Sermon: Building Jerusalem in Australia’s dry and dusty land

Posted on May 18, 2025 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
The Fifth Sunday of Easter, 18th of May 2025

Revelation 21:1-6

I have a confession to make. Although I am Scottish Australian, I absolutely adore the song ‘Jerusalem,’ the early nineteenth-century poem by William Blake that Sir Hubert Parry put to music in the early twentieth century. I blame the joy I take in hearing about ‘England’s green and pleasant land’ on the film Chariots of Fire, which was released when I was eight years old and in which my cousin had a role playing Eric Liddell’s brother Rob. If you have not seen Chariots of Fire, and you do not know who Eric Liddell was, that is your homework for the week. The soundtrack of Chariots of Fire, including ‘Jerusalem,’ is carved into my memory.

Blake's hand-lettered preface to his epic poem Milton, which contains the words to what became the song 'Jerusalem'

Continue reading →

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Sermon: The Book of Revelation – not that terrifying!

Posted on May 4, 2025 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
The Third Sunday of Easter, 4th of May, 2025

Revelation 5:11-14

Today I am going to do something that I have never done before. I am going to preach on the lection from Revelation.

The Revised Common Lectionary gives us only a few readings from Revelation, mostly limiting them to this season of Easter in the liturgical year of Luke, and mostly giving us descriptions of worship and praise. If we follow the lectionary readings we never hear about the plagues, wars, and famines that Revelation describes as occurring when angels blow trumpets and pour out bowls of God’s wrath, even though it is probably those plagues, wars, and famines that first spring to mind when thinking about this part of the Bible. Beyond the lectionary, we are most likely to use elements of Revelation in song. ‘Love divine, all loves excelling’ (TIS 217), the Battle Hymn of the Republic (TIS 315), ‘Shall we gather at the river?’ and ‘When the saints go marching in’ all use images from the Book of Revelation. (If St Kilda ever wins an AFL Grand Final we will most definitely be singing ‘When the saints …’ even though the football theme song makes no mention of stars falling from the sky, the sun refusing to shine, or the moon turning red with blood.) But there is more to Revelation than us casting our crowns before God or the grapes of wrath being trampled. Continue reading →

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Easter Sunday: Joining Mary Magdalene in joy and sorrow

Posted on April 20, 2025 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025

1 Corinthians 15:19-26
John 20:1-18

“I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

There are two things of which we can be sure about the events of that first day of the week. The first is that Jesus’ body was missing from the tomb. If the corpse had been quietly lying where Joseph of Arimathea had placed it, the Romans would have displayed it as soon as rumours began to spread that an executed man was appearing to his followers. In the Gospel according to Matthew there is a story of the priests bribing soldiers to say that Jesus’ disciples had stolen the body to explain its absence (Matthew 28:11-15) and another Jewish story had a gardener named Judas removing the body and later returning it. Whatever else we believe, we can be sure that the tomb was empty. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Until warring powers cry ‘Enough!’

Posted on April 13, 2025 by Avril Hannah-Jones

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 God’s mighty deeds. But Jesus is not simply another pilgrim. Luke’s telling of the story makes it clear that Jesus is entering Jerusalem as its king. He sits on a colt that has never been ridden, one that is suitable for sacred purposes. Jesus’ disciples set him on it, an act of homage, and the spreading of cloaks on the road before the colt is another act of homage to a ruler. The psalm that the crowd sings as they come into sight of Jerusalem has one small but significant change from the version in the psalter. Rather than singing ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord,’ the people sing, ‘Blessed is the king …’. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Martha, Lazarus, and Mary

Posted on April 6, 2025 by Avril Hannah-Jones

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 we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.”’ (John 11:47-50) Continue reading →

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Sermon: No, we are not unworthy

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
Lent 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 full of quotable quotes. We frequently use the two verses about our reconciliation with God through Christ in Declarations of Forgiveness. The verse about all those in Christ being a new creation is a suggested Bible verse for the service at a cemetery or crematorium. The Uniting in Worship II ‘Service of Healing for Those Whose Marriage is Ending or has Ended’ (did you know we had one?) also suggests using it as part of the letting go of the marriage relationship. These are well-known words. Continue reading →

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Sermon: None of us is perfect – and that’s okay

Posted on March 23, 2025 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
Lent 3, 23rd of March 2025

Luke 13:1-9
1 Corinthians 10:1-13

The Apostle Paul can do things that we cannot. As I said last week, when we twenty-first century Christians read Paul’s letters some two thousand years after Paul wrote them, we must remember that Paul is writing as a Jew who believes that Gentiles have become part of the covenant people of Israel through their faith in Christ. Paul does not see Judaism and Christianity as separate religions. As a Jew, Paul can use the Jewish Scriptures in ways that make most Christian biblical commentators very nervous. Very few Christian biblical scholars would read the story of Israel in the wilderness in the allegorical way Paul does in his first letter to the church in Corinth. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Jesus IS a wishy-washy liberal

Posted on March 16, 2025 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
Lent 2, 16th of March 2025

Luke 13:31-35
Philippians 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 ever committed to Lenten fasting and then struggled to stick to it, and I must confess that this year I have regularly failed to not to eat chocolate, then you might find this reading on the second Sunday of Lent all too pertinent. If that is you, relax. Paul’s ire is not directed at those of us failing to fast. His concerns are much greater. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Giving into Temptation

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
Lent 1, 9th of March, 2025

Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13

Lead us not into temptation. Save us from the time of trial. Over the past few weeks I have been pondering on how incredibly lucky we are not to have great political power. We in the Western world are watching people nakedly succumb to the temptations of power in ways that we last saw in the nineteen-thirties. Donald Trump, J. D. Vance, and Elon Musk seem to have surrendered to the sins of pride, wrath, and greed, and the pleasure that comes from being able to mistreat others. This giving into temptation has flown from the Oval Office outwards and downwards, as Trump’s followers justify his every ridiculous thought bubble, and the leaders of other countries flatter him. We are so lucky that we are not in those positions. We are not facing that particular time of trial.

Photo of President Zelensky of Ukraine sitting in military fatigues with his arms crossed next to President Donald J. Trump sitting in a blue suit with a red tie, and J. D. Vance sitting in a blue suit on a couch berates Zelensky. Continue reading →

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Sermon: The Glorious Impossible of the Transfiguration

Posted on March 2, 2025 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
2nd of March 2025

Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-36

The Lord our God is holy, and God’s holiness can be confronting, terrifying, beyond human understanding. When Moses spent time with God, his own face began to reflect God’s glory, and the people of Israel were so terrified that Moses had to veil his shining skin when he was not directly mediating between God and the people. Centuries later Peter, James, and John also encountered the glory of God on a mountain, and they too were terrified. Now, thousands of years later, we listen to these stories and, like Peter, we are confused, even afraid, not knowing what to say about them. We are told that ‘the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend’ (Exodus 33:11) and that Jesus’ three closest disciples saw him speaking with Moses and Elijah, who had lived centuries before, and we are obviously in the realm of dreams and visions. What are we to do with these stories? Continue reading →

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