Tag Archives: Poverty
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: As I have said before, economics are theological
I do not believe in a God who destroys nations for their wrongdoing. I do believe that the words of Amos are a warning to any nation that might believe it has God on its side, or in today’s terms, that it is a virtuously liberal democracy, and yet commits injustice against the most vulnerable. Continue reading
“First they came …” the progressive Australian version
Now, as so many times before, they are coming for Palestinians, and when we speak up, we’re told that we’re antisemites who only pretend to care about genocide because we hate Jews.
To which we say, “Huh? Have you even met us?” Continue reading
Sermon: Are we trees planted by water or shrubs in the desert? Both!
Maybe the division that Jesus makes in his Sermon between the poor and the rich, the hungry and the filled, those who weep and those who laugh, those who receive praise and those who are rejected, is not just a distinction between two groups of people. Maybe this division is also within us. Maybe we are both the tree planted by water and the shrub in the desert. Continue reading
Sermon: Mark 10:17-31 and the Challenge of Wealth
Sadly, there is no evidence that there ever was a narrow gate in the walls of Jerusalem known as the Eye of the Needle, and no evidence of this interpretation of the passage until the ninth century. Nor does it help us to change one letter in the Greek word and turn a camel into a rope. This is not a saying about a camel trying to get through a gate or a rope being threaded through a needle. It is a saying about a camel trying to get through the eye of a needle, which is impossible. That is the point. Continue reading
The Importance of Faith in Action: Reflection on James 2:1-10, 14-17
In Greco-Roman culture honour was to be given to the rich and powerful. Our culture is the same. We too place praise and reward the rich, while ignoring the poor or blaming them for their poverty. There is a reason that the media recently reported on Gina Rinehart’s opinions about the curriculum taught in Australian schools and it is not because Ms Rinehart has any particular qualifications or expertise in education. Continue reading
Sermon: Enough for all
Each ‘daughter’ receives from Jesus what it is they need. While the delay caused by healing the haemorrhaging woman makes it appear that Jairus’ request has been denied: ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ both daughters are healed. The time and power Jesus gives to one is not taken from the other. Continue reading
Sermon: When Jesus is being all too clear
It is absolutely important for us, as Christians, to donate to the work of Uniting, and FoodBank Victoria, and other emergency relief agencies. But in the twenty-first century it is no longer enough to expect the rich man to share what drops from his table with the beggar at his gate. We also need to use our intellect and our connections and our articulate voices to ask why there is any poverty at all in wealthy Australia, even if that takes us into the realm of ‘politics’. Continue reading
Sermon: Being rich toward God
We do not need to fear the future, even though we know it will not look like the past, because the God who cared for us in the past will accompany us into that future. We can be rich towards God, because God is always rich towards us. Continue reading
Sermon: Is the poor widow a good example or an awful warning?
If we read the story this way, then Jesus’ attitude to the widow’s gift is disapproval rather than admiration. The story is not about the difference between arrogant scribes and poor widows, or about the relative value of the gifts of the rich and the poor. Instead, it is an example of the ways that the official religion of the time was oppressing the poorest members of society. Continue reading
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