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Author Archives: Avril Hannah-Jones
Sermon: Following Jesus to the streets
Ultimately, the powers that be conspire to kill Jesus. This is what the powerful do when they feel threatened; either symbolically or literally they kill the threat. In Jerusalem two thousand years ago the threat was Jesus, whose entry into Jerusalem told people that there was a different way to be, beyond the choices offered by the contemporary Roman and Jewish leaders. On the day that we remember as Palm Sunday Jesus took that message to the streets. Two thousand years’ later, we are called to follow him in taking the same message of a different way to the streets. Continue reading
Posted in Political Activism, Sermons
Tagged asylum seekers, Mark 11:1-11, Palm Sunday, refugees, Year of Mark
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Sermon: Foolishness
We are called to proclaim Christ crucified; we are also called to follow him. In a world obsessed with status and success, we’re called to live simply, to risk failure, to topple accepted powers and interrupt accepted ritual. We are not to accept the way things are; we are to challenge and change them. Continue reading
Sermon: Repenting at the Royal Commission
Sermon for Williamstown Uniting Church 1st of March, 2015 Mark 8:31-38 Today’s reading comes from a pivotal moment in the Gospel of Mark. Brendan Byrne, who taught me the Gospel of Mark, says that there are three stories in the … Continue reading
Sermon: God-Humanity Solidarity
Sermon for Williamstown The First Sunday of Lent, 22nd of February 2015 Genesis 9:8-17 Mark 1:9-15 I’ve mentioned before that the Gospel according to Mark is a short, quick, intense gospel. Today this is a huge benefit for us, because … Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged baptism, Genesis 9:8-17, Incarnation, Lent, Mark 1:9-15, ministry, Year of Mark
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Sermon: Sojourning in the Valley
But I’ve preached on Transfiguration’s amazing theophany for the past two years, and so today I want to focus instead on the valleys. Because there are no mountains without valleys; there are no mountain-top experiences without hard times. Continue reading
Sermon: Healed to ‘deacon’
This week I’m cheating. In the past five days I’ve conducted three funerals and I’m tired. So this Sunday’s sermon is a recycled one. I’ve made a few minor changes to the sermon I first preached, but basically this is what I said in Romsey and Lancefield six years’ ago. Fortunately, reading it over, I find that I’m still in agreement with myself. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Mark 1:29-39, Sermon, Williamstown Uniting Church, Year of Mark
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Sermon: Overcoming demonic powers
Our worldview has no room for demons and demonic possession, except in horror films, but there are still forces stronger than individual humans that keep people imprisoned, forces from which Jesus can liberate us. There are still captivities – personal, social, economic – that dehumanise us and prevent us from living out our lives completely, and these are the captivities from which Jesus came to set us free. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged death, demonic powers, domestic violence, Mark 1:21-28, Sermon, Williamstown Uniting Church, Year of Mark
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Sermon: Should the Uniting Church become Eli?
I also know that some members of the church have a more personal concern. Why are their children and grandchildren not church-goers? Their children were brought up in the church; they attended Sunday School and youth group; and then they disappeared. Continue reading
Competing Claims for Justice: Sexuality and Race at the Eighth Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia, 1997
Basically, I wrote this article as a way of working through my own pain and anger at what happened in 1997. But the fact that it was published in a peer-reviewed journal shows, I hope, that it is also a conscientious piece of historical writing. And so I offer it to anyone interested in sexuality and the Uniting Church. Continue reading
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