through the eyes of Michal or Bathsheba. So, I do not have an answer. I just do not want Michal to be forgotten. As the lectionary leads us through the deeds of the great King David, remember his wives. Continue reading
Sermon: Success and Failure
We may think that we can only be sure that God is with us if we are growing greater and greater, like David. But the gospel according to Mark tells us that God is with us even if people take offence at us and we can do no deeds of power. Continue reading
Reflection: Gender Equality in Jesus’ healings
You may have noticed my tendency to talk about the way that Jesus treated women, the way he welcomed them as equals in a patriarchal society. That is not just because gender equality is a personal obsession of mine; it is because this equality is a characteristic of the new community that Jesus created, the body of Christ. Continue reading
Reflection for the 44th anniversary of the creation of the Uniting Church
We ordain both women and men to the Ministry of the Word because we believe ordination without discrimination on grounds of gender is a fundamental implication of the gospel of God’s love in Christ for all human beings, without distinction. For this our understanding we appeal to Scripture as testimony to the living Word, which is Christ. Continue reading
Sermon: Introducing David, episode two of the soap opera
Augustine wrote that, ‘anyone who thinks that he has understood the divine scriptures or any part of them, but cannot by his understanding build up the double love of God and neighbour, has not yet succeeded in understanding them’. The Scriptures are complicated and contradictory; let us ensure that our reading of them always builds up love. Amen. Continue reading
Sermon: Some mental exercise for lockdown
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church6th of June 2021 1 Samuel 8:4-11 16-20 Here we are again: our second Sunday in our fourth lockdown. When I prepared this Reflection we had been in lockdown for less than a week, and … Continue reading
Sermon: As we go into lockdown again, God is with us.
This week, as we experience the worry and frustration of another lockdown, the doctrine of the Trinity tells us that the God who created the universe is with us, closer than our breath, and among us, holding our community together while we must stay apart. I hope that that is a comfort to you through these next few days. God is with us. Continue reading
Sermon: The radical roots of the Church at Pentecost
The Church was at its origin and is meant to be today a community that celebrates cultural differences, rather than trying to standardise them. It is a community that is meant to show radical equality between men and women, old and young, slave and free. Sadly, like many of Christianity’s radical roots, these lessons from Pentecost are ones that the Church has had to relearn over and over again. Continue reading
Sermon: Don’t stand looking for Jesus in the sky
We could keep gazing up towards heaven in our attempts to see Jesus, or we could look for Jesus where he told us we would find him, in each other and especially in the least of these. Counter-intuitively, the message of the Ascension is that we will find God here on earth. Continue reading
