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 - A Theology of Sharing for Harvest

I'm on holiday this week, but I've just posted last week’s sermon on my sermon blog.

I was asked to do a sermon on 'the Christian theology of sharing' and I reckon this sermon is what one of my members calls my 'radical left wing sermons'. (Probably not so radical or left wing from a British point of view; probably enough to have me up on heresy charges from an American point of view!)

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

Mark 2:17

Today's Gospel reading for the Common Worship lectionary seems "strangely" appropriate to a couple of conversations I've been having in blogsphere:

When Jesus heard this, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick: I have come to call not the righteous but sinners. (NRSV)

It's simply a fact from God's perspective that we are all sinners, and we are all broken people. But God calls us into his service as broken people. He doesn't say "I have no use for you until you are whole and sinless"; we will not be whole and sinless until we are citizens of God's Kingdom. God uses us as sinful broken people - despite the fact that we are sinful and broken, if you want to put it that way.

It's easy to slip into thinking either that "I cannot be a minister for God until I'm practically perfect" (I use the word "minister" here with the view that all Christians are called to minister in God's world) or "I am ministering so I must be perfect/seen to be perfect." I think that both are traps that we can easily fall into.

Personally speaking, I think that there is no such thing as a "perfect" human minister who has never needed God's healing and God's forgiveness; if such a person did exist, I'd question their usefulness.

Sermon - Wars & Rumours of War

Today's sermon can be found here: Wars and Rumours of War