Old heart, new heart

Sermon for Lent 5 (29 March 2009)
Psalm 51
Jeremiah 31.31-34
John 12.20-33
‘Create in me a clean heart, O God’: these words are from Psalm 51, a prayer traditionally written by King David after his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba that brought so much ruin to so many people.
‘I will put my law within them, and I will write [...]

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Stations of the Cross

A beautiful Stations of the Cross prayer exercise:

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Lifted up

Sermon for Lent 4 (22 March 2009)
Numbers 21.4-9
John 3.14-21
A few years ago, the news media treated us to a video of that remarkable politician Pauline Hanson which began: ‘If you are watching this, it means I am dead.’
Of course, Ms Hanson is very much alive. And I think she’s probably satisfied with 20% of the [...]

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Rowan Williams on Lent

I found this on Scott Gunn’s Seven Whole Days; Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, gives a lucid introduction to Lent (some would say unusually lucid!). A good reminder halfway through the season:

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Wise foolishness

Sermon for Lent 3 (15 March 2009)
Exodus 20.1-17
1 Corinthians 1.18-25
John 2.13-22
It’s that time again. The Annual General Meeting of the congregation. Are you all set? Read the reports?
Frankly, I’m excited about this meeting. We have two very important proposals, which set the direction of our life and mission together in Christ.
The first proposal will ask [...]

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Yet more on faith — “the turn to the personal”

Today’s Eureka St has an interesting article on Irish poet Seamus Heaney called “Non-believer drawn by the sacred”, which says:
…the language of his Catholic past has found new power now. In the poem ‘Out of This World’, he traces the journey from his childhood immersion in ritual to the present, saying of his mature understanding:
And [...]

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More on Faith

I preached on faith last Sunday, so it was good to see what Simon Barrow has written about faith in a very cleverly-named article, “The God elusion”. Like everything of his I’ve read, it’s worth spending serious time on:
‘Faith’, therefore, is not about submission to proposition, the refusal of reason or clinging blindly to dogma. [...]

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Reading for Lent—CC Blogs

Here’s a list of CC Blogs which have reflections for Lent (including this one). Why not read one a day:

Don’t Eat Alone — The Connection — Pastor’s Post

Faith at Ease — Holy Vignettes — I-YOUniverse
Where the Wind — As the Deer — The Other Jesus
Mark Powell — Getting There — Ellen Haroutunian
Theolog — Welcoming Spirit — Living Word by Word
Where the Wind — Faith in Community [...]

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Faith is/not

Sermon for Lent 2 (8 March 2009)
Romans 4.13-25
Mark 8.31-39
The Apostle Paul tells us that Abraham received a promise from God—a promise that he would be the father of many nations. Paul also says that Abraham received this promise through faith—after all, he was an old man, and he and his wife were childless. How could [...]

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A little Lent levity

From a Baptist!—at Cake or Death:

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