Jesus the Christ
Being more like Jesus
25 August 2013
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
When I was a student at Sydney University, there was one question that I was regularly asked – are you saved? Sometimes it was in the form of the “if you died tonight, where would you end up – in heaven or hell?” Perhaps this was because as an Economics student I had more time…
Setting our face towards the Lord
2 July 2013
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
The Gospel of Luke begins and ends in Jerusalem. Until the Gospel today (from Luke 9:51-62) all the action has taken place with Jesus ministering around the area where he grew up – Galilee – in places such as Capernaum, the lake, Nain and Mount Tabor. But there is a decisive shift at the beginning of…
The Acts 7 Church
1 July 2013
The speech that St Stephen gives in Acts 7 is the longest speech that St Luke records in the whole of the book – so clearly it is very significant for us. It reaches a climax shortly before the members of the Sanhedrin are so incensed by what Stephen says that they begin to pick…
Church rescued
21 April 2013
Bible, Easter, Seasons, Teaching
After these things I looked, and behold, a great crowd that no one was able to number, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes and with palm branches in their hands. Rev 7:9 [LEB] Two weeks ago I mentioned that our…
Revealing mercy
8 April 2013
Bible, Easter, Seasons, Teaching
I love going to the movies. There is something great about being in a dark theatre, waiting for the curtain to open and the movie to ‘roll’ so that you can be transported into another world. One of the most memorable experiences of this is almost twenty years ago, during my first trip overseas. It…
Sex, money, power and Jesus
8 February 2013
It is said that the majority of newspapers and magazines sell with stories about sex, power and money – and the corruptions that these cause. The headline on the Sydney Morning Herald today certainly bears this out. Both readings today – Hebrews 13:1-8 and Mark 6:14-29 – certainly also focus on the effects of these,…
Belief in ‘god’
25 December 2012
Bible, Christmas, Seasons, Teaching
We are told by surveys and the media that more and more Australians no longer believe in ‘god’. Yet, if you asked them what the ‘god’ that they don’t believe in is like, I would have to say that I don’t believe in that ‘god’ either. For most people, god is a being who is…
Belief in ‘god’ at midnight
25 December 2012
The early church began to realise after the events of the death and resurrection, that this is the God who was revealed in the baby born in Bethlehem. God has come in the child born in the manger. God has come in Jesus of Nazareth; if we want to know what God is like, we…
King for the world
25 November 2012
The sense of royalty that we have is very muted. We live in Australia in a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as our head of state. Yet, the role of the Queen (or her representatives in the Governors and Governor General) within our lives is very limited, and severely restricted under the constitution and…
Who is Jesus the Messiah?
16 September 2012
The Gospel passage today is taken from the centre of the Gospel of Mark – not only is it the literal centre chapter, but it is also the place in Mark where the ministry of Jesus takes a definite turn. Jesus and his disciples are on the move. Last week, in Mark 7, we heard…
Take and eat my flesh; drink my blood
19 August 2012
As we arrive at the fourth week of our readings from John 6, we arrive at the section that has been the most controversial over the centuries, as different Christian traditions have offered very different understandings and interpretations of this key text. Until verse 51, although Jesus has been speaking about the Eucharist, it has…
View from on high
15 July 2012
From the archives… I am away on holidays, visiting friends in Europe. So this homily description is from 2009. The linked audio (below) is from 2012. Sunday 15B – The view from on high (Ephesians 1:3-14) Everywhere you go, whenever you find an accessible high place, our ancestors have so often built a lookout there…
Jesus in 3D
20 June 2010
Experiencing Jesus in 3D. Often we are content to stay with the images or ideas that we had about Jesus from our childhood. But there is so much more that we can experience about the historical and spiritual reality of Jesus of Nazareth, as he puts the same question to us that he put the…
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