Tag Archives: forgiveness
Sermon: We tried to kill him; he survived; let’s eat!
A phrase often used to describe Jewish festivals is ‘they tried to kill us; we survived; let’s eat!’ and certainly Passover, which celebrates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery after ‘a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph’ (Exodus 1:8), would fit that pattern. But here at the beginning of the Israelites’ time in Egypt, it is the Egyptians and Joseph, who now has an Egyptian name, an Egyptian wife, and who dresses like an Egyptian (Genesis 41:41-45), who save them from dying in a famine, after Israel’s ten sons have acted as villains. If there were to be a festival to celebrate this occasion, its theme would be: ‘we tried to kill Joseph; he survived and is now feeding us; let’s eat!’ That has a slightly different ring. Continue reading
Sermon: It is not going to make us any friends
We are called to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth not in our own power, but in relationship with the God who feeds the birds of the air, clothes the lilies of the field, and loves his enemies all the way to the cross. At a time when the ostensibly Christian Secretary of War of the United States of America has quoted Psalm 144, “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle,” in a Pentagon Press Conference it is more important than ever to say that the Sermon on the Mount is no utopian hope or airy-fairy dream. It is the way all Christians are called to live, to the best of our ability. Continue reading
Christmas Day: Making room for Jesus
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church Christmas Day 2025 Luke 2:1-20 A few weeks ago, I was at a service of Lessons and Carols where I heard a new Christmas Song. This does not often happen to me, at least … Continue reading
Sermon: The Ten Words
And if we struggle to believe that in God’s sight we are ‘precious and lovely’, then be assured: the day will come when ‘we shall really understand what [God] means in these sweet words where he says, “All shall be well, and you shall see for yourself that all manner of things shall be well.”’ Continue reading
Sermon: No peace without forgiveness
But, as always when I preach about forgiveness, I want to warn about forgiveness that is offered too easily. We know only too well that throughout history the church has demanded that victims forgive their abusers, even if those abusers continue to abuse. 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: Forgiveness and Repentance
we cannot expect to remain the same when we joyfully climb down that sycamore tree. As we examine our lives, we may find ourselves relinquishing half of what we have, and doing four times as much right as we have previously done wrong Continue reading
Sermon: What is Jesus saying? (We don’t know!)
No one has any idea what today’s parable, the parable of the unjust steward, is about. The Church Fathers ignored it; renowned contemporary commentators have declared it to be incomprehensible; and people have suggested that the author of the Gospel according to Luke himself had no idea of its meaning, and so just added a series of morals to the end of the story in the hope that they would make sense of it. Continue reading
Sermon: Thank goodness! We’re back to love!!!
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church 11th of September 2022 Luke 15:1-10 Oh, thank goodness! After weeks of hard sayings from Jesus, during which preachers must remind congregations that Jesus is journeying to his death and so is understandably short … Continue reading
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