Author Archives: Avril Hannah-Jones
Reflection: Help me, great and powerful internet community
I have twelve bookcases in my two-bedroom flat. I live surrounded by several thousand books – and as long I don’t leave a lighted candle too close to any of them this isn’t a problem. But I also live surrounded by … Continue reading
Sermon: Mark the meta-narrator and the hope of resurrection
Mark is writing a meta-narrative, the sort of story that leaps from the page or the screen into the everyday lives of the readers or viewers. Continue reading
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
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
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
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
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