Tag Archives: Year of Mark
Sermon: The light wherein our shadows disappear
Is Calvin right? As we see Jesus shining with unborrowed light are our shadows made darker by the contrast? I do not think so. The Transfiguration reveals to us the beauty of God, but it reveals that beauty in the mystery of the Incarnation; the one revealed by the light is the Son of Man, the firstborn within a large family that includes us. Continue reading
Sermon: Proclaiming the good news
The church is meant to be a place in which differences are respected and divisions are healed, because greater than all that divides us is the gospel. The relationship between Christians is meant to be a sign to the world of the reconciliation that Christ brought. To both Jews and Gentiles, weak and strong, Paul promotes a freedom that enables people to identify with their opponents. Continue reading
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
Sermon: The time is short
Instead, knowing that our lives may be short, and yet that all our days are held in the loving hands of God, I believe we can live with love, hope, freedom, and joy. We can, in fact, love the Lord our God with all our hearts, and with all our souls, and with all our minds, and with all our strength, and love our neighbours as ourselves. We should not wait to express our love, do good, leave behind happy memories, appreciate the life we have, because our appointed time is growing short. Continue reading
Sermon: Come and see God in the ordinary
Eighty per cent of women are dissatisfied with our bodies. Would it help us to think of our bodies as ‘members of Christ,’ ‘a temple of the Holy Spirit’ within us? Would we treat our bodies with more respect if we remembered that they are gifts to us from God, given to us to glorify God? Continue reading
Sermon: No Christmas in Bethlehem
It is important for us as Christians to do this, because Christianity is so profoundly implicated in the violence in Israel and Palestine. One of the reasons that many Jewish Israelis believe that their state must be a fortress is because of the centuries of Christian antisemitism the culminated in the twentieth century in the Holocaust. And one of the reasons that the United States government provides Israel with weapons is because of the strength of Christian Zionism in the USA. Continue reading
Sermon: Questioning Mary the Revolutionary
Both Israel’s Likud government and the Hamas leadership seem to want a situation in which the people who have been oppressed can become the oppressors. We know that this is not justice, but the Magnificat comes uncomfortably close to such a vision. Continue reading
Sermon: Even when there is no peace
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church Advent Two, 10th of December 2023 Isaiah 40:1-11 2 Peter 3:8-15a Mark 1:1-8 Thousands of years ago the first of the three prophets we call Isaiah looked forward to the coming of a king from … Continue reading
Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church Advent One, 3rd of December 2023 Isaiah 64:1-9 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 Mark 13:24-37 Happy New Year! Today, the first Sunday of Advent, the church is beginning both a new church year and a time … Continue reading
Sermon: The Return of the King
Whenever we celebrate the Feast of the Reign of Christ, the last Sunday in the church year, I remind us of what a new festival this is. When people united their loyalty to ‘God, King, and country,’ as they did right up to the First World War, there was little suggestion that their loyalty to God might contradict their loyalty to an earthly ruler. But after that war fascism and communism began to dominate Europe, and so the Roman Catholic Church introduced the Reign of Christ as a feast to be celebrated in 1925. Continue reading
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