The greatest is love! 1Cor 13 Epiphany + 4C
10 Minute Message
Readings 1 Cor 12:31b-14:1a and Luke 4:21–30 The Greatest is Love Misconceptions and Paul’s Teaching The people of the church in the City of Corinth were convinced that being a good Christian and a good Christian leader was about spiritual gifts, clever ideas, eloquent language, or preaching. Some believed that Christians with greater gifts, impressive preaching, or even wealth should have more influence. Last week (and throughout the book of Corinthians), we hear Paul say, "No." Being a Christian is about...
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Law - Better than Chocloate Epiphany + 3 C
10 Minute Message
Nehemiah 8:1-10, Psalm 19, Luke 4:14-21 The Law That Refreshes the Soul How can the psalm writer describe the law as “refreshing the soul,” “giving joy to the heart,” “more precious than gold,” and “sweeter than honey”? For many, this is puzzling, especially when faced with laws like those in Leviticus about mildew in houses, requiring priests to inspect walls and prescribe scraping and replacement of plaster. These instructions may offer sound hygiene advice, but do they inspire joy or seem sweeter than honeycomb? This sentiment reflects how we often view laws—as dry,...
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Australia Day A personal statement
10 Minute Message
Nehemiah 8:1–3, 5–6, 8–10 Australia Day: A Personal Reflection “... “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.” (Nehemiah 8:9, NRSVue) When I read those words from Nehemiah it caused me to have a good hard think about Australia Day. Of course Australia Day is not a celebration of the rededication of the Temple after the return from exile but... Australia Day is a time to reflect on what it means to call this nation home. I take pride in our history of democratic innovation. We became a...
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Hymn for Baptism of the Lord (Jesus)
10 Minute Message
Some years ago I wrote a baptism hymn to the tune O Waly Waly which would be appropriate for this Sunday or for most Baptism Sundays. Image: I, Davezelenka, , via It's based on the Baptism of Jesus Passages eg Luke 3:15-22, on Romans 6:2-11, on Calvin's notion for regeneration or recapitulation as a central way to understand trhe atonement and on Jesus' discussion with James and John in Mark 10:35-38 “James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What is it you...
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Dignity - I will change their shame to praise
10 Minute Message
Key texts ; Luke 3:7–18 One of the key things about God coming to be one of us at Christmas, and the promise of his return to be with us again in the future is that in choosing our life, our death and in giving us new life and a future, God gives you and me and every human being dignity. God’s presence amongst us in Christ on the first Christmas and now through the Holy Spirit and his promised return enables us to overcome fear. We have a hope for the future and a promise of peace and wholeness or Shalom. We know that we are in God’s hands and in Jesus we have the final victory and we...
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Live in Hope & Confidence
10 Minute Message
Sermon Live in Hope & Confidence [Title Slide] [1. A Vision of Hope] Christianity is a very uncommercial faith. We seem to do things a bit upside down. For Christians, Christmas does not begin until Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day. For the shops Christmas seems to begin in October. The church has begun the season of Advent. In our Bible readings we will be looking at the coming of Christ. Partly this is about Christmas Day, but mostly it's about when Jesus returns. It's about the future when God will make all things right. When the broken will be healed and the injustices...
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Prayer What is it good for
10 Minute Message
Sermon - Prayer - What is it good for? If God is God, then what is the use of prayer? God must know what we need before we even need it. Telling God about things is surely useless. I can imagine God looking down on me and saying. “There he is, “personsplaining” to me again. I already know all this, better than he does. In fact I know everything!” Surely God does not need our prayer, to be made aware of things or in order to do something. It is not as though our prayer will make God more powerful. I believe that in the story of Job and our Gospel reading and also the Hebrews reading we...
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Trinity: What's it all about? Trinity Year B 2024
10 Minute Message
Focus Readings Sermon text: In the whole of the Bible God is revealed as redeemer or saviour. Salvation from slavery, exile, enemies, sin. But there is a contrast In the Old Testament although God is spoken of as merciful and being characterised by steadfast love, essentially the picture of God in the Old Testament is as Law Giver and promise maker. God is One, indivisible, Holy, and unapproachable. There are images of God for instance in Hosea & Ezekiel as a loving parent but these are the exception rather than the rule. To see God is to die. For God is so holy & so powerful...
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The Trust Fall Lent 2 B 2024
10 Minute Message
Focus Readings Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Romans 4:13-25 Mark 8:31-38 Trust Fall Have you ever done a trust fall. I can remember right back to my days at youth group and Year 12 when I lived on the South Side of Brisbane. We were introduced to “new games”. They included things like parachutes and earth balls, but they also included trust activities involving blindfolds and placing yourself in the hands of of others. The iconic activity of this sort was the trust fall. A person would stand on a table with their eyes closed and then fall backwards onto a group of colleagues standing in a line....
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By the Mercies of God - A message on Romans 12:1-8
10 Minute Message
Key text: In many of Paul’s letters he begins after a general greetingby dealing with the issues that are causing problems in a church. He then goes on to deal with how we live out our faith in our daily life or ethics. Paul is talking about how we lives which witness or reflect God’s love and how we can serve others. This is exactly what he does in Romans. After his greeting he introduces himself to the church in Rome. Often Paul writes to one of the churches he founded to tell them how to deal with some of the problems or division in them. He didn’t start the church at...
info_outline1. Readings
a. First Reading Amos 7: 7 - 8
b. Second Reading Matt. 23:23
c. Third Reading Deut.16: 18 -20
d. Gospel Luke 13: 10 - 17
2. Sermon Go God’s love going way
The people of Israel were suffering in Egypt, forced to labour, building cities temples and tombs. They cry out against this injustice and God hears their cries and rescues them giving them a leader called Moses. God rescues them because God sees their suffering and because years ago God made a promise to the founder of their community, a man named Abraham and his wife Sarah, to make them a great people, a powerful country. So God sees the suffering of forced labour and remembers the promise and rescues them. They are not especially good people or especially bad people, but God is good and compassionate. God cares about injustice and people suffering, and God keeps promises.
So God says to them “I have rescued you because I saw your suffering and I keep my promises. I want you to respond to others in the same way. I want you to be honest, to run fair courts, to treat each other, neighbours, and foreigners just how I treated you. You were once slaves and strangers and hard done by. I want you to be compassionate, to stand up against injustice and keep your promises. Go my way. Use honest measures, create honest courts, treat the great and mighty and the small and powerless just the same.
Over 1, 000 years later a disabled woman, held captive by her body is in a synagogue, a Jewish meeting house, sort of the Jewish equivalent of a church. Jesus is also there, and he heals her, she is no longer disabled, no longer a prisoner, she is free. Jesus’ God come among us has seen this woman held captive and because he is God in human form he reflects God’s character of kindness and compassion and a desire for what is right and rescues her just like the people of Israel were rescued. When the church leader objects because it’s the Sabbath, the holy day of rest, Jesus stands up for justice, for what is right and says, “You hypocrite, you are being unfair, you wouldn’t treat an animal like this just because it is the day of rest. The good and right thing to do is to rescue this woman, no matter what day it is.”
Jesus not only rescued the woman, he rescues you and me. In Australia, in Rockhampton we may not be slaves forced by a king to build cities, but we are all sometimes selfish, and self promoting. Many drink too much, many eat too much, and like the church leader sometimes we fail to help those in need, because we think other things are more important. God saw that we would be slaves to a way of life that puts ourselves first, and that we and others would suffer because of it. So God sent Jesus, to live and to be the good life, to die our death, to be raised to new life and share that life with us, so we could be set free from our own selfishness, and the selfishness of others and do what is good and just.
Today we baptised Reuben. In baptism we say God loves and accepts Reuben even though he does not understand what is going on, even though he can’t do much to help people in need, even though he can’t give service or money to the church or charity. In baptism we say God accepts, claims and loves us too. Jesus lived for us, died for us and was raised to new life for us. God rescues us just as God rescued Israel. If this is true just as God said to Israel, Jesus says to us, “I have rescued you, so live lives that reflect God’s character and my character. Love your neighbours, love your enemies, stand up for the right thing, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive one another as I have forgiven you. Set the prisoners free.” The people of Israel were loved and claimed rescued by God, Reuben has been loved and claimed and rescued by Jesus, You and I have been loved and claimed and rescued. So live lives that reflect that character of God, the character of Jesus. Go God’s love going way! Amen!