Sarah is a lttle girl who is mostly happy even though she is very badly drawn. Sarah loves to eat watermelon and she loves to play cricket, but what happens when she hits the ball too hard and breaks her cousin's window?

Focus Readings: John 15:9-17 and Acts 10:44-48 Subscribe on iTunes

Most of us find it easy to love our mums or remember our mums with love. This is not true for everyone, there are probably members of the congregation who had difficult relationships with their mums. I also know there’s at least one member of the congregation who never knew any mother. Most of us have been more fortunate. Our Bible readings today tell us that we should love others including our mums who are easy to love, but we should go further. We should also love those who are hard to love. We should love those who are different and even strange. This was Peter’s great discovery in the Acts reading. God can love and accept everyone. This does not mean that we have to feel warm and gooey about everyone, but it does mean we have to make the decision to be kind to everyone.

Questions for thought or discussion.

What are we prepared to do to back up the decision to be kind?

What are we prepared to do to show God's love to others?

This week I want to leave you with a challenge. I want you to do something kind and loving for someone you would not usually love.

In Ausralia it's Mother's Day on Sunday. Although I mention Mother's Day in this blog entry, there's no real mention in the audio file.

Focus Reading 1 John 4:7-21 Subscribe on iTunes

1 John's famous passage on love declares in verses 8 and 16 that "God is love."  This love of God has implications.

• It has implications for the way we live our Christian lives - Verses 7 & 11 remind us that since God has loved us we must love others.
• It has implications for who we are as Christians. Our sins are forgiven v.10
• It has implications for our ability to love at all. It is only because God first loved us and gave Jesus for us that we can love God & or anyone else (v 9-10/19)

We know all this - we are aware of God's presence and love in our lives - because of the Spirit. (v. 13) 

This passage also ties together knowledge and love and the presence of God. I do not believe in head knowledge verses heart knowledge- if you know about Jesus, if you know about God's love - how can your heart not be moved? How can you not love God and your neighbours? How can you not turn to God, in worship, praise, repentance and confession, study and action? How could you not be passionate about God and your neighbours?

Questions for thought and discussion.

What does the statement "God is Love" mean for you and how you live your life? How should God's love affect the way with others? What do you think of the notion that there is no such thing as a difference between head and heart knowledge?

Focus Reading 1 John 10:11-18

In Australia we think of drovers and stockmen as people who drive sheep with dogs and whips but in Jesus’ time the shepherd led his sheep and knew them each by name. This was especially true if the shepherd owned the sheep. They were all his income and his whole way of life. Jesus uses this image of himself to help us understand what he is like and what God is like. God know us by name. God calls us to follow and to rest. God feeds and provides for us. God keeps us safe. God calls not just us but people of other places and from outside to be part of his flock the church. God gathers us together as one people. Because we are secure in the care of the shepherd we are then free to love and support others. God in Jesus shows total commitment to us and frees us to show total commitment to God and others.

Questions for thought and discussion

What do you think and feel about the image of God as a shepherd? In what ways has God led you through life as a shepherd leads a sheep? If God provides for you and protects you as a shepherd what does that mean for how you live your life and deal with others?

Focus reading: Luke 24:36-48 SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES

Today's Bible reading (Luke 24:36-48) begins just after the two disciples return to Jerusalem from Emmaus to tell the others that they have seen Jesus alive. In that story (Luke 24:13-36) and in today's story, Jesus opens the hearts and minds of the disciples by sharing the Scriptures (or the Bible) with them. Then he tells the disciples that they must share that story with the rest of the world, beginning right where they are in Jerusalem.

                It is because the disciples were obedient to that command, that we have the Bible today. We know that Jesus is alive and with us. It is only because they shared, that this morning, as you worship here, we can all feel our hearts burn within us, as we learn more of the wonderful mercy and grace of God. We are his disciples too, and he also calls us all to witness.

Questions for thought and discussion.

How do you know Jesus is alive? How do you know God is real? How did you learn about Jesus and God’s love?

Focus passage 1 John 1:1-2:2

We are all sinners but Jesus is the means by which God deals with our sin.

I came up with an illustration for this some time ago:

A child invites his friend to play cricket (or baseball) in the back yard. In many Australian back yards there is a household rule. You must keep the ball along the ground. You play. She or he hits the ball. A great shot and s/he hits it high and hard, too high and too hard. It smashes a window. What do the mum or dad do? What does the child who invited the friend do? What does the friend who's just broken the window do? The damage has to be repaired. It has to be paid for by someone. The parents would be justified in sending the friend away and demanding payment, but the child comes forward and begs, don't send my friend away, don't stop them coming here! S/he's my friend! Perhaps the Son pays, perhaps the Father pays, but in either case the friend is forgiven and is not sent away, and remains a friend of the parents and the child.

“...if anyone does sin, we have someone who pleads with the Father on our behalf—Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And Christ himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but also the sins of everyone.” (1 John 2:1–2, GNB)

In my illustration Jesus is the child who pleads on our behalf, we are the friend and the the parents are the Father. I believe that some how in Jesus life, cross and resurrection, our sins, our broken windows are mended, the son and in some sense the Father pays the price of forgiveness. 

Questions for thought and discussion.

What do you make of the cross? What is the relationship between the cross and forgiveness? How do you respond to the notion that your broken windows have been mended, because of your friend Jesus?

Life forever and now!

Due to two funerals in holy week and all the usual Easter activity, I did not manage to post last week. Below is my Easter Day Sermon - Text only. It's an Apology (the reasoning connected with my belief) for the Resurrection.

2000 years ago something so momentous happened that it changed the world forever, and changed it very much for the good. I believe that thing was that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. I’m not going to say that he was physically raised, because that would require some sort of scientific explanation, and I don’t have one. The reason that I believe in the resurrection is because of the amazing and wonderful impact it has had on the world and on individual lives.

That impact can be seen in three places. It can be seen in the fist disciples. It can be seen in the existence of the wonderful, enormous but also very flawed institution of the church, and we can see it in the lives of individuals today who have their lives transformed.

If Jesus hadn’t risen, if the tomb had not been empty, then I think that it’s very unlikely we would have any stories about him or that any sort of movement would have begun in his name. All of the Gospel stories about Jesus, tell us that the tomb was empty, and they all speak of angelic messangers and they all speak of Jesus’ promised to appearance to his disciples. Even the version of the story that we just hear from Mark’s Gospel, even though it is the shortest has this form. All four gospel accounts also tell us something else. The tell us that when Jesus was arrested and died, pretty much all the male disciples ran away, and Matthew Luke and John who take the story on from where Mark leaves off all tell us that the women were not believed. Paul in the reading we just heard from Corinthians tells us with Matthew Luke and John that Jesus did indeed appear to the disciples. 

To understand why, something like the resurrection must have happened you need to know how final the end of the Jesus movement must have been on that first Good Friday. Jesus had been tried and found guilty of blasphemy, of being a false prophet and a false Messiah, of claiming to be God’s Son, claiming a kind of equality with God. The punishment for such a person in the Old Testament Law was that they should be stoned to death and then that their bodies should be hung naked outside the city walls. Jesus of course was not stoned to death. The Jewish authorities did not have the power to pass the death sentence, only the Romans were allowed to do that but Jesus was found guilty and publically exposed. 

In Jewish thinking of the time if someone was treated like this, if they were found guilty, if they were hung on a cross, naked, as most crucified people were, then that was a sign not just of the judgement of the Jewish and Roman authorities, it was a sign of the judgement of God. No righteous person, no prophet, no good person, could have this happen to them. Whatever such a person had taught or done in their lifetime was worthless, because clearly the judgement of God was upon them. 

For the Romans Jesus was of even less significance. He was a trouble maker who was dealt with like all trouble makers, killed by exposure on a cross, as a public example to everyone that you don’t mess with the Romans. 

Whatever we might believe happened in the cross, if Jesus had remained dead and buried, we would not know about it today because his enemies and friends alike would have believed that he was a fraud, a nothing a no-one who’s life and teaching meant nothing.

Yet within a very short time of his death, his disciples are teaching that he is risen, that he is indeed, the messiah, the Lord, the Son of God, and that through him comes salvation and forgiveness of sin. This preaching in those firs years is so effective that before thirty years have passed from the first Easter, in a time before the internet, or television, or even the telegraph, there are churches throughout the whole of the Roman empire including the capital of Rome itself.

Something had turned the shame and defeat of the crucifixion into a missionary movement which spread throughout the known world as the disciples and those who followed them carried the message of Jesus to all the known world.

Before I was a minister I was a teacher, and before, I was a teacher, I did a double major in Ancient History. Looking at what happened to the disciples I think that the simplest and most straight forward explanation for what happened was that Jesus did rise from the dead. As we heard from Mark and as we can read in the other three Gospels, the tomb was empty and the women were the first witnesses. And as Paul, and Matthew, Luke and John tell us the risen Jesus then appeared to his disciples, not just the twelve but a number of others as well. Now if you don’t believe in the miraculous, that people simply don’t rise from the dead, then of course you can’t believe in the resurrection, and I respect that point of view. The problem however is that such a view requires a much more complicated explanation of how the church came into being. It requires us to believe for instance that the Roman executioners not only botched the but that Jesus somehow escaped from the tomb. Or it requires that the women and the later disciples who witnessed the risen Jesus and the empty tomb were suffering from some kind of mass delusion. Or it requires that the disciples invented the story as a lie, to keep Jesus’ movement going, but how could Jewish disciples who would have seen the crucifixion of Jesus as the judgement of God believe any longer in him as a good teacher, or God’s promised one. How could such a movement based on a lie begin with such energy that today it is the world’s largest religion, with literally hundreds of millions of people meeting today to celebrate this Jesus as risen. To me with my training in history I believe the best explanation for the energy of the disciples and the growth and existence of the church is that Jesus was indeed raised from the dead.

So in the disciples and the growth and existence of the church are evidence of the risen Jesus. If we look at the church today and through its history for all its faults, it has positively transformed the world and its members. On the very broad scale, abolition movements, the beginnings of feminism, the notion of men and women, slave and free, Jew and Gentile being equal owe a great deal to the church. 

On a narrower front Christians because of this belief this vision we have that Jesus is risen and shares that risen life with us volunteer for community organisations at a higher rate than the rest of the population. Even though they believe that Jesus shares new life with them, they live slightly longer. They are on average happier than non believers AND they are also on average healthier. You see the Christian vision is not just a vision of a better life in heaven, it is a vision of Heaven touching earth in the risen Jesus. This vision amongst us Christians that Jesus is alive and with us and shares that new life with us is expressed in all kinds of ways that express the notion that the world could and should be more like heaven, more loving, more compassionate, more just, more healthy, and even more beautiful. 

Because of this belief, even though we are less than perfect we Christians seem to be a little more committed to transforming the world than others. And for all its terrible faults and failings the church as an institution is committed to this too. Lifeline, St Stephen's Meals on wheels, World vision St Vincent de Paul,  Blue Nurses, Blue Care, the Salvos, Boys Town, and I could go on and on all live out the belief that Christ is risen and shares that new life with us.

This brings us to the final reason that I believe the grave was empty and Jesus is risen, because he touches the lives of individuals. The great example from the Bible is Paul who’s story we heard in the reading today. He was transformed from a persecutor of the church into its greatest evangelist. 

That transforming power is alive today, the risen Jesus transforms people’s lives still. I the end as impressive as the church is, and as good as it is that I can make a good historical case for the resurrection, the main reason that I believe is that I have met Jesus and I believe that’s true for most Christians. We have not met him face to face as Peter, Mary and the other disciples did. We have not seen the empty tomb. Nor have we experienced a blinding light as Paul did. But through the pages, of the Bible, the witness of others and the inner witness of the Spirit, Jesus has met us and transformed us. The person who preaches this sermon is not the shy, bullied teenager, who felt there was no colour in life, but a confident preacher of the Gospel. For the risen Jesus has claimed me and shares his new life with me, and my story is just one of the hundreds of millions of Christians who share this experience.

So the reason that I believe in the resurrection is because of the amazing and wonderful impact it has had on the world and on individual lives.

That impact can be seen in three places. It can be seen in the fist disciples. It can be seen in the existence of the wonderful, enormous but also very flawed institution of the church, and we can see it in the lives of individuals today who like me have been transformed.

Easterfest @ St Stephen's

This Year St Stephen's is a venue for Easterfest City. We will be hosting Sons of Korah, The Melbourne Gospel Choir and John Smith with the Shed blokes. For details read below. St Stephen's is just a short walk up the hill from Queens park @ 51 Neil Street. 

Easter Saturday

10:00am "STATIONS OF THE CROSS"  

Stations of the Cross will commence at St James Anglican Church - cnr of Russell & Mort Sts at 10:00am. St Stephen's will be Station 6.

12:00pm - 2:00pm Youth Centre - SHED BLOKES with JOHN SMITH 

John Smith - Founder of The God's Squad Motor Cycle Club, acclaimed speaker and author and one of Australia's most unorthodox  speakers, will talk to the hearts of men.  Joh Smith's message is for people who want to do more than just listen.  Hear John Smith and some other guys talk about their life's journeys.

12:30pm - 1:30pm in the Church - SONS OF KORAH 

Sons of Korah will present a modern acoustic version of the psalms. The Sons of Korah is an Australian based band devoted to giving a fresh voice to the Biblical Psalms. The Psalms have been the primary  source for the worship traditions of both Judaism and Christianity going  right back to ancient times. With their unique acoustic, multi-ethnic sound, Sons or Korah have  given this Biblical songbook a dynamic and emotive new musical expression.

Easter Sunday

1:00pm - in the Church - THE MELBOURNE GOSPEL CHOIR 

The Melbourne Gospel Choir will present A Tradition of Music - "Gospel in the Chapel" The Melbourne Gospel Choir is Australia's most sought after Gospel Group for TV appearances and backing vocals for international artists. They regularly appear on many TV shows such as the AFL Grand Final, Dancing With the Stars, The Logies, It Takes Two, Starstruck, Good Friday Appeal and previously on Hey Hey It's Saturday and In Melbourne Tonight.  They will be a dynamic addition to Easterfest.

This week I do a cheat and send you off to an old post. Palm Sunday last year. Having CHildren in Hospital last month and the damands of Easter coming up has finally cought up with me, so for a Palm Sunday sermon follow this link.

The Audio file can be downloaded directly here and for those of you catching up iTunes I've attached the old file with a new name anyway. 

Death brings life!

Focus reading John 12:20-33

The church season of Lent is our journey with Jesus to Jerusalem and the cross. Each week for six weeks we look at what the cross might mean. This week we think about one of the strangest ideas of our faith: Death brings life! This is almost impossible to understand. To help us Jesus uses the idea of a seed. Many plants including wheat die after they produce their seeds. It seems as though the story has come to an end. The seed falls into the ground and is buried. The plant disappears. All seems lost - dead and buried. But then some amazing happens. That one buried seed germinates and grows; it breaks out of the ground. At first it is only a tiny plant but it grows, flowers and bears fruit and from that one seed 30, 60, or even a hundred more seeds are produced. 2000 years ago Christ died. Without that death we would not know God’s love or forgiveness and the new life that sprang from it has not been for 30, 60, 100 or even 1000 people. On this very day al around the world, in almost every language, on every continent. Hundreds of millions are worshipping our Risen Lord and that number grows daily!

Questions for thought and discussion.

What do you think of the idea that life springs from death? How do you respond to the imagery of the seed falling into the ground? What is the place of Christ's death in the Christian's new life? Where do you fit in to this story?

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