Tag Archives: community
Sermon: To be Christian is to be in community
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church The Third Sunday of Easter, 14th of April 2024 Luke 24:36b-48 This may be sad news for those of you who are, like me, massive introverts, but following Jesus is always a communal activity. … Continue reading
Sermon: Proclaiming the good news
The church is meant to be a place in which differences are respected and divisions are healed, because greater than all that divides us is the gospel. The relationship between Christians is meant to be a sign to the world of the reconciliation that Christ brought. To both Jews and Gentiles, weak and strong, Paul promotes a freedom that enables people to identify with their opponents. Continue reading
Sermon: Social and Physical Health
This is one reason that I think Reverend Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre is such a bad clergyperson. How could he possibly have read the gospels and concluded that caring for people’s bodies would starve their immortal souls? How could he ignore the many examples of Jesus feeding the hungry and healing physical illness by fabricating a Bible verse, ‘if ye suffer hunger or thirst for my sake, happy are ye’? God created us as embodied beings; of course God cares about our bodies! Continue reading
Sermon: An imagined community
The church is another such imagined community, and one that is both local and global. Everyone who participates in the service here each Sunday is part of this congregation, whether they attend in person, listen online, or read a paper version. And all these members of North Balwyn Uniting Church are members of an imagined community we call the one holy catholic and apostolic church. Continue reading
Sermon: In favour of the Voice to Parliament
The final paragraph of the Uluru Statement is: ‘In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future’. I do hope that Australians will walk together with First Nations people and approve the Voice, in numbers comparable to the 90% who voted ‘Yes’ in the 1967 Referendum, because doing so will be, I believe, an act of love. Continue reading
Sermon: Day of Mourning
Today, the Sunday before the 26th of January, is commemorated by the Uniting Church as a Day of Mourning, remembering that while the raising of the Union Jack in Sydney Cove was ultimately wonderful for all the Second Peoples who have been able to live here, it was the beginning of centuries of dispossession, disease, and violence for Australia’s First Peoples. Continue reading
Covid19 Diary 7
Samuel Pepys: May 14, 1995 Lords Day. Up, and with my wife to church, it being Whitsunday. My wife very fine in a new yellow birds-eye Hood, as the fashion is now. We had a most sorry sermon. May 17, 2020 … Continue reading
Sermon: Food
Sermon for Williamstown Uniting Church 1st of October, 2017 Talking about the Eucharist Today I’m not going to preach on the Bible readings; I’ve decided instead to colour outside the lines. Today I want to talk about food. Later in … Continue reading
Sermon: We can’t choose our (church) family
It’s a cliché that we can’t choose our family, and that applies to our church family as well. After all, if God has welcomed even us into the family, how can we deny that welcome to others? Continue reading
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