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Category Archives: Sermons
Sermon: Forgiveness, not sacrifice
Sermon for Williamstown Uniting Church ANZAC Service – 22nd of April, 2018 Have any of you seen the recent film Good-Bye Christopher Robin? It flashes forwards and backwards between the two World Wars and the period between them. It begins … Continue reading
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Tagged A. A. Milne, ANZAC Day, Christopher Robin, forgiveness, John Curtin, reconciliation, World War One, World War Two
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Sermon: Putting it all together
The journey to faith isn’t instantaneous and it isn’t simply a matter of reading and understanding the Scriptures. Faith comes from the disciples’ encounters with the risen Jesus, in which everything they’ve heard and learned is integrated with what they’ve experienced. Continue reading
Sermon: The story continues
maybe Smith does fit in this year’s telling of the Easter story. After all, there’s no doubt that he has failed, fallen short of what has been expected of him. And one of the things that the Easter story reminds us is that all human beings do fail. Part of being human is stuffing up. Continue reading
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Tagged April Fool's Day, cricket, Easter Sunday, failure, Mark 16:1-8, resurrection, Steven Smith
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Sermon: How is Jesus like a bronze serpent?
The cross turns our ways of seeing the world upside down. God becomes powerless to defeat death; human suffering is taken up into the life of God. Continue reading
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Tagged crucifixion, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John 3:14-21, Jurgen Moltmann, Martin Luther, Moses, Numbers 21:4-9, snakes, The Crucified God
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Sermon: Absolutely Appropriate Anger
At the very least, when young people facing the injustice of the world express anger at that injustice, even in language we much more mature people find intemperate, we could attack the injustice and not them. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged anger, Closing the Gap, Emma Gonzales, gun control, gun violence, John 2:13-22, Justice, Lent 3, swearing, Tarneen Onus-Williams, violence
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Sermon: Clericalism is wrong
The proposed legal change is a sign that the world is changing, and it seems that Australian society will no longer allow churches to be treated differently from other institutions. And that’s good! Continue reading
Sermon: Love and Solidarity
In Jesus God is acting in solidarity with humanity, and so be watching what Jesus does we can see what we are called to do; what it means to be human beings living in relationship with God. Continue reading
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Tagged baptism, Genesis 9:8-17, Incarnation, John the Baptist, Lent, LGBTIQ, Mark 1:9-15, ministry, rainbows, Solidarity, Temptation, Year of Mark
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Sermon: Love in the face of Death
Life ends in death; and the lives of those we love might end at any time. Continue reading
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Tagged 2 Kings 2:1-12, death, Elijah, Elisha, love, Mark 9:2-9, Transfiguration, Year of Mark
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Sermon: #MeToo
From the story of Eli, it appears that the Lord agrees that ‘The standard you walk past is the standard you accept’. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged #MeToo, 'INQUIRY INTO THE HANDLING OF CHILD ABUSE BY RELIGIOUS AND OTHER ORGANISATIONS, 1 Samuel 3:1-20, Child Abuse, feminism, Royal Commission to investigate Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, sexual assault, sexual impropriety, sin, violence, women
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Sermon: Birth; Death; Stars
… In the words of Hugo it is ‘the straight line of the soul broken by the presence of God’. That’s the terrifying message of the Epiphany, that in this Birth we see the Death of so many things that we think we need … Continue reading
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Tagged Epiphany, Javert, Journey of the Magi, Les Misérables, Matthew 2:1-12, stars, T.S.Eliot, Victor Hugo
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