Tag Archives: Joseph
Sermon: Light amid darkness; God amid disgrace.
Terrorists wish to create terror. We defeat them by refusing to be afraid. On Monday night, I attended a Chanukah event at Federation Square with other Uniting Church ministers, and I was so glad that Victoria Police had offered the Jewish community support to continue holding it, rather than advising them to cancel it. Terrorists also wish to divide us. We defeat them by staying united. The weirdest of all the responses to this terrorism was the attempt by Islamophobes to claim that Ahmed al Ahmed was not a Muslim immigrant, but an Australian IT worker called ‘Edward Crabtree’. The response to antisemitic hate needs to be more commitment to the wonderful multicultural and multifaith diversity of Australia, not less. Continue reading
Sermon: Joseph’s Princess Dress
We know that God always makes use of the last and least for God’s purposes. That the nation of Israel came from the younger brother, Jacob, rather than elder brother Esau, is one example of that. What the story of Joseph tells us is that these ‘last and least’ have included someone whose gender could be described, in twenty-first century terms, as non-binary, maybe someone like the drag queens who mobs are now protesting against here in Melbourne. Among its other messages Joseph’s story reminds us that is room for everyone, of every gender, and in every style of dress, in the community that Archbishop Desmond Tutu described as ‘the rainbow people of God’. Continue reading
Sermon: Christmas Day
Christmas is created by God’s Spirit doing a new thing, and God entering the world in a new way. It also happens because of the openness of Mary and Joseph to all that scandalous newness. Are we able, like them, to say ‘yes’ to God when God does something new in our lives? Continue reading
Sermon: Imitating God
We are to love our enemies because they too are God’s beloved; we are to do good to those who hate us because they share our humanity; we are to bless those who curse us because they are created from the same dust as us; we are to pray for those who abuse us because they, like us, will one day die and be judged by Jesus. Continue reading
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