Sermon: The Creator of the Cosmos is our Next of Kin

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sermon for Williamstown

13th of September, 2015

Psalm 19

I’m going to do something a bit unusual this morning; I’m going to preach a sermon on the Psalm of the day. This is unusual, because the psalms themselves are unusual parts of the Scriptures. Most of the Bible is made up of writings that we consider to be words from God, if not the Word of God. The Book of Psalms is somewhat different. The psalms are prayers, offerings of humans to God. And that’s how we usually use them. We sing them or pray them in worship or alone, offering them as our words to God. We don’t principally listen to them as God’s words to us. That’s what I want us to do today; treat today’s psalm like any other part of Scripture, as a poem through which we hear God talking to us. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Do we really ‘believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ’? Welcoming refugees and asylum seekers.

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Avril Hannah-Jones

  Williamstown Uniting Church
6th of September, 2015

James 2:1-10, 14-17
Mark 7:24-37

I’m a bit of a news junkie. I subscribe to two newspapers and three online news sources; I watch the ABC news on television every night; and if I’m working at my desk or driving I usually have Radio National on in the background. Personally I blame my parents and grandparents for this need to know what’s going on in the world at all times – but at least I’m not as bad as my brother who, when he’s at home, constantly has either ABC News 24 or Fox News on the television.

So this week I have been feeling completely overwhelmed by the news of refugees around the world. I read, hear or see desperate people in danger, and I want to turn away; switch off; ignore what’s happening. But I know I can’t, because these are fellow human beings. (And even if I wanted to, the front page of this month’s Crosslight wouldn’t let me!) There are already nearly two million refugees from the Syrian civil war in Turkey and over 1.1 million in Lebanon, and over the past few weeks we have watched as millions more Syrians have sought refuge in Europe. On Thursday media organisations showed images of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi from a Kurdish town on the Turkey-Syria border, who together with his five-year-old brother and thirty-five-year-old mother drowned trying to reach Greece. It is in order to prevent such children drowning on their way to Australia that Australia’s Government and Opposition both support off-shore processing for asylum seekers. The trouble is that, as we’ve seen with the boatloads of Rohinga asylum seekers escaping Myanmar, no matter how hard we make conditions in detention centres persecuted people still get on boats if there’s no other way to escape. And when other countries follow Australia’s lead and turn the boats away, asylum seekers like the Rohinga are simply left adrift on the sea.

Crosslight September 2015

Continue reading →

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Coming soon – the fifth annual service of the Church of Latter Day Geeks!

Posted on August 29, 2015 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sci Fi Service

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Sermon: And, again, the Uniting Church is not a Bible-believing church

Posted on August 29, 2015 by Avril Hannah-Jones

At the recent national Assembly of the Uniting Church I was shocked to hear people argue, in the course of discussion about same-sex marriage, that members of the Uniting Church read the Bible literally. Whatever one thinks of marriage equality, the Uniting Church has never been a ‘Bible-believing’ church in that sense. The Basis of Union makes that extremely clear. So, although my congregation has heard it all before, I’ve taken the opportunity of Jesus authoritatively interpreting the Scriptures to explain how members of the Uniting Church read the Bible: seriously, reverently, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit – but NOT literally.

Sermon for Williamstown Uniting Church

30 August, 2015

Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: the Uniting Church is not a Bible-believing church. We are a church that believes that the Bible is important, but not a church that believes that the Bible is the Word of God.

So, how do those of us who belong to the Uniting Church read the Bible? According to the Basis of Union, the document that defines who we are as a church, we Uniting Church types understand the Bible to be ‘unique prophetic and apostolic testimony’ and we are given ‘the serious duty of reading the Scriptures’.[1] When I was ordained one of the questions I was asked was: ‘Relying on the power of the Holy Spirit, will you be diligent in the study of the Bible; will you seek to live a holy and disciplined life; will you be faithful in prayer?’ and I answered ‘With God’s help I will’. All Uniting Church members are expected to read the Bible; ministers are meant to study it. The Bible is vital to our faith. But we are not expected to read it literally.

The Book of Kells Continue reading →

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A letter to the Prime Minister on Marriage Equality

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Avril Hannah-Jones

I was one of the 110 Christian signatories to this letter asking the Prime Minister to allow a conscience vote on marriage equality. Sadly, the day before this letter was delivered, at a Prayer Breakfast at Parliament House, a six-hour joint LNP party room meeting decided not to allow members of the LNP a conscience vote. But the letter is still important because the issue will not go away, and because it shows that Christians are not all of one mind on the question.

(c) Alex Lee / BuzzFeed

(c) Alex Lee / BuzzFeed

The Hon Tony Abbott MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Cc: Liberal National Party Caucus

Dear Prime Minister

Christian Support for Same-Sex Marriage

We write as people of faith and as a voice for many others of religious faith. We are leaders and prominent members of Christian communities across diverse fields of endeavour. We respect that ours is a democratic, multicultural and secular nation. We equally affirm that Parliament should be open to hear religious voices among the many Australian voices that advocate on important social issues. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Friendship, refugees, asylum seekers, and a birthday

Posted on June 20, 2015 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sermon for 21 June 2015

Williamstown Uniting Church

1 Samuel 17:57-18:5, 10-16

Today the lectionary offers us two options for the Old Testament reading, the story of David and Goliath, and the story of David and Jonathan. I promised the children last week that I would tell them the story of David’s encounter with a giant, but for the rest of you I’ve rather unsurprisingly decided to preach on the love story rather than the war story. I’ve preached on friendship several times already during my time here, and the story of David and Jonathan is the story of an amazing friendship.

Jonathan is ‘the friend few of us deserve but most of us would dearly love to have’.[1] The friendship between Jonathan and David can be compared with the love between David’s great-grandmother, Ruth, and her mother-in-law Naomi, in which Ruth makes the wonderful declaration that: ‘Where you will go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die – there will I be buried’; a commitment so profound that this promise from one woman to another is often read at weddings. It’s tempting to think that David inherited his capacity for inspirational friendship from her. Continue reading →

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Reflection: Two and a half days in to the Ration Challenge

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Avril Hannah-Jones

This Refugee Week I am taking part in Act for Peace’s Ration Challenge. For seven days I am committed to eating the same rations that a refugee receives in Burma. The rations are: 3,500 g of rice; 280 g of split peas; 250 g of fortified flour; 155 g of fish; 40 g of salt and 125 ml of vegetable oil.

Ration Challenge 4

The rations, plus my cultivated condiment

Because refugees can add to their rations by cultivating a garden we are also able to add supplies that we have ‘cultivated’ by getting sponsorship: $200 raised adds a condiment; $300 adds a serve of vegetables; $400 adds a portion of fruit; $500 adds a serve of protein; and $1000 adds a bonus item to the value of $5.

Two and a half days in I am not hungry, or feeling very deprived. But I am feeling a little bored at my lack of menu choice. 3.5 kg of rice over the course of a week is a lot of rice! I had bowls of plain rice for breakfast on Sunday and Monday, and rice fried with chilli for Sunday lunch and dinner, and I am already very, very over rice. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Be afraid, be very afraid. Jesus and family values

Posted on June 6, 2015 by Avril Hannah-Jones

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 means that we’re spending serious time immersed in the Gospel according to Mark. As I’ve said several times already this liturgical year, Mark is the shortest, the earliest, and the ‘scariest’ of the canonical gospels.[1]

In today’s reading from the gospel, we see that strangeness and scariness up close, as Jesus is accused of being in league with demons and his family tries to restrain him because they believe he’s out of his mind. It’s a story that includes Jesus describing an unforgivable sin, and turning from his biological family in favour of the people gathered around him. This week’s reading is not for the faint of heart, nor for those who are relaxed and comfortable with the status quo. Continue reading →

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Sermon: The Trinity is a celebration; not a maths problem

Posted on May 30, 2015 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sermon for Williamstown

May 31st, 2015

Isaiah 6:1-8; John 3:1-17

One of the things that Trinity Sunday does is remind us, in case we’ve forgotten, just how unique, or possibly weird, the Christian understanding of God is. My most recent reminder of this was in Nazareth, in Israel. On the road to the Church of the Annunciation a billboard has been erected that quotes from the Koran:

“O People of the Scripture (Christians)! Do not exceed the limits in your religion. Say nothing but the truth about Allah (The one true God). The Christ Jesus, Son of Mary, was only a Messenger of God and His word conveyed to Mary and a spirit created by Him. So believe in God and His messengers and do not say “Three gods” (Trinity). Cease! it will be better for you. Indeed, Allah is the One and the Only God. His holiness is far above having a son.”

Trinity1

Having read this sign, Christians then go to the church built over the house identified as the one in which Mary was living when the archangel Gabriel told her that she was going to bear a son. That’s what makes us different from the other two Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Islam. All three Abrahamic faiths worship the one God, but we Christians insist on saying that the one is simultaneously three; that God was not above having a Son, and that that Son was himself God.

Continue reading →

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The Act for Peace Ration Challenge

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Avril Hannah-Jones

I am frequently overwhelmed by a sense of how lucky I am.

That sense can come when I’m walking by the sea, when I’m reminded of how lucky I am to live in Williamstown. It can come when I’m leading worship, when I’m reminded of how lucky I am to be able to follow my vocation. It can come when I’m playing with my nephew, nieces, or any of the many other children in my life, when I’m reminded of how lucky I am to be have children to love even though I don’t have any of my own. It can come when I’m browsing in a bookshop, when I’m reminded of how lucky I am to be able to buy a book without worrying about my budget. It can come when I watch the news at night, when I’m reminded of how lucky I am that I was born in Australia. I wasn’t merely born in Australia; I was born to a stable, Anglo-Celtic, middle-class family. In so many ways, through absolutely no effort on my part, I won the birth lottery. Continue reading →

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