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Category Archives: Sermons
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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Sermon: The Peaceable Kingdom
How can we look at everything that is happening around us, the homes and livelihoods destroyed by what is usually God’s good gift of water, the thousands of people who have died of covid19 in Australia and the millions who have died around the world, and say that God cares about creation? The author that we know as ‘Third’ Isaiah, from whom today’s reading from the Hebrew Scriptures comes, had the same challenge. The description of God’s holy mountain as a place where all creation is renewed seems completely unrealistic. But there was nothing fanciful in what Isaiah was doing. Continue reading
Sermon: Forgiveness and Repentance
we cannot expect to remain the same when we joyfully climb down that sycamore tree. As we examine our lives, we may find ourselves relinquishing half of what we have, and doing four times as much right as we have previously done wrong Continue reading
Sermon: God’s priorities, according to the Prophet Jeremiah
It would take a great deal of faith to hold on to that hope while sitting in the ruins of Jerusalem, or while in exile in Babylon, just as much faith as it takes us to hold on to the hope of God’s justice when we look at the world around us. It is much easier to hold on to this hope in community than to try to do it alone and here in Australia, despite anything politicians or the media might say, we do have the great privilege of being able to meet together for worship and to share the words of God with each other. So let us encourage each other in our persistence, as we pray without losing heart. Amen. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Babylonian Exile, Christian persecution, exile, Hope, Jeremiah 31:27-34, Luke 18:1-8, Persecution of Christians, prayer, Year of Luke
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Sermon: The shalom of the city
God has brought us here; God is already at work here; and in the shalom of our amazing, beautiful, challenging city of Melbourne, and our diverse, multicultural, multifaith, and ‘no religion’ Australia we will find our own shalom. So let us serve this city and the people among whom we live, in all the ways that we can. Amen. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Babylonian Exile, exile, Holy Saturday, Jeremiah 29:1 4-7, marginalisation, Melbourne, Prophet Jeremiah, the city
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Sermon: There is nothing we cannot say to God
Too often throughout history the church has been on the side of the colonisers, not the colonised; the slave owners, not the slaves; the rich, not the poor; adults, not children; men, not women; straight people, not LGBTIQ+ people; paedophiles, not the victims of clerical sexual abuse; and so on and so forth. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged anger, Babylonian Exile, C. S. Lewis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Fall of Jerusalem, Hate, lament, Lamentations 1:1-6, Psalm 137, Walter Brueggemann
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Sermon: When Jesus is being all too clear
It is absolutely important for us, as Christians, to donate to the work of Uniting, and FoodBank Victoria, and other emergency relief agencies. But in the twenty-first century it is no longer enough to expect the rich man to share what drops from his table with the beggar at his gate. We also need to use our intellect and our connections and our articulate voices to ask why there is any poverty at all in wealthy Australia, even if that takes us into the realm of ‘politics’. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged 1 Timothy 6:6-19, FoodBank, giving, JobSeeker, Luke 16:19-31, Médecins Sans Frontières, parables, Poverty, Sermon, Uniting, wealth, Year of Luke
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Sermon: What is Jesus saying? (We don’t know!)
No one has any idea what today’s parable, the parable of the unjust steward, is about. The Church Fathers ignored it; renowned contemporary commentators have declared it to be incomprehensible; and people have suggested that the author of the Gospel according to Luke himself had no idea of its meaning, and so just added a series of morals to the end of the story in the hope that they would make sense of it. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged 1 Timothy 2:1-7, debts, Dishonest Manager, forgiveness, Luke 16:1-13, money, parables, Year of Luke
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Sermon: Thank goodness! We’re back to love!!!
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church 11th of September 2022 Luke 15:1-10 Oh, thank goodness! After weeks of hard sayings from Jesus, during which preachers must remind congregations that Jesus is journeying to his death and so is understandably short … Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged being found, forgiveness, images of God, lost coin, lost sheep, love, Luke 15:1-10, Year of Luke
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Sermon: Losing our lives
I have also mentioned the Census numbers, because every church in Australia needs to take them seriously. They could be seen as evidence that Christianity in Australia is dying. I do not believe that it is. I believe that Christianity is becoming what it always meant to be: the salt, not the whole meal; the yeast, not the whole loaf. Continue reading
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Rev Doc Geek 