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Tag Archives: trauma
Sermon: Do not choose trauma
We can divide the world into Us and Them, Exiles and Babylonians, Jews and Samaritans, or we can recognise that we are all human beings who have been created by the one God to live on this one fragile and wonderful planet. We know which choice Jesus, who told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, wants us to make. Amen. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Book of Jeremiah, Bosnia-Herzegovina, chosen trauma, Elizabeth Boase, genocide, Jeremiah 29:1 and 4-7, Kosovo, Norman G. Finkelstein, Prophet Jeremiah, Serbia, Serbian nationalism, The Holocaust Industry: Reflection on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, trauma, Trauma Theories: Refractions in the Book of Jeremiah, Vamik D. Volkan
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Sermon: “Stop all the clocks …”
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church 14th of September, 2025 Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28 Have any of you read Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series? If not, I highly recommend them. The books follow Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron, and Ibrahim, who live … Continue reading
Sermon: The jeremiads of Jeremiah
There is much discussion today about the right of nation states to exist. What a difference it would make in the world if we agreed with the Hebrew prophets that only those nations whose citizens act justly one with another, those nations that do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, those nations that do not shed innocent blood, have the ‘right’ to dwell peaceably in their lands. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged Babylonian Exile, Book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 1:4-10, Prophet Jeremiah, trauma, Year of Luke
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Sermon: Trauma and Liberation
It makes sense to me that symptoms that the medieval church saw as evidence of witchcraft and demonic possession: eating disorders; uncontrollable emotional outbursts; the inability to behave ‘properly’ as one’s community expects, were the result of trauma. I am sure those who were accused of witchcraft or demonic possession had experienced a lot of trauma before those accusations were first made. Continue reading
Posted in Sermons
Tagged complex PTSD, demons, exorcism, exorcisms, Freedom, Gospel according to Mark, healing, Jarel Robinson-Brown, Jean-Martin Charcot, Judith Hermann, liberation, Mark 1:14-20, PTSD, trauma, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, Year of Mark
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