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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Ephesians 6:10-20: The Armour of God and the Gospel of Peace

Posted on August 24, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
25th of August, 2024

Ephesians 6:10-20

Over the past few weeks I have experienced a version of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, named after the German terrorist group, is also called the frequency illusion and it is a cognitive bias in which we notice a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it. I have not just become aware of the issue of religion and violence, but knowing that today’s passage from the Letter to the Ephesians about putting on the whole armour of God was coming up, I have noticed questions of faith and war being raised in the media I consume. Over my recent two weeks’ leave I watched the most recent season of Doctor Who and one episode, ‘Boom,’ stars the Anglican soldiers who first appeared in stories in 2010 and 2011. The latest Companion, Ruby, is surprised to find soldier-clerics and asks: ‘What’s an “Anglican marine”? Since when was the church an army?’ The Doctor answers: ‘Since most of your history. You’ve been living in a blip.’ Doctor Who’s use of Anglican priests as soldiers makes me slightly grumpy (and I can go into that in detail over morning tea, if anyone is interested) but what if the Doctor is right? What if our current understanding that Christianity should not be violent is simply a blip?

Image of Varada Sethu as a soldier with a clerical collar.

‘Anglican marine’ Mundy in Boom.

Continue reading →

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Sermon: Ephesians 5:15-20 on being wisely drunk

Posted on August 17, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
18th of August, 2024

Ephesians 5:15-20

Make ‘the most of the time, because the days are evil.’ Give ‘thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ The author of this Letter is telling the members of the church in Ephesus how to live, now that these Gentiles have joined Jewish followers of Jesus in a new community. The author seems a little confused. The Ephesians are living in evil days, but they are still to give thanks to God at all times for everything. What does the author mean? Continue reading →

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Be Angry! | Reflection on Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Posted on August 10, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
11th of August, 2024

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

‘Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.’

In the Letter to the Ephesians a follower of the Apostle Paul seeks to sum up Paul’s teachings and apply them after his death. In his Letter to the Galatians Paul had written: ‘As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.’ (Galatians 3:27-29). The purpose of the Letter to the Ephesians is to explore the implications of this unity. The passage we hear today is not simply philosophical advice on how the virtuous are to live. The author of this Letter is telling Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians how they are to live together, now that they have all been baptized into Christ. Continue reading →

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Jesus’ Compassionate Ministry: Lessons from Mark 6 and Ephesians 2

Posted on July 20, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
21st of July, 2024

Ephesians 2:11-22
Mark 6: 30-34 and 53-56

I do like the beginning of today’s reading from the Gospel according to Mark. As I have said many times, Mark’s version of the gospel is short, scary, and strange. But not today. Today, we have Jesus demonstrating gentleness and thoughtfulness as he invites the Twelve to retreat to a quiet place for rest and refreshment. This is a leader who cares for his followers, no matter how obtuse those followers might be. Continue reading →

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Sermon: I go down the rabbit hole of ‘predestination’

Posted on July 13, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
14th of July, 2024

Ephesians 1:3-14

I am sorry. I must confess that this week I went down a bit of a rabbit hole. In the ‘Ordination Charge’ that the Presbytery gives to Uniting Church ministers before we are ordained one instruction is: ‘Learning from the Confessional Documents of the Uniting Church in Australia, you will diligently teach Christ’s people, reminding them of the centrality of the person and work of Jesus Christ and the grace which justifies them through faith.’ The Basis of Union lists the ‘Confessional Documents of the Uniting Church’ as the Scots Confession of Faith (1560), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), the Savoy Declaration (1658), and John Wesley’s Forty-Four Sermons (1793). I may do my job by diligently reminding you of ‘the centrality of the person and work of Jesus Christ,’ but I very seldom do so after reading any of the Confessional Documents. This week, given today’s passage from the Letter to the Ephesians, I decided that I should spend some time with them. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Strength in weakness

Posted on July 6, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
7th of July 2024

2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13

If only the Apostle Paul had known that his letters to the various new communities of Jesus’ followers were still going to be read two thousand years later. He might then have given us a few more details to explain exactly what he was saying. ‘I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven … And I know that such a person … was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.’ Really, Paul? The third heaven? Things no mortal is permitted to repeat? What on earth are you talking about? Continue reading →

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Sermon: Enough for all

Posted on June 29, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
30th of June 2024

2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43

Today’s gospel story tells the well-known tales of the healing of the daughter of Jairus, and the healing of the woman with uncontrolled bleeding. The way the stories are told is an example of a ‘Markan sandwich’: we begin with Jairus; his story is interrupted by the healing of an unknown woman; and we then return to Jairus and see his plea being answered. The two sandwiched stories share key words: the twelve years of the woman’s bleeding and of the girl’s life; the daughter of Jairus and the woman addressed as ‘Daughter’ by Jesus; the faith of the woman that makes her well and Jesus’ demand of Jairus that he have faith; both healings occurring ‘instantly’. The shared language indicates that it is no mere accident of timing that the healing of the haemorrhaging woman interrupts the healing of Jairus’ daughter. Mark has placed the two stories together so that they can illuminate each other. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Deeper Water

Posted on June 22, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
23rd of June 2024

Mark 4:35-41

One of the last poems that the nineteenth-century British author Emily Bronte wrote begins:

No coward soul is mine
No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere
I see Heaven’s glories shine
And Faith shines equal arming me from Fear.

Sadly, none of Jesus’ disciples was an Emily Bronte. Continue reading →

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