Tag Archives: lament
Sermon: Complaining to God; doing justice
Habakkuk suggests that there are then two equally faithful ways of engaging with God amid wrongdoing and trouble, destruction and violence, strife and contention. One faithful response is to complain to God, as Habakkuk does, as Job does, as the psalmists do. The Hebrew Scriptures are full of examples of people saying, ‘O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?’ Complaining to our just and loving God that the world God created is not demonstrating justice and love is an example of the faith by which the righteous live. Continue reading
Sermon: No one deserves this
We are told in excruciating detail of the suffering Daughter Zion is experiencing. As Daughter Zion complains, ‘The punishment of my people is greater than that of Sodom’. (Lamentations 4:6) Nothing that Judah had done could justify the starvation, exile, and death her people are experiencing. Another way of saying it might be, no possible war crime can ever justify genocide. Continue reading
Sermon: Ending in Darkness
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church2nd of June, 2024 Psalm 88 Bruce and I, with the help of our cantor, Tom, are being a bit cheeky today. The psalm that Tom led us in this morning, Psalm 88, is not in … Continue reading
Sermon: There is nothing we cannot say to God
Too often throughout history the church has been on the side of the colonisers, not the colonised; the slave owners, not the slaves; the rich, not the poor; adults, not children; men, not women; straight people, not LGBTIQ+ people; paedophiles, not the victims of clerical sexual abuse; and so on and so forth. Continue reading
Sermon: Blaming God
We may have ultimate faith that God is love, that God responds to our suffering with compassion, but in those times when we cannot feel God’s love, the heritage of our faith tells us that kicking and screaming and blaming God for God’s absence is also a faithful response. Continue reading
Prayer of Confession and Lament in Response to the Massacre in Orlando
… without every single one of us your rainbow shines less bright. Continue reading
Rev Doc Geek 