Sermon: “We wish to see Jesus”

Posted on March 16, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
The Fifth Sunday of Lent, 13th of March, 2024

Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33

‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Today’s gospel reading begins with people who are strangers in a foreign land. These are the final days of Jesus’ public ministry and Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem, the centre of the Jewish world. Immediately before today’s story, John tells us that the Pharisees were declaring that ‘the world has gone after him!’ (John 12:19) and what the Pharisees probably mean by ‘the world’ were all the people in Jerusalem for the Passover. But the Pharisees are more right than they know. The world is seeking Jesus, and so the next people to approach him are Greek. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Being whole and seeing wholeness

Posted on March 9, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
The Fourth Sunday of Lent, 10th of March 2024

John 3:14-21
Ephesians 2:1-10

‘O give thanks to the Lord for he is good; for his great love is without end.’ ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’ ‘God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ’.

Despite these words of comfort and praise, today’s lectionary readings do not fill me with joy. Indeed, when I saw what it was that I had to preach on this week my exact words were: ‘Oh bother! It’s bronze serpent Sunday!’ Continue reading →

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Sermon: The Ten Words

Posted on March 1, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
The Third Sunday in Lent, 3rd of March 2024

Exodus 20:1-20
Psalm 19

Let the spoken words of my mouth
and the meditation of all our hearts
be acceptable to you, O Lord,
our redeemer and our rock.

The Ten Commandments, known by Hebrew scholars as the ‘Ten Words,’ do not have a good reputation among some Christians. I suspect we can blame this on the Apostle Paul, and his distinction between Law and Grace. In his letter to the Romans Paul even writes that, ‘if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”’ (Romans 7:7) Despite Paul saying in the very same passage that ‘the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good,’ (Romans 7:12) some Christians have taken the apparent impossibility of humans successfully obeying the law to mean that God never intended it to be obeyed. When I was at Williamstown Uniting Church the children spent a year reading through The Jesus Storybook Bible,[1] which told the entire Bible story through the lens of Jesus. The chapter on the Ten Words is called ‘Ten Ways to be Perfect’. It shows Moses receiving the Ten Words in the middle of a rather terrifying thunderstorm. Moses then tells the people that if they keep these rules God will always look after them, and the people promise that they will. But the Storybook Bible immediately says that this is impossible; that God knew it would be impossible; and suggests that God only gave the Ten Words so that the people would fail and turn to Jesus, the one Person who could keep all the rules. That particular story ended: ‘the rules couldn’t save them. Only God could save them’. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Ash ‘Wednesday’

Posted on February 18, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
18th of February 2024, ‘Ash Sunday’

Isaiah 58:1-12
Matthew 6:1-6 16-21

On Ash Wednesday both Nell and I participated in parts of a pilgrimage to map Gaza onto Melbourne, one of at least 85 pilgrimages in 12 countries. Collectively, a group of Christians walked the 35 kms from Gaza City to Rafah, the distance that so many Gazans have fled in a desperate and ultimately futile search for safety. I did about half of that, starting at St Monica’s College in Epping at 6.30 in the morning, then walking through Lalor, Thomastown, Reservoir, Preston, Thornbury, before ending at North Fitzroy. After working at home in the afternoon I rejoined the pilgrimage in its final stage to St Paul’s Cathedral for the Ash Wednesday Service.

Avril entering St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne
Nell entering St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne

Continue reading →

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Sermon: The light wherein our shadows disappear

Posted on February 10, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
11th of February, 2024

2 Corinthians 9:2-9
Mark 9:2-9

Does the light illuminate everything, or does it make the shadows darker? Does the wonder and beauty of the Transfiguration, celebrated today on the last Sunday before Lent, make Jesus’ death on a cross even more painful and ugly? Does the Transfiguration put a barrier between the glorious Beloved Son and those of us who do not shine on mountaintops? What does the Transfiguration mean for those of us who live our lives on the plain? Continue reading →

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Sermon: Proclaiming the good news

Posted on February 3, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
4th of February, 2024

Mark 1:29-39
1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Together the gospel readings from today and last Sunday describe a complete day in the life of Jesus. Last Sunday’s reading had Jesus going to the synagogue at Capernaum on the Sabbath and teaching with authority. Then he was confronted by a man possessed, and he rebuked the demon and healed the man. Today, we hear what happened next. On the surface, this is a story of astounding success and recognition of Jesus’ distinctiveness. It will probably not surprise you that I am going to argue there is a lot more happening underneath that surface. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Trauma and Liberation

Posted on January 27, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
28th of January, 2024

Mark 1:14-20

I hope that you are feeling a little breathless. As I have said before, everything in the Gospel according to Mark happens ‘immediately’, or ‘at once,’ as Jesus, the disciples, and we readers journey without pause from the Jordan to Jerusalem. We are still within Mark’s very first chapter, and already John has appeared in the wilderness baptising; Jesus has been baptised; then driven into the wilderness and tempted; has proclaimed the coming of the kingdom at Galilee; and has called his first disciples. Now, in today’s reading, we get the beginning of what seems to be a typical day of ministry for Jesus, a day of teaching and healing. Continue reading →

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Sermon: The time is short

Posted on January 20, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
21st of January, 2024

1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20

The time is fulfilled. The present form of this world is passing away. In the year 2024 it is hard not to hear the words of Jesus and Paul and respond, ‘Really?’ It was even hard for the author of the Gospel according to Matthew, which most biblical scholars agree was written slightly later than the Gospel according to Mark. In today’s Markan reading Jesus begins his ministry by saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near;’ but by the time Matthew came to write the same scene Jesus simply says, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ (Matthew 4:17) Already in Matthew’s version questions of time have become difficult. Continue reading →

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Bit cut out of Sunday’s sermon

Posted on January 18, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sadly, there was no room for this paragraph in the sermon for Sunday the 21st.

Throughout history various groups, religious and otherwise, have predicted the end of the world and hitherto all have been wrong. Going down the rabbit hole of the various end time predictions this week led me to an Australian politician, Walter Moffitt Marks, who won the Sydney Federal seat of Wentworth for the National Party in 1919. In a parliamentary speech on the third of November 1921 he predicted that Armageddon would be fought in 1934 when the British navy would collect the Jewish people to form a great nation in Palestine. It was described by the Sydney Morning Herald as ‘a remarkable speech,’ in an article that ended: ‘The general opinion that the next war will be in the Pacific was declared by Mr Marks to be at variance with the prophecy of the Bible, which clearly defined that it would be in the Mediterranean. The Japanese would not invade Australia. They and the Chinese would go with Christ to Palestine.’ Despite spending way too much time looking, I could not find a reaction from Mr Marks to Armageddon not being fought in 1934.

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Sermon: Come and see God in the ordinary

Posted on January 13, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
14th of January, 2024

John 1:43-51
1 Corinthians 6:12-20

We think that we have chosen to follow Jesus, but it is Jesus who has chosen us as his followers. We think that we made the decision to come to church today to worship God, but we arrived here at God’s initiative. Last week, when we celebrated the Epiphany, I said that what was true for the magi is still true for us; we believe that we are the ones seeking God, but all our lives God has been seeking us. We see this confirmed in today’s story from the Gospel according to John, in which Jesus calls some of his first disciples.

The lectionary splits this story across multiple years. On the Second Sunday of Epiphany last year the Gospel reading had John the Baptizer sending two of his own disciples to follow Jesus. Those two addressed Jesus as Rabbi, teacher, and asked him where he lived, to which he replied, ‘Come and see’. After spending time with Jesus one of those disciples, Andrew, found his brother Simon and told him that they had found the Messiah. Jesus then named Simon ‘Cephas,’ Peter, the rock on whom Jesus would later build his Church. (John 1:35-42) Continue reading →

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