Sermons

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10 I cringe inwardly, and give a wry smile, when I think how I used to understand this text in my self-assured, male,...

“Go to the land I will show you.”  God to Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 12:1) “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” Jesus to Nicodemus (John 3: 3). Most of us are in the second half of life, and that requires different...

‘When Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee.’ Matthew 4:12 There are significant withdrawals in the beginning of Matthew, and all connected to words of prophecy. The wise men withdraw from Bethlehem ‘another way’, so they...

Canadian Christian author Sarah Bessey tells how she and her very loud son found a way to a softer volume setting when he was little, and she didn’t want the new baby woken. He was watching Sesame Street, where Kermit was trying to tell Grover to be softer. Grover...

It was very moving to watch the Bondi gathering on Sunday night, and hear the courage, the distress, and the very careful message to Australians that the concerns and experiences of the Jewish people here have not been listened to since October 2023. There was the...

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. Matthew 24:42 Here we are, alive, and maybe not always so well. It can be very hard, being there for the long haul. How do we keep practising our Christian faith, apart from the obvious...

Luke 14:13-14 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Hospitality is about being welcomed as you are. It’s about...

Sr Lucy Tierney, author of Inner Invitations 2023, has been a great blessing to me over the last 25 years.  At a recent training day I attended on-line, she repeated the blessings of her daily practice of 2 + 5. Two minutes in the morning. How am I? This is simply...

Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Hebrews 12:1-2. Jesus has done the long race of life before us. Through the shame of the cross, he has turned everything upside down. In losing, we...