Opposing Christian Nationalism: Embracing Jesus’ Reign

Posted on November 24, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
24th of November, 2024

Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37

‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ Whenever we celebrate the Feast of the Reign of Christ, the last Sunday in the church year, I remind us of what a new festival this is, introduced by the Roman Catholic Church in 1925 as fascism and communism began to dominate Europe. Protestant churches then adopted it, realising that in the nineteen twenties and thirties a statement of Christians’ loyalty to Christ over all earthly rulers had become both necessary and radical.

I have mentioned Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his 1933 radio broadcast after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on ‘The leader (Fuhrer) and the individual.’ Bonhoeffer argued that no mere human could have ultimate authority over other humans. Ultimate authority lies with God, and ‘[t]he fearful danger of the present time is that above the cry for authority, be it of the Leader or of an office, we forget that man stands alone before the ultimate authority and that anyone who lays violent hands on man here is infringing eternal laws and taking upon himself superhuman authority which will eventually crush him’.[1] This was so incendiary at the time that the broadcast was cut. Continue reading →

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Endings and Beginnings: Embracing Kairos in Troubling Times

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
17th of November 2024

1 Samuel 1:4-20
1 Samuel 2:1-10
Mark 13:1-8

At both the beginning and the end of the church year we are reminded that all things come to an end. We began the year of the Gospel according to Mark with the Markan or ‘Little’ Apocalypse, distinguished from the big apocalypse that is the Book of Revelation. When we listened to it last December I quoted a commentator who said that this thirteenth chapter of the gospel according to Mark ‘is largely ignored by pragmatists, activists, believers in progress, and all who dismiss preoccupation with the end of the world as a juvenile state of human development or an aberration of unbalanced minds’. Yet on this second last Sunday of the church year we listen to it again, once more being reminded of the dangers of the world and warned of the vulnerability and briefness of life. Continue reading →

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When God Seems Absent: Finding Hope in the Book of Ruth

Posted on November 10, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
10th of November, 2024

Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17

Today we hear the second of our two readings from the biblical Book of Ruth. Last week, you will remember, Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion left Bethlehem for Moab to find food in a time of famine. The sons married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. After all three men died, Naomi decided to return to Judah. Orpah went back to her mother’s home, but Ruth insisted on accompanying her mother-in-law in words that have become justly famous.

In between that reading and this one, Ruth has been gleaning in the fields of a man who turned out to be ‘a kinsman on [Naomi’s] husband’s side, a prominent rich man, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz’. The poor, including widows, were permitted by the law to glean in the fields of the wealthy, but Boaz did more than was necessary: telling Ruth to stay in his fields, where he had ordered the young men not to bother her; allowing her to drink the water his young men had drawn up; sharing his meal with her; and, most importantly, telling his workers, ‘Let her glean even among the standing sheaves, and do not reproach her. You must also pull out some handfuls for her from the bundles, and leave them for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.’ But when today’s reading starts the harvest is almost over, and Boaz has done nothing to indicate that his protection will continue. Continue reading →

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The Legacy of Ruth: Challenging Prejudice in Scripture

Posted on November 3, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
3rd of November 2024

Ruth 1:1-18
Mark 12:28-34

I recently had the fun of having my genetic heritage mapped. I did not ask the company to tell me which disease will eventually kill me, or to put me in touch with any unknown relatives. I just wanted to see whether the stories I have been told about my ancestry match my genes. The company compared my DNA to their reference panel of DNA from groups of people known to live in different regions of the world. As a method it is not foolproof, but the results that came back did match what I know of my heritage. Genetically I am mostly Scottish, then English, Ashkenazi Jewish, and Irish. I am, as I suspect most people are and as I already knew, a mongrel. Continue reading →

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Reflection: Genocide and the Crucified God

Posted on October 20, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
20th of October 2024

Hebrews 5:1-10
Mark 10:35-45

‘In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.’

You will remember, because I am sure that you have memorised all my Reflections, that on the fifth Sunday in Lent this year we had the second half of today’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. I want to quote something I said on that Sunday, about what it means that the author of the Letter to the Hebrews says that Jesus ‘offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears’. I believe that the author is telling us that the only necessary high priest, the sole mediator between God and humanity, the one who offers prayers and sacrifice to God on humanity’s behalf, also brings to God the grief of the world. We often look at a world ruled by violence and feel anguish and isolation and anger. In this reading we are shown God in Jesus grieving the world’s violence with the same passion that we feel. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Mark 10:17-31 and the Challenge of Wealth

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church

13th of October 2024

Hebrews 4:12-16
Mark 10:17-31

‘The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow’. Did today’s gospel reading scare you? It scares me. Every time I hear the story of the rich man who sadly leaves Jesus because he has many possessions, I feel as shocked as he was and as astounded as the disciples. I hear Jesus’ words: ‘go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor’ as a command that I am failing to obey; his statement: ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God’ as a dreadful warning. I live a relatively modest life by Australian standards, but Australians do not live modest lives by world standards. I do give some money, but I am far from selling what I own and giving the money to the poor. My enormous library and Lego collection both convict me, and this reading alarms me. Continue reading →

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What does a good life look like? Reflection on James 3:1-12

Posted on September 21, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
22nd of September 2024

James 3:1-12

Today we are hearing the fourth of the five readings the lectionary gives us from the Letter of James. Last week we heard about the dangers of our tongues, the dreadful things they can say if we let them loose. As James wrote: ‘The tongue is like a spark … our tongues get out of control. They are restless and evil and always spreading deadly poison.’ He warned his readers that if we let our tongues run away with us, which I for one am prone to do, ‘from the same mouth come[s] blessing and cursing’. James condemned this, asking: ‘Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs?’ If we curse people with the same mouth with which we bless God, we are as unnatural as a fig tree that grows olives. Continue reading →

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The Power and Danger of Speech: Insights from James 3:1-12

Posted on September 14, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
15th of September 2024

James 3:1-12

This morning we are again listening to the Letter attributed to Jesus’ brother, James the Righteous, and while last week I preached with gusto on one of my favourite passages in all Scripture, James’ assertion that ‘faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead,’ this week I need to be more circumspect. When I started this series two weeks ago I confessed that while I am good at sharing what I have with the poor, I am simply dreadful at keeping my tongue still. What makes the fact that I do not bridle my tongue (James 1:26) even worse is that by ordaining me the Uniting Church has recognised me as a teacher, and ‘we who teach will be judged with greater strictness’. Despite that, I will try to draw on the ‘wisdom from above,’ (James 3:17) and speak today about the dangers of speaking. Continue reading →

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The Importance of Faith in Action: Reflection on James 2:1-10, 14-17

Posted on September 7, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
8 September 2024

James 2:1-10, 14-17

We are in our second week of reading through the Letter attributed to Jesus’ brother, James the Righteous, leader of the church in Jerusalem. Last week I mentioned Martin Luther’s abhorrence of this letter, which he called ‘an epistle of straw’. Today we come to my favourite part of the letter, and the part that I think, more than any other, made Martin Luther fume: ‘What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill”, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.’ Continue reading →

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Living the Word: Reflection on James 1:17-27

Posted on August 31, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
1st of September 2024

James 1:17-27

For the next month we are going to be reading our way through one of my favourite books in the Bible, the Letter of James. ‘James’ only became part of the biblical canon in the late second or early third centuries, and into the fourth century it was still described as one of the Bible’s disputed books. In the sixteenth century Martin Luther notoriously described it as ‘an epistle of straw’ and an influential commentary published in 1921 still saw it as simply a collection of slogans without a unifying theme.[1] The letter’s poor reputation among Christians is probably because it could easily have been written by a Jew who revered Jesus merely as a human teacher. Jesus is mentioned only twice and there are no references to his crucifixion or to the resurrection. Despite its poor reputation, I love this letter, and we are going to spend the next month learning from it. Continue reading →

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