Tag Archives: asylum seekers
Reflection: Fighting on God’s Side
It is because we know that God has shown strength with his arm; has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; has brought down the powerful from their thrones; has lifted up the lowly; has filled the hungry with good things; has sent the rich away empty. And so we keep fighting on God’s side. Continue reading
Sermon: The foolishness of the wise
The magi may be ‘wise men from the East’ but apparently they lack all common sense. Continue reading
Sermon: Putting Herod back into Christmas
If we include the Massacre of the Innocents and the Flight into Egypt in the Christmas Story, then the answer to the question, ‘where is God?’ is: ‘right there in the midst of danger and slaughter, vulnerable and defenceless’. Continue reading
Palm Sunday Sermon for the combined service
we can work for peace, justice and reconciliation with complete confidence, because God has already won the victory Continue reading
Sermon: Do we really ‘believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ’? Welcoming refugees and asylum seekers.
James demands that Christians follow the ethical direction of Jesus’ life, the way Jesus cared for people. He challenges his first readers, and us, to be involved in justice in the same way that Jesus was. Continue reading
Sermon: Friendship, refugees, asylum seekers, and a birthday
In the story of David and Jonathan, as in the story of Ruth and Naomi, we see that Jesus’ ancestors valued friendship as highly as Jesus himself did. We are called to follow in the footsteps of them all, and be friends with people across the barriers of age and birthplace and tradition. Continue reading
Reflection: Killing people is wrong
It does not matter if Australia is racist and hypocritical, that still does not justify the judicial murder that is the death penalty. Continue reading
Sermon: Following Jesus to the streets
Ultimately, the powers that be conspire to kill Jesus. This is what the powerful do when they feel threatened; either symbolically or literally they kill the threat. In Jerusalem two thousand years ago the threat was Jesus, whose entry into Jerusalem told people that there was a different way to be, beyond the choices offered by the contemporary Roman and Jewish leaders. On the day that we remember as Palm Sunday Jesus took that message to the streets. Two thousand years’ later, we are called to follow him in taking the same message of a different way to the streets. Continue reading
Sermon: Jesus the refugee and the tragedy of Bethlehem
Sermon for Williamstown Uniting Church Epiphany, January 4 2015 Matthew 2:1-12 For the past month or so the soundtrack of my life has been Christmas carols. I’ve heard them whenever I’ve been shopping; I’ve played them while driving in my … Continue reading
Sermon: Avril talks about “boat people” – again
Sermon for Williamstown Uniting Church August 10, 2014; Ordinary 19 Matthew 14:22-33 Listening to today’s gospel reading is one of those times when our twenty-first century Australian mindset can create a problem. Most Australians are happy coastal dwellers, much more … Continue reading
