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What I’ve been reading …
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- Sermon: We have no reason to ever feel insecure
- Sermon: The futility of war and the peace of Christ
- Sermon: The God of Israel? The God of the USA? The Father of Jesus Christ is the God of the whole world and all creation.
- Sermon: Jesus’ advantage over Genghis Khan
- Sermon: Was Jesus a violent or a peaceful protester?
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Category Archives: Sermons
Sermon: Rejoicing and repenting, or vice versa
We know that poverty and disaster can cause people to feel ashamed if they need help. Australia was for so long considered to be a ‘working man’s paradise’ that it was even a joke in an Agatha Christie story. A wealthy young man disowned by his uncle asks his uncle’s butler whether he should leave for Australia.
Rogers coughed discreetly.
‘Well, sir, I’ve certainly heard it said that there’s room out there for anyone who really wants to work.’
Mr Rowland gazed at him with interest and admiration.
‘Very neatly put, Rogers. Just what I was thinking myself. I shan’t go to Australia – not today, at any rate.’[2] Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Advent 3, Gaudete Sunday, Isaiah 12:2-6, John the Baptist, Joy, Luke 3:7-18, Repentance, Zephaniah 3:14-20
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Sermon: Would we really want God to appear?
Undoubtedly Zechariah would have asked God to allow him and Elizabeth to have a son, and in his song we hear his gratitude not only for this gift but for the liberation of his people, but there is no doubt that this appearance of the Lord has deeply disrupted his life. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Advent 2, Gospel according to Luke, John the Baptist, Luke 1:68-79, Luke 3:1-6, Malachi 3:1-4, Year of Luke, Zechariah
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Sermon: Hope in a time of pandemic
As we realise our vulnerability, we are offered reassurance. When we are tempted to despair, we are given hope. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Advent, Advent 1, Hope, Jeremiah 33:14-16, Luke 21:25-36, Parousia, Psalm 25:1-10, Year of Luke
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Sermon: The Return of the King
Whenever we celebrate the Feast of the Reign of Christ, the last Sunday in the church year, I remind us of what a new festival this is. When people united their loyalty to ‘God, King, and country,’ as they did right up to the First World War, there was little suggestion that their loyalty to God might contradict their loyalty to an earthly ruler. But after that war fascism and communism began to dominate Europe, and so the Roman Catholic Church introduced the Reign of Christ as a feast to be celebrated in 1925. Continue reading
Sermon: The faith and generosity of Hannah
Both Hannah’s and Mary’s songs are deeply political songs about the way God wants the world to be; a world in which the hungry are ‘filled with good things’ (Luke 1:53), in fact the ‘hungry are fat with spoil’ (1 Samuel 2:5); a world in which God lifts the needy from the ash heap to sit with princes (1 Samuel 2:8) while the proud are brought down from their thrones. (Luke 1:52) Both Hannah and Mary sing of a world overturned. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons, Uncategorized
Tagged 1 Samuel 1:4-20, 1 Samuel 2:1-10, Advent, courage, generosity, Hannah, King David, Magnificat, Mary
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Sermon: Is the poor widow a good example or an awful warning?
If we read the story this way, then Jesus’ attitude to the widow’s gift is disapproval rather than admiration. The story is not about the difference between arrogant scribes and poor widows, or about the relative value of the gifts of the rich and the poor. Instead, it is an example of the ways that the official religion of the time was oppressing the poorest members of society. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Apostle Paul, giving, Mark 12:38-44, Poverty, rich and poor, sacrifice, widow's mite, widows, Year of Mark
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Sermon: On not blaming the poor for their poverty
The end of the Book of Job does not simply return Job to the situation he was in at the beginning. He has been transformed by his experiences, and so have his friends, and so, hopefully, have we. Continue reading
Sermon: The cosmos was not created for us
We do not know why bad things happen to good people, or even why bad things happen to people like ourselves, middling good and middling bad. The Book of Job does not give us answers; maybe there are none. What it offers us, instead, is the reassurance that despite the immensity of a universe that seems indifferent to us, we have not been left alone in it. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged animals, Book of Job, creation, evil, Job 38, nature, theodicy
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Sermon: Faithful complaint
Job complains and accuses God of wrongdoing, but he does that because he believes in a God of justice. Job does not believe in a God who is indifferent to human suffering. If he did, there would be no reason for him to demand a confrontation with God Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Book of Job, covid19, Job, Job 23:1-9 16-17, Job's comforters, protest, suffering, theodicy
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Sermon: Job’s wife was right!
Reading Job through the Holocaust we can see that we should not accept the bad from God’s hands as well as the good. It would be unfaithful to accept a god who conspired with ha-satan to torment Job, a God who ‘sent’ the evils of the holocaust. Job’s wife is right; Job should charge God with wrongdoing; he should curse the God who has sent him evil. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged 1984, Big Brother, Book of Job, evil, Holocaust, Job 1:1 2:1-10, Shoah, theodicy
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