Tag Archives: Pentecost
Sermon: International, multicultural, multilingual communities
When Peter receives his vision and Paul is sent to the Gentiles, the church becomes an international, multicultural, multilingual community. Pentecost tells us that even before Gentiles were involved, the Jesus movement understood Judaism to be an international, multicultural, multilingual community. Continue reading
Sermon: “with warm breast and with ah! bright wings”
Do not be afraid of night, of death, of exile, of grief. The Holy Spirit, God’s ruach, still broods over the world with warm breast and bright wings. Continue reading
Sermon: No longer hiding
Since we are imperfect beings, and churches are imperfect institutions, this means that we will be accused of hypocrisy. How can our community service agencies ask the government to increase welfare benefits when churches receive tax exemptions? How can churches say we support constitutional recognition for First Nations when we played such a central part in colonisation, the destruction of Indigenous cultures, and housed the children stolen from their families? Continue reading
Sermon: A quieter Pentecost
There is no wrong way to feel when people we love have died. But my prayer whenever I sit by the side of the dying is that they may go gently and peacefully into the loving hands of God, and I believe with every fibre of my being that as we say good-bye to someone we love we are giving them into the arms of the God who has loved them all the days of their lives and who continues to love them after death. Continue reading
Sermon: The radical roots of the Church at Pentecost
The Church was at its origin and is meant to be today a community that celebrates cultural differences, rather than trying to standardise them. It is a community that is meant to show radical equality between men and women, old and young, slave and free. Sadly, like many of Christianity’s radical roots, these lessons from Pentecost are ones that the Church has had to relearn over and over again. Continue reading
Reflection: Pentecost demands Reconciliation
History reminds us that, sadly, when the church preached the gospel here in Australia it was often the furthest thing from ‘good news’. It was accompanied with racism, violence, and dispossession. Continue reading
Sermon: We are never left alone
Without the Spirit, as Ezekiel saw, existence is just flesh and blood: ‘there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them’. But with God’s spirit, there is life. And there is nowhere, no time, and no situation that can keep God’s Spirit away from God’s people. Continue reading
Rev Doc Geek 