Tag Archives: asylum seekers

Sermon: Thank God! Palm Sunday and Refugees

I believe that Australia’s mistreatment of the asylum seekers who sought refuge here by boat has in recent years been this country’s greatest sin. It is supported by both the ALP and the LNP, and has broken the hearts of supporters of both. Continue reading

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Sermon: Not just those like us

this encounter between Jesus and a Gentile woman can remind us of the words attributed to John Wesley: ‘Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.’ Continue reading

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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

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Sermon: The foolishness of the wise

The magi may be ‘wise men from the East’ but apparently they lack all common sense. Continue reading

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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