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Author Archives: Avril Hannah-Jones
Sermon: In favour of the Voice to Parliament
The final paragraph of the Uluru Statement is: ‘In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future’. I do hope that Australians will walk together with First Nations people and approve the Voice, in numbers comparable to the 90% who voted ‘Yes’ in the 1967 Referendum, because doing so will be, I believe, an act of love. Continue reading
Sermon: The Church – always ‘of God’ but never perfect
We are those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. We are the New Testament church. Despite all their failings, Paul could give thanks for the Corinthians because of God’s faithfulness to them. The same is true of us. Yet while our status as the New Testament church should comfort us, it must never blind us to the church’s failings and our need to constantly seek to be better so that we may ‘be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ’. Continue reading
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Sermon: Mutual epiphanies
As Christianity loses its place of privilege in Australia, there are some Christians who think the response should be to circle the wagons, to build walls between us and the rest of the world. But that is contrary to the mystery revealed to Christ’s holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, the mystery of absolute and utter inclusion. There can be no excuse for churches to re-establish walls between human beings when Jesus came to tear all those dividing walls down. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged crossing boundaries, Ephesians 3:1-12, Epiphany, gentile inclusion, gentiles, inclusion, magi, Matthew 2:1-12, nativity
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There is no ‘war on Christianity’ in Australia
This was going to be in this Sunday’s sermon, but there’s no room for it. But it took me ages to find the correct Synod Minute, so I’m sticking it here so that I will remember it. There is no … Continue reading
Sermon: Christmas Day
Christmas is created by God’s Spirit doing a new thing, and God entering the world in a new way. It also happens because of the openness of Mary and Joseph to all that scandalous newness. Are we able, like them, to say ‘yes’ to God when God does something new in our lives? Continue reading
Christmas Eve: All hands were drunk
Christmas tells us that God loves us so passionately that God became human, and so today we sing songs of joy. As we sing we also remember the lessons this baby grew up to teach us: to love God, our neighbours, and our enemies; to care for the poorest in society; to welcome those society most excludes. Continue reading
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Tagged carols, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Luke 2:1-14, nativity, shepherds
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Sermon: Joy Sunday
Today, I am not suggesting that those of us who struggle to find the joy in Christmas should pretend that everything in our lives is perfect. I suspect that our lives would be better were we able to say honestly that Christmas is a difficult time for us. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged A Christmas Carol, Advent, Advent 3, Blue Christmas, Charles Dickens, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Joy, Luke 1:46b-55, Matthew 11:2-11, Scrooge
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Sermon: Peace Sunday
I suspect that the people of Israel heard this prophecy as true for the same reason that we are hearing it in church two thousand years after the birth of the one we Christians believe is the Messiah. Prophecies of the peaceable kingdom speak to our deepest longings. They describe what we believe, in the core of our hearts and our guts, God’s good creation should be. Continue reading
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Tagged Advent, Advent 2, Isaiah 11:1-10, John the Baptist, judgement, Matthew 3:1-12, Peace, Prophet Isaiah, Year of Matthew
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Sermon: Jesus’ female ancestors
I lived through a ‘think of the children’ scare campaign as a young gay woman; I do not appreciate politicians, political candidates, and neo-Nazis replaying it with trans people today. Continue reading
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Tagged 2 Samuel 11:1 – 12:25, Advent, Advent 1, Bathsheba, Book of Ruth, Genesis 38, LGBTIQ, matthew 1:1-17, Queer People, Rahab, Ruth, scare campaigns, Tamar, transgender, Year of Matthew
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Sermon: Longer than all earthly empires
In this world of violence and exclusion proclaiming such things might seem utterly naïve. And yet the reign of Christ has lasted longer than any of the empires of the world. Jesus was executed by the Roman Empire, which lasted for between 500 and 1000 years, depending on how it is defined. The British Empire, the reason that most of us are living here on this land, lasted four hundred years. Jesus was executed as a common criminal almost two thousand years ago and yet here we are, millennia later, on the other side of the world, trying our best to live as citizens of his realm. Continue reading
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Tagged Christ the King, crucifixion, Jeremiah 23:1-6, Luke 23:33-43, Passion, The Reign of Christ, Year of Luke
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