Episode

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…

When I sat down to write this sermon – about a man who is thought sinful because he is blind, and Jesus who is called a sinner because he breaks rules to heal people and the Pharisees who believe they have 20/20 vision, metaphorically speaking, thus revealing their blindness and Read more…

There is an old Hasidic story about a rabbi who calls his students together and asks them, “How do we determine the moment when night ends and day begins?” “Is it,” one student suggests, “when, from some way away, you can tell a sheep from a dog?” “No,” says the Read more…

Just to keep you on your toes this morning I am going to start by talking about elephants! Perhaps because I showed you this elephant last week – an elephant which, turned upside down, becomes a swan – like the beatitudes, which turn our thinking about who God’s favoured ones Read more…

Our gospel reading today is the beatitudes; those well known, but still incredibly challenging sayings of Jesus found in Matthew 5:1-12, the Sermon on the Mount, and Luke 6:20-23, the Sermon on Plain. Sermons that turn our world on its head! In case you have ever wondered, they are called Read more…

Message          Listening to the voices of the past Remember the days of old;    consider the years long past;ask your father, and he will inform you,    your elders, and they will tell you. Throughout the Bible, the people of God are reminded to remember. To remember and heed the wisdom, to listen to Read more…

Rules restrict, but grace is good to go, or Preaching the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation 15/1/2023 Canberra Baptist Church Text: Psalm 40:1-10 (primary); John 1:29-37 Sometimes you can back yourself into a corner. I have literally done that when I was treating a stone floor with Read more…