Category Archives: Sermons
Sermon: Until warring powers cry ‘Enough!’
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church ‘Palm’ Sunday, 13th of April, 2025 Luke 19:28-48 Today we celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem for the Passover. Like pilgrims throughout time, Jesus’ disciples rejoice as they enter the holy city, praising God for … Continue reading
Sermon: Martha, Lazarus, and Mary
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church Lent 5, 6th of April, 2025 John 12:1-8 ‘The chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If … Continue reading
Sermon: No, we are not unworthy
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting ChurchLent 4, 30th of March, 2025 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Today’s reading from Paul’s Second Letter to the church at Corinth, or at least the second letter of his to the Corinthians that we have, is … Continue reading
Sermon: None of us is perfect – and that’s okay
Lent is a time when we are reminded that none of us is perfect. All of us fail and fall short; we always do, say, and do not do, things for which we need to repent. There is something soothing about knowing this: we do not need to pretend to be perfect. God knows that we are not. And despite every way in which we fail to live as the people God created us to be, God remains faithful. Continue reading
Sermon: Jesus IS a wishy-washy liberal
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting ChurchLent 2, 16th of March 2025 Luke 13:31-35Philippians 3:17-4:1 ‘Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.’ If you have … Continue reading
Sermon: Giving into Temptation
We all face times of trial. We are all tested. The forty days of Lent, spent in self-examination and repentance, by prayer and fasting, by self-denial and acts of generosity, and by reading and meditating on the word of God, provide us in practice not giving in to temptation. Lent trains us to resist temptation’s wheedling ways. Continue reading
Sermon: The Glorious Impossible of the Transfiguration
God alone is the Holy One, and we are called to imitate God’s holiness. God’s glory is far beyond humanity, and we are being transformed into the same image. In Jesus so many boundaries are overcome, and the greatest of them is the division between humanity and God. In the words of L’Engle, we cannot make God’s mighty actions comprehensible to our finite minds. But we can ‘choose to live by the most glorious impossibles,’ in the freedom of the Spirit, with hope and great boldness, because God is with us and we are in God. Continue reading
Baptism and the ‘Sermon on the Plain’
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church23rd of February 2025 Luke 6:27-38 This is going to be a short Reflection, because today we have the joy of baptizing Cassandra and Margaret, and in the very act of baptism the gospel, the … Continue reading
Sermon: Are we trees planted by water or shrubs in the desert? Both!
Maybe the division that Jesus makes in his Sermon between the poor and the rich, the hungry and the filled, those who weep and those who laugh, those who receive praise and those who are rejected, is not just a distinction between two groups of people. Maybe this division is also within us. Maybe we are both the tree planted by water and the shrub in the desert. Continue reading
Sermon: Jesus, Jeremiah, and answering God’s call
Today the scripture has been fulfilled. That ‘today’ is still ours. How are we going to respond to the God who comes today, who calls us today, who brings liberation today? To borrow some words from Rabbie Burns, ‘Now’s the day, an’ now’s the hour’. How are we going to answer God’s call? Continue reading
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