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Category Archives: Sermons
Sermon for Police Remembrance Sunday 2015: Watch your tongues!
If we, members of police forces and society in general, talk about Cumulative Stress Disorder, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health issues as though they’re shameful or to be hidden, people experiencing mental illnesses will try to ignore them, hide them, or deal with them alone. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Blue Ribbon Day, James 3:1-4:3, Letter of James, mental health, police, Police Remembrance Day, PTSD, suicide, Year of Mark
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Sermon: The Creator of the Cosmos is our Next of Kin
We believe that the God who created the universe and to whom the heavens bear witness is also the God who loves human beings, us, as God’s children, members of God’s family. Continue reading
Sermon: Do we really ‘believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ’? Welcoming refugees and asylum seekers.
James demands that Christians follow the ethical direction of Jesus’ life, the way Jesus cared for people. He challenges his first readers, and us, to be involved in justice in the same way that Jesus was. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged asylum seekers, James 2:1-10, Mark 7:24-37, Politics, refugees, Year of Mark
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Sermon: And, again, the Uniting Church is not a Bible-believing church
Sometimes this ‘Uniting Church’ way of reading the Bible can lead to accusations that we are wishy-washy, one of those mainstream, liberal churches that, in the words of one journalist, tolerate ‘just about anybody and anything’ and are ‘pale and ineffectual’ when compared with churches that read the Bible literally. Continue reading
Sermon: Friendship, refugees, asylum seekers, and a birthday
In the story of David and Jonathan, as in the story of Ruth and Naomi, we see that Jesus’ ancestors valued friendship as highly as Jesus himself did. We are called to follow in the footsteps of them all, and be friends with people across the barriers of age and birthplace and tradition. Continue reading
Sermon: Be afraid, be very afraid. Jesus and family values
Sermon for Williamstown Uniting Church Pentecost 2, 7th of June 2015 Mark 3:20-35 Be afraid, be very afraid. After the joy of the Easter season, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday, the church is now in ‘Ordinary Time’ and this year that … Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged demonic possession, family, Mark 3:20-35, Pentecost 2, Year of Mark
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Sermon: The Trinity is a celebration; not a maths problem
I hope this is giving you a sense of why the doctrine of the Trinity excites me. (Yes, I am the sort of geek who gets excited by theological doctrines.) Continue reading
Sermon: We are never left alone
Without the Spirit, as Ezekiel saw, existence is just flesh and blood: ‘there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them’. But with God’s spirit, there is life. And there is nowhere, no time, and no situation that can keep God’s Spirit away from God’s people. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Acts 2:1-21, Ezekiel 37:1-14, Holy Spirit, John 15:26-27, Pentecost, Year of Mark
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Sermon: Friendship
And yet if any form of relationship can be described as particularly Christian, as the specific way that Christians live out our lives, it’s not marriage. It’s friendship. Continue reading
Sermon: The sons and daughters of the eunuch
But welcoming eunuchs doesn’t cause of much controversy in the church today. Welcoming other people of non-standard genders and sexualities – gay, lesbian and bisexual people; transgender and intersex people – does. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Acts 8:26-40, Easter 5, Ethiopian eunuch, Eunuchs, GLBTI, Holiness Code, homosexuality, intersexuality, Tony Briffa, Year of Mark
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