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Tag Archives: Advent 3
Sermon: Joy Sunday
Today, I am not suggesting that those of us who struggle to find the joy in Christmas should pretend that everything in our lives is perfect. I suspect that our lives would be better were we able to say honestly that Christmas is a difficult time for us. Continue reading
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Tagged A Christmas Carol, Advent, Advent 3, Blue Christmas, Charles Dickens, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Joy, Luke 1:46b-55, Matthew 11:2-11, Scrooge
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Sermon: Rejoicing and repenting, or vice versa
We know that poverty and disaster can cause people to feel ashamed if they need help. Australia was for so long considered to be a ‘working man’s paradise’ that it was even a joke in an Agatha Christie story. A wealthy young man disowned by his uncle asks his uncle’s butler whether he should leave for Australia.
Rogers coughed discreetly.
‘Well, sir, I’ve certainly heard it said that there’s room out there for anyone who really wants to work.’
Mr Rowland gazed at him with interest and admiration.
‘Very neatly put, Rogers. Just what I was thinking myself. I shan’t go to Australia – not today, at any rate.’[2] Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Advent 3, Gaudete Sunday, Isaiah 12:2-6, John the Baptist, Joy, Luke 3:7-18, Repentance, Zephaniah 3:14-20
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Reflection: Rejoice!
One hundred and six years earlier Charles Dickens wrote of the reborn Scrooge, who had become ‘as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew,’ that ‘it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge’. Keeping Christmas well does not just mean rejoicing ourselves, as the prophet Isaiah reminds us. Continue reading
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Tagged Advent, Advent 3, Gaudete Sunday, Isaiah 61:1-4 8-11, Joy, Psalm 126, Third Isaiah
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Sermon: Joy Sunday
God is not well-behaved! Continue reading
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Tagged Advent, Advent 3, Book of Ruth, Ruth and Naomi, women behaving badly
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Sermon: Can we speak of Joy after the Royal Commission?
Hope and joy come from God’s love of justice. And so we know that God was at work in the Royal Commission, as God is at work in every human endeavour that strives for peace and wholeness. Continue reading
Sermon for Advent 3: Joy
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. The Lord is near. He is coming to welcome us to his kingdom, to make a place for us at his banqueting table. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Advent, Advent 3, Consumption, John the Baptist, Joy, Luke 3:7-18, Philippians 4:4-7, Sermon, Year of Luke
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Sermon: Women behaving badly and making history
Sermon for the third Sunday of Advent 15th of December 2013 Matthew 1:1-17 Were you surprised by today’s Gospel reading? I have to confess that this morning I cheated. The lectionary reading for this Sunday comes from the 11th chapter … Continue reading