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Tag Archives: Lent 4
Sermon: A man born blind
We are just as prone to blaming the victim as the religious authorities in this story. I have preached before about the deeply human tendency, and we have just seen an appalling example of it in the Robodebt Royal Commission. We will need to wait for the Commissioner’s final report to know exactly how things went wrong, but I have been listening in to the live stream as I have worked, and the apparent attitudes of some politicians and senior public servants to people who need to access Centrelink have been dreadful. ‘Robodebts’ were illegal, unethical, and inaccurate, and yet they seem to have been imposed because of a false belief that welfare recipients must be ripping off the system. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged exclusion, John 9:1-41, Lent, Lent 4, man born blind, robodebt, Year of Matthew
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Sermon: Two brothers
We often fail to live as the people God creates us to be, and then we repent that, but that doesn’t mean that we need to try to earn our Father’s forgiveness. As this parable shows us, all we need to do is come to ourselves in whichever far country we have exiled ourselves, and return home. The Father will come running to welcome us. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged forgiveness, judgement, Lent 4, love, Prodigal Son, welcome, Year of Luke
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Sermon: The powerlessness and ugliness of God in Jesus
If we ignore the crucifixion’s horror we lose that solidarity between God and suffering humanity. If we make Jesus too attractive and powerful, we might think that ugly, suffering human beings are not part of the world that God so loves. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons, Uncategorized
Tagged crucifixion, death, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John 3:14-21, Jurgen Moltmann, Lent, Lent 4, Numbers 21:4-9, resurrection, The Crucified God, ugliness
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Sermon: Who is welcome? The doubters; the faithful; the rule-breakers
Ultimately we can have faith that one day, like the man born blind, Jesus will find us and that, with our blindness cured, we will be able to see him face to face. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged covid19, doubt, faith, John 9:1-41, Lent, Lent 4, rule-breaking, welcome, who is welcome?
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Sermon: It’s all new!
Sermon for Williamstown Uniting Church Lent 4, 6th of March, 2016 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Today’s reading from Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, or at least the second letter of his to them that we have, is full … Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, badly-behaved Corinthians, Lent 4, new creation, Sermon, Year of Luke
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Sermon: Brothers and Sisters Together
Sermon for Williamstown 23 March 2014 John 4:5-42 Today’s reading from the Gospel according to John is one of my favourite stories in the entire Bible, with one of my favourite characters. The Samaritan woman has often got a bad … Continue reading