Episode

For the elders – Genesis 24 One of the gifts Covid brought my family was a weekly zoom gathering – precious shared time during the pandemic and the three years of my father’s cancer treatment. But in July last year, after treatment had come to an end, it was clear Read more…

10 Sermons in 1 on Giving – Exodus 35:4-5a, 20-29, 2 Cor 9:6-14 This is not an official event in the liturgical calendar, but today is the last Sunday of the 2022/2023 financial year and in our bulletin there is a note, from the treasurer (I am speaking of Ian Read more…

Refugee Sunday – Genesis 12:10-20 &16 (Deut 10:12-13,17-19 & Heb 13:1-2,12-16) Today is Refugee Sunday so I am deviating, slightly, from the lectionary readings. For your information these include the wonderful story of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18 entertaining three men or angels or God-Godself (the text keeps this Read more…

All God’s children – Genesis 12:1-9, Psalm 33:1-12 Perhaps I shouldn’t confess this, but it was only this week, as I was reading commentaries on Genesis 12 that I realised what a crucial passage of scripture this is; how – although the biblical story begins in Genesis – the story Read more…

You are my all in all – Matthew 28:16-20, Psalm 8 One of my favourite stories of the saints is a story about St Therese of Lisieux, who was born in 1873 and died in 1897, and is revered by Catholics for the simplicity and practicality of her approach to Read more…

Over the last four weeks we have explored Baptist Mission Australia’s May Mission Month theme of Alongsiders. Who are Alongsiders? They are Baptist Mission Australia intercultural workers – people who model the incarnation – John 1, God moving into the neighborhood – by living and working in Malawi or South Read more…

It’s an odd coincidence, but twice now I have preached on this wonderful account of Paul’s second missionary journey – the story of how the gospel first reached Europe – just after returning from Europe. It is not my doing! In 2019 it was the lectionary reading for that Sunday Read more…

Matthew’s version of the gospel story – the one we heard this morning – has been referred to as the ‘fireworks’ version. Here we find a great earthquake… an angel descending from heaven… rolling gravestones… lightening… the guards shaking and fainting in fear… Can you imagine this scene! No wonder Read more…

In the last few decades there has been a rise in Christian celebrations of the Jewish Passover or Seder in order to better understand what Jesus has done for us. We held a Passover meal here last year – the Soup and Faith group led it – and it was Read more…

“In this world, nothing is certain,” Benjamin Franklin wrote, “except death and taxes.” That is certainly true in our lives, and it was true in Jesus’s experience as well. Here in John 11, Jesus engages in an activity sadly familiar to all of us – attending the funeral of someone Read more…