Sermon: When God is a comedian

Posted on January 23, 2021 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
24th of January 2021

Jonah 1:1-3; 3:1-5, 10; 4:1-11.

Today is the Sunday before Australia Day and at the request of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress the Uniting Church observes this Sunday as a Day of Mourning. The prayers we pray, the hymns we sing, and the Picture Book I have just read to you are all part of that. But I could not give up the Revised Common Lectionary readings, or the chance to reflect on them today. The lectionary only gives us one reading in three years from the Book of Jonah, and I cannot give this opportunity up. There aren’t many books of the Bible that are laugh-out-loud funny, but the Book of Jonah is one of them. Continue reading →

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There are no more chances

Posted on January 19, 2021 by Avril Hannah-Jones

There is never any need to interview white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Sunshine in their case is NOT the best disinfectant. The ABC is culpable.

Ketan Joshi's avatarKetan Joshi

In March 2019, an Australian white supremacist walked into a mosque, armed with a shotgun, and killed 51 people, including a two year old boy. The man who enacted those killings wanted to wipe out those he’d been told were replacing white people, and erasing white culture. The first thing on my mind when I saw that was this article published only a few months prior.

Though complaints were made to the Australian Press Council, no action was taken to remove the article or punish the media outlet. The reason this article prompted little outcry among the employees of News Corp is because white supremacy, racism and the deadly ideology of the ‘Great Replacement’ belief system are viewed as harmless thought experiments – rather than things that lead to children being murdered by Australians with shotguns.

I wrote, a few days after the Christchurch attack:

“Politics and media are…

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Reflection: Bad theology is dangerous

Posted on January 16, 2021 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
The Second Sunday of Epiphany, 17th of January 2020

1 Samuel 3:1-20

I am a member of the Council of the University of Divinity. The Uniting Church in Victoria has the right to appoint two people to the Council, and now those two people are me and Associate Professor Natalie Sims. The University of Divinity, founded in 1910 as the Melbourne College of Divinity, is the only university of specialisation in Australia. Its students consistently rate the University highly, in 2019, 93 per cent of students at the University of Divinity rated their education experience positively, the top result in the whole country, and I am extremely proud of it.

I say all that partly as an advertisement in case you or anyone you know is thinking of doing some theological study, but mainly because it is at meetings of the University that I tend to be most strident about the importance of theological education. As a private, specialised, university the University of Divinity is often asked to justify itself. Why does theology need to be studied at a university level? My answer is always that ‘bad theology kills people’, and I mean that literally. In most cases I am referring to the LGBTIQ people who over the decades have died by suicide because they have thought that God would reject them for their sexuality or their gender identity. But over the past week or so I have been reminded again of just how dangerous bad theology is. Continue reading →

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Reflection: Chaos and Creation

Posted on January 9, 2021 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
The Baptism of Jesus

Genesis 1:1-5
Psalm 29
Mark 1:4-11

Last week we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, the revelation of Jesus to the nations, the Gentiles, represented by the magi who journeyed to Bethlehem following a star. This morning we have another theophany, a revelation of God, as we celebrate Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan river.

Reading this story, we instantly notice that something strange is happening; something just as strange as the Jewish Messiah being greeted at his birth by Gentiles from the East. The ‘Baptism of Jesus’ raises the question: why would Jesus be baptised? Today’s reading begins by telling us that John the baptiser appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The people from Jerusalem and all Judea came to John and were baptised by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Then Jesus himself comes from Galilee to John at the Jordan, expressly to be baptised by him. But Jesus had no need of repentance. Sin is most basically a turning away from God, and Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us, lived his life in full relationship with God. So, why, since John is baptising for repentance those who confess their sins, does Jesus seek baptism? What is it that we are celebrating today? Continue reading →

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Reflection: The light still shines

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
Christmas Day 2020

Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
Luke 2:1-20

‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined.’ These words from the Prophet Isaiah summarise Christmas Day; in fact, they could be said to encapsulate the entire meaning of Christianity and our parent faith, Judaism. Our faith does not say that darkness does not exist, or that we will not experience it. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus instead tell us that, as the Apostle John wrote, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will never overcome it. Today we celebrate the birth in human form of that light.

Continue reading →

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Reflection: Fighting on God’s Side

Posted on December 19, 2020 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
20th of December, 2020

Luke 1:26-38
Luke 1:46-55

I know that this year has been different because here we are at the Fourth Sunday of Advent and I am not yet completely over Christmas carols. Usually by this time in December I have heard so many carols at Christmas events or while shopping that the thought of hearing another one drives me batty. But this year there have been few Christmas parties, and shopping has been a matter of deciding beforehand, walking in, and walking out, and so I am not my usual ‘Bah! Humbug!’ self. Continue reading →

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Reflection: Rejoice!

Posted on December 12, 2020 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
13th of December 2020

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126

Today, the third Sunday in Advent, is Joy Sunday, known for centuries as Gaudete Sunday from the Latin word for ‘rejoice,’ with the liturgical colour pink. Designating this single Sunday out of Advent’s four as a time of joy immediately raises the question: what are the other three Sundays meant to be? The answer is that for much of the Church’s history Advent was a solemn time; a time for Christians to examine themselves and the world in preparation for the Second Coming of Christ; a time of fasting and quiet contemplation. This of course is why the liturgical colour of Advent is purple, the same colour as Lent. A few weeks’ ago Emily shared with me a website about ‘Celtic Advent’ but we both decided not to introduce Celtic Advent practices to the congregation when we found they included fasting. Continue reading →

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Reflection: Called to make peace

Posted on December 5, 2020 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
Advent Two, 6th of December 2020

Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
Mark 1:1-8

Today, the second Sunday of Advent, is known as ‘Peace’ Sunday. Today we look forward to the birth of the Prince of Peace, at which angels sang, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’

It might be the pessimist in me, but whenever I think of ‘peace’ the two sayings that come first to my mind are one from the prophet Jeremiah: ‘They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, “Peace, peace”, when there is no peace’ (6:14; 8:11); and one from the Roman historian Tacitus, apparently quoting a Scot: ‘where they make a desert, they call it peace’. The psalmist tells us today that God ‘will speak peace to his people’ and that ‘righteousness and peace will kiss each other’. To which my response is: ‘Really? When?’ As we look at our world, how can we possibly say that peace has come? We live in a time of civil wars and terrorism – how can we say that peace has come? We live in a world in which desperate refugees flee for safety – how can we say that peace has come? We live in a country in which people who came to us seeking asylum have been locked up for seven years – how can we say that peace has come? We live in a country in which family violence is widespread – how can we say that peace has come? Yet today, on this second Sunday of Advent, that is what we proclaim. Continue reading →

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Reflection: Hope at the End of the World

Posted on November 28, 2020 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
Advent One, 29th of November 2020

Isaiah 64:1-9
Mark 13:24-37

Happy New Year! And to those of you here, in the nave, welcome back to worshipping in the church building after months of lockdown. In previous years it might have been hard for us to experience the beginning of Advent as something ‘new’ because we were doing pretty much the same things at church that we had done the week before, give or take some Advent candles. That is not an issue this year. This year, as we start the new liturgical year, we are also starting a new (or renewed) way of worshipping God: together, not merely in spirit but in actual physical fact, in the church building. 2020 has been the year of learning to appreciate things that we previously took for granted, and being in the same place as other members of the congregation as we worship is one of those things.

Continue reading →

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Reflection: This is what it all comes down to

Posted on November 21, 2020 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
22nd of November, 2020

Matthew 25:31-46

Here we are, finally at the end of the church year, and at the story of the Last Judgement towards which we and Matthew have been heading for the past month. Today we are told exactly what distinguished the wise from the foolish bridesmaids; the slave with five talents from the slave with one; what more the one who says, ‘Lord, Lord,’ must do to prove themselves a follower of Jesus. Today we hear one of the fundamental texts of Christianity. As we listen to it, we affirm that Christ is the ruler not just of our hearts but of the whole world, and that following the way of Jesus should determine everything we do and say. Continue reading →

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