God With Us in the Journey

A sermon for tomorrow God With Us in the Journey

Sermons

Catching up on sermon blogging again. One sermon for The Baptism of Jesus and one non-lectionary sermon on the subject of persistent prayer.

The Baptism of Jesus

Persistent Prayer

Sermon - Christ the King

I've not blogged my sermons for awhile and I've just done some catch-up on my sermon blog.

Today's sermon was for the festival of Christ the King and it can be found: here

Sermons - Us and Them and One World Sunday

Over on my sermon blog, I've just published:

• Last week's sermon: Us and Them and
• This week's sermon for One World Sunday

The themes of both these sermons are rather similar.

Sermon - The Dishonest Servant

I've posted tomorrow's (!) sermon on my sermon blog: The Dishonest Servant.

A Sermon and a Story

I've posted this week's sermon on my sermon blog: Take Up Your Cross

This was another difficult Gospel reading and, I think, a good argument for preaching from the lectionary. I'm not sure whether Luke 14:25-33 would have been my own choice of a text to preach on!

I've also posted a story I wrote based on Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 entitled The Magical Seed Bush.

Sermon - Dishonourable God

I've posted today's sermon, Dishonourable God over on my sermon blog. It's based on Luke 14:1, 7-14.

Sermon - Division and Peace

Today's sermon was Division and Peace.

We had a wonderful service with our Anglican neighbours. Theirs is a team ministry that includes three Anglican churches in the area; they all worship together during August. We joined them as Methodists at one of their churches and they will be joining us next Sunday.

How fantastic it was to have almost 100 people in the congregation rather than 20 or 30. There was an awful lot of goodwill and I hope that we can all work together more closely in the future.

Sermon - Greed

Last Sunday's sermon which is simply entitled Greed, can be found here.

Threats of Judgement: an evangelising tool?

Both in real life and in blogdom, the issue has come up of whether or not threatening unbelievers or heretics with God's judgement is a way of focussing the mind. Some seem to argue that God's judgement is real and therefore should be cited. Others argue that threats of judgement will get the attention of people and possibly convert them where proclamations of God's grace might not.

On that subject, there is an interesting statement mad by Fred Craddock in his Commentary on Luke regarding verse 54 of this Sunday's Gospel reading, Luke 9:51-62.

Craddock writes:

Jesus' disciples remember quite well scriptural precedent for calling down heaven's fire (II Kings 1:9-10), but they have forgotten the recent words of Jesus: when on a mission, acccept the hospitality offered you. If none is extended, shake the dust off your feet and move on (9:1-6). Is it not interesting how the mind can grasp and hold those Scriptures which seem to bless our worst behavior and yet cannot retain past the sanctuary door those texts which summon to love, forgiveness, and mercy? Jesus rebukes James and John for an attitude of revenge and retribution, an attitude totally foreign to his ministry and theirs.

If the apostles were called to leave judgement to the Lord, then I believe we are too.

Sermons - Law, Faith & Grace / Storm at Sea

I preached two sermons yesterday which I've published over on my sermon blog:

Law, Faith and Grace

and

Storm at Sea

Maundy Thursday and Good Friday

I have posted my Maundy Thursday sermon and my Good Friday Meditation.

Short Meditation

Here is a short meditation for the Wednesday of Holy Week: link

Palm Sunday and Peace

Here is a link to my sermon for Palm Sunday.

I don't know if this sermon would qualify as a sermon on the subject of peace, but I think that it gives some insights as to why I think that peace is at the heart of the Christian faith.

The story of Jesus is the story of someone who turned upside down all of our usual values. In Holy Week, I think that we see this very starkly. Jesus could have been a conquering, military hero.

But, had he chosen this action that the world would have considered good - we love heros and hate wimps after all - there could have been no forgiveness. You can't forgive someone and crush them at the same time.

If we think that Jesus primary raison d'etre was forgiveness, then peace comes as part and parcel of that forgiveness. Not just the sort of preace that refrains from violence, either. But an all-encompassing peace. Shalom. The peace of God that passes all human understanding.

This is why I cannot separate "peace issues" from Christian theology.

Sermon - Prodigal Son

I've just posted last week's sermon on The Prodigal Son.

I didn't have to preach today! I took part in the monthly United Service at my Methodist / Anglican partnership church and the vicar preached a cracking good sermon. I was grateful for the refreshment of not having to prepare this last week. It's given me a bit of energy in the run-up to Holy Week.

Sermons - Trust in God / Repentance & Forgiveness

Catching up on sermon links:

Sunday 4 March 2007 – Trust in God
Sunday 11 March 2007 – Repentance and Forgiveness

Sermons

Catching up on some sermon postings. Last Sunday was my Sunday off this quarter, so the current links are:

• Sunday 11 February 2007 – Injustice is on borrowed time and
• Sunday 24 February 2007 – The temptations of being human.

The Temptation of Jesus

The Gospel reading for this Sunday is Luke’s Temptation of Jesus. I'm not claiming to do an authoritative and exhaustive exegesis, but simply to share a few thoughts.

The article on "temptation" in my Harper Collins Bible Dictionary notes that:

...the temptation takes place immediately after Jesus' baptism, which is interpreted as his commissioning for the messianic ministry, a ministry to be characterised by servanthood (Matt 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; c.f., e.g., Mark 10:45). The temptation is not for Jesus to prove his divine Sonship to himself. Such Sonship is is never questioned in the NT. Rather, the temptation or "testing" is implicitly presented as Jesus' struggle over whether to obey God's call to be a servant-messiah or to interpret messiahsip in the traditional terms of power, strength, and conquest.

In today's issue of The Church Times John Pridmore writes:

The same seductive voice seeks to persuade the Church, as it sought to persuade the Lord of the Church, to be a power for good - to be a power for good. To use power to achieve what must be done may be a necessity for the army, but for the Church to do so is always idolatry. The temptation to "worship the devil" is not to do weird things in the woods at midnight. It is the temptation to stride the corridors of power. And, ever since the conversion of Constantine, there has been little evidence of the Church's attempting to resist it.

You know, I don't really even know how to elaborate on these two commentaries because it just seems so darn obvious to me.

But how many discussions have I had on the internet about how Christians must use power for good - indeed, about how we must use the power of military might for good.

How many blogs out there are calling for the Church to be powerful and for Christians to be powerful?

How many people go to church and pray to be given power by God?

Jesus chose servanthood rather than power, yet we seem to think that, unlike our Saviour and Lord, we can handle power. All that means is that we have fallen into Satan's seductive temptation.

Sermon - Forgiven Sinners, God Believes in You

Tomorrow's sermon is: Forgiven Sinners, God Believes in You.

Sermon - Outlandish Renewal

The sermon for tomorrow: Outlandish Renewal