Sermon: Multiple Happy Endings

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sermon for Williamstown

Easter Sunday, the 20th of April, 2014

Matthew 28:1-10

Image

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

This is the message at the heart of Easter; the affirmation at the heart of the Christian faith; the eucatastrophe (one of my favourite words – the happy surprise) described by each of the four gospel writers. It’s the ultimate happy ending; the happy ending that makes all other happy endings possible, and each of the gospel writers describes it slightly differently. Let’s hear what Matthew has to say to us.

In Matthew’s story, we find ourselves accompanying two women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, as they go to see the tomb. These two women have followed Jesus from Galilee and been among those who provided for him. When he was crucified, they were watching from a distance. When Joseph of Arimathea laid Jesus’ body in his own new tomb they were there, sitting opposite it. They’ve watched every stage of Jesus’ journey, from life, to death, to burial. Now they come to sit in vigil. They haven’t brought anything with which to anoint the body – Jesus’ body had been anointed before his death, at Bethany, when an unnamed woman poured costly ointment from an alabaster jar over his head. They’ve come to see the tomb, that’s all. Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sermon: Taking to the Streets

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sermon for Williamstown

13th of April 2014

Matthew 21:1-11

So, here we are at Palm Sunday. Jesus enters Jerusalem to choruses of praise and a crowd going wild. Rather than entering as most pilgrims do, on foot, Jesus enters riding a donkey. The people cut down branches and place them before him, spreading their cloaks on the road, one of the ways the people of Israel had traditionally acclaimed their kings. They greet him as the Son of David and the one who comes in the name of the Lord. They shout ‘Hosanna’, a cry previously addressed to King David. In all this the people welcome Jesus with euphoria as a prophet and king. Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Sermon: Beware of Blind Faith

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sermon for Williamstown

30 March 2014

John 9:1-41

This morning we heard a wonderful tale of light and sight and blindness, in which faith is born and faith is lost. The story begins with a question of theodicy, of God’s justice. It’s a common problem for Jews and Christians. We believe that God created everything. But if everything is made by a good God, why do bad things happen? How can any baby be born blind? One explanation sometimes offered, not one that I subscribe to, is that such tragedies are the result of our sin. So the disciples ask Jesus, when they see a man born blind: ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus says that it was neither, no one sinned, and he immediately begins to heal the man.

Image

Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Sermon: Brothers and Sisters Together

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sermon for Williamstown

23 March 2014

John 4:5-42

Today’s reading from the Gospel according to John is one of my favourite stories in the entire Bible, with one of my favourite characters. The Samaritan woman has often got a bad press. She is, after all, a woman who has apparently had five husbands and is now living with a man to whom she’s not married. One commentator describes her as ‘mincing and coy’. (Raymond Brown) But that’s not the way that I see her. I read her as a seeker, looking for something and not sure what it is. I read her as an outsider, cut off from her community. And I read her as brave, extremely brave, running to share the amazing thing she’s found with the community that excludes her.

The story starts with Jesus sitting alone by a well, when a woman approaches to draw water. John tells us that it’s about noon. Immediately we know that there is something wrong in this woman’s life. She’s coming to the well in the heat of the day, rather than in the cool of the dawn or early evening. She’s coming alone, rather than with the other women of the village. This woman is an outsider, isolated from her community. And yet Jesus asks this woman for a drink. Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sermon: It’s not enough just to be ‘born’ again

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sermon for Williamstown, 16th of March 2014

John 3:1-17

Image

Nicodemus by Jesus Mafa, Cameroon, 1973

John’s gospel starts with a bang. It begins with the wonderful Prologue, the hymn to the Word: ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God’. There’s no infancy story in John’s gospel, the narrative of Jesus’ life and ministry starts with the testimony of John the Baptist; the recognition by John of Jesus as the Lamb of God; and then Jesus’ calling of his first disciples. We have the first miracle at Cana, and then the cleansing of the Temple, which John places at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry rather than at the end. Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Some relaxing reading

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Avril Hannah-Jones

ImageThis is a lovely, gentle romance; almost a ‘Georgette Heyer’ set in Scotland. I can understand why of all Bruce’s “Colmskirk” stories this was the one most reprinted. The bits of Scots might be a little hard for some to understand, but not for anyone who had read Robert Louis Stevenson or Sir Walter Scott (who actually appears in this book with his family). Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Random Musings | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Sermon: The Beatitudes

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sermon for Williamstown Uniting Church

The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany, 2nd of February 2014

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Matthew 5:1-12

Károly Ferenczy, Sermon on the Mountain, 1896

Károly Ferenczy, Sermon on the Mountain, 1896

Today, as we continue our Epiphany journey through Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we hear one of my favourite descriptions of what it is that we’re on about in the church: “For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24) That’s a perfect description of today’s gospel reading, because today the lectionary takes us to the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, and the foolishness and the wisdom of the beatitudes. Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Sermon: What a good thing for us that the church at Corinth was so imperfect

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sermon for Williamstown

26th of January, 2014

 

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

In last week’s reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, Paul started his epistle on an extremely positive note: “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind … so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 1: 4-7) Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Sermon: Called by God (expect the unexpected)

Posted on January 18, 2014 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Image

Sermon for Williamstown

19th of January 2014

John 1:29-42

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

 In a couple of previous sermons I’ve mentioned the Revised Common Lectionary, which gives churches four Bible readings for each Sunday and is used by Anglican and Lutheran and Methodist and Presbyterian and Uniting churches all around the world. Sometimes there’s a conflict between lectionary and what might be happening in a congregation, and the preacher will have to choose between, for example, ANZAC Day and the second Sunday of Easter. But at other times everything works together and the lectionary readings fit perfectly with what else is happening in a service. Today, like last Sunday, is one of those days. For the second week in a row the congregation here at Electra Street is celebrating a baptism and, for the second week in a row, the lectionary readings are talking to us about baptism and being called by God. Today, as Jamie and Nancy respond to God’s call to Stephanie by bringing her to be baptised, we hear again about Jesus’ baptism, and we then hear about the calling of Jesus’ first disciples. We hear the beginning of the story into which Stephanie will be baptised; the story of the Church – the community and body of Christ. Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sermon: Beloved sinners

Posted on January 18, 2014 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sermon for Williamstown

Baptism of Jesus, 12th of January, 2014

Matthew 3:13-17

Acts 10:34-43

Christianity says two things about human beings. Actually, it says lots of things about human beings, but there are two particular elements of Christian anthropology that I want to focus on today. The first is that we are all, without exception, beloved children of God. The second is that we are all, without exception, sinners. We are both God’s beloved sons and daughters, in whom God is well-pleased, and we are those who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments