Tag Archives: Year of Mark
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
Sermon: Friendship
And yet if any form of relationship can be described as particularly Christian, as the specific way that Christians live out our lives, it’s not marriage. It’s friendship. Continue reading
Sermon: The sons and daughters of the eunuch
But welcoming eunuchs doesn’t cause of much controversy in the church today. Welcoming other people of non-standard genders and sexualities – gay, lesbian and bisexual people; transgender and intersex people – does. Continue reading
Sermon: Love in truth and action, not word or speech
Sermon for Williamstown 26th of April 2015 John 10:11-18; 1 John 3:16-24 Earlier this week, on the ABC program Q&A, Australia’s Trade Minister, Andrew Robb, argued that Muslim clerics weren’t doing enough to prevent the radicalisation of Muslim youth. He … Continue reading
Sermon: Mark the meta-narrator and the hope of resurrection
Mark is writing a meta-narrative, the sort of story that leaps from the page or the screen into the everyday lives of the readers or viewers. Continue reading
Sermon: Following Jesus to the streets
Ultimately, the powers that be conspire to kill Jesus. This is what the powerful do when they feel threatened; either symbolically or literally they kill the threat. In Jerusalem two thousand years ago the threat was Jesus, whose entry into Jerusalem told people that there was a different way to be, beyond the choices offered by the contemporary Roman and Jewish leaders. On the day that we remember as Palm Sunday Jesus took that message to the streets. Two thousand years’ later, we are called to follow him in taking the same message of a different way to the streets. Continue reading
Sermon: Foolishness
We are called to proclaim Christ crucified; we are also called to follow him. In a world obsessed with status and success, we’re called to live simply, to risk failure, to topple accepted powers and interrupt accepted ritual. We are not to accept the way things are; we are to challenge and change them. Continue reading
Sermon: Repenting at the Royal Commission
Sermon for Williamstown Uniting Church 1st of March, 2015 Mark 8:31-38 Today’s reading comes from a pivotal moment in the Gospel of Mark. Brendan Byrne, who taught me the Gospel of Mark, says that there are three stories in the … Continue reading
Sermon: God-Humanity Solidarity
Sermon for Williamstown The First Sunday of Lent, 22nd of February 2015 Genesis 9:8-17 Mark 1:9-15 I’ve mentioned before that the Gospel according to Mark is a short, quick, intense gospel. Today this is a huge benefit for us, because … Continue reading
Sermon: Sojourning in the Valley
But I’ve preached on Transfiguration’s amazing theophany for the past two years, and so today I want to focus instead on the valleys. Because there are no mountains without valleys; there are no mountain-top experiences without hard times. Continue reading
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