Tag Archives: anger

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

We can do nothing about the misuse of Christianity in the USA. But here in our small corner of the world, in our small church, we can seek to live lives drawing on the wisdom from above that is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. Continue reading

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

The Ephesians are told to ‘be imitators of God’ and both the Jewish and Christian biblical writers agree that God is sometimes wrathful. The Jewish prophets were certain that God is most angry at injustice … We believe in a God who is Love, and according to the prophets that very love means that God is outraged when human beings harm each other. Continue reading

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Sermon: Advice from Julian of Norwich

I have been struggling so much with the evil of the world over the past six months. It is always possible to find things in the world that seem to challenge any faith we might have in a good God, but there have been times over the past few months when I have had to turn off the television news because what is happening around the world and in Australia has so enraged me that I have felt physically sick. Continue reading

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Sermon: There is nothing we cannot say to God

Too often throughout history the church has been on the side of the colonisers, not the colonised; the slave owners, not the slaves; the rich, not the poor; adults, not children; men, not women; straight people, not LGBTIQ+ people; paedophiles, not the victims of clerical sexual abuse; and so on and so forth. Continue reading

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Sermon: Avril preaches to herself

James tells his readers: ‘the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy;’ and I confess that I am frequently not peaceable, gentle, and willing to yield. So in this Reflection I am preaching first to myself. Continue reading

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Sermon: Righteous Anger

This week many people, particularly women, have expressed anger. Before condemning this anger, or dismissing those who are demanding change from Australian institutions as a ‘mob’, let us remember today’s gospel story and Jesus’ outrageous, zealous, righteous anger in the Temple. Continue reading

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Sermon: A psalm of hate

Another gift of the Psalter is the permission it gives us to share everything with God, even those emotions of which we are ashamed. The psalms show us that there is nothing that human beings can think, feel, say, or do, that we need to hide from God. Continue reading

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Sermon: We ALL make mistakes

Knight should have acted with the gentleness born of wisdom and apologised, rather than doubling-down and attacking those who criticised it. To repeat what James writes, ‘all of us make many mistakes’. Continue reading

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Sermon: Absolutely Appropriate Anger

At the very least, when young people facing the injustice of the world express anger at that injustice, even in language we much more mature people find intemperate, we could attack the injustice and not them. Continue reading

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