What are you waiting for? Luke 2.22-40
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- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Christmas and Epiphany
{podcast id=35}
Three Simple Sermons for Christmas
3. What are you waiting for? Luke 2.22-40
Sermon preached on Sunday after Christmas 2014
What has happened; what is happening; what are we? The two old people waiting for the promises.
Is this a new year? 4 Jan 15
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- Category: Weekly Reflections
Is this a new year?
Is this a new year? It's a very confusing question. Our financial year begins on July 1. Our church financial year begins on May 1. Our church Calendar year began on on November 30. Chinese new year begins on February 19. And Muslim New year doesn't start until October 15.
In 567 the Council of Tours abolished January 1 as the beginning of the year because of its pagan associations. At different times and places throughout medieval Christian Europe, the new year was celebrated on Dec. 25, the birth of Jesus; March 1; March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation; and Easter.In 1582, the Gregorian calendar reform restored January 1 as new year's day. Although not everyone agreed straight away. The British did not adopt the new date until 1752.
Does it make any difference?
Peace on Earth? 25 Dec 14
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- Category: Weekly Reflections
Peace on Earth?
Peace on earth has become as much a part of the Christmas legend as Silent Night and the animals. Perhaps the angels were guilty of false advertising. Maybe the speech about peace on earth was exaggerated. Certainly at the time there was not much peace. Jesus and his parents had to flee in the night for fear of being assassinated. Even when the king died they still were unable to return to Bethlehem because the next king was just as bad. For the families of all the other boys born in Bethlehem at that time there was no peace.
Maybe God picked a bad time. Or chose the wrong place. Surely he could have organised for his Son to be born in a safe place. But Jesus was born in an occupied country which was ruled by a puppet King who had all the characteristics of a corrupt and ruthless tyrant. How could Jesus hope to establish a kingdom in such a hostile place?
This is not just a story from long ago.
Call him Jesus - and … 21 Dec 14
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- Category: Weekly Reflections
Call him Jesus - and …
If the creator has joined himself to his creation in the birth of Jesus, it suggests that God was quite serious in being with us. In fact if Jesus is God with us in this sense, then it is possible that something completely and outstandingly new has occurred. But in what way are God and humanity together in the person of Jesus? Maybe Jesus was just two personalities living together in the one body?
There seems to be no evidence that Jesus is a kind of split or multiple personality, as though sometimes the God personality comes to the fore and sometimes the human is the one people are dealing with. As the gospels report it, Jesus seems to be a stable integrated person.
So how do the two natures –God and human – exist together?
The Hijacking of History 14Dec14
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- Category: Weekly Reflections
The Hijacking of History
Have you noticed the way “historical” movies tend to adapt the story to fit the views or prejudices or interests of the modern audience? I am thinking of films like Noah or Exodus and so on. No doubt a certain amount of “adaptation” is necessary. The same happens with old drama. Shakespeare’s plays are regularly set in a modern context.
But history is different to drama. It is not that only a selected part of the history is described. Historical description is always selective. It is more that the history gets hijacked by modern concerns. At one level this may be a way of saying that the people of the past faced similar issues to us. But at another level it is a means of co-opting the history to support a particular modern point of view. As though the people in the past held the same view that we are supporting or opposing.
The Noisy Secret 7 Dec 14
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- Category: Weekly Reflections
The Noisy Secret
So much excitement and confusion and so many strange events. There hadn’t been a fuss like this since the Israelites came out of Egypt. And this was just the beginning.
The scenes surrounding Jesus’ birth were noisy enough, but the volume increased once he got his ministry under way. But there was also a change. Some things quietened down. Maybe that’s the difference between an angel and the Son of God. The angels were up front and told Mary, Joseph, and Zachariah lots of very specific things about who Jesus was.
But Jesus himself took things much more slowly, and he disguised a lot of what he said. It was a though he was holding on to a secret, and only letting little bits of it out at a time – and then only to certain people.
If that was the case, what was the secret? And why not state it openly like the angels had done?
4. How God shows his Power and Grace Ephesians 2.1-10
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- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Ephesians
{podcast id=34}
4. How God shows his Power and Grace Ephesians 2.1-10
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on Advent Sunday 30 November 2014
The deathly predicament; What God did; Why God did it; How we benefit; What we do
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