The Gate
If you look today’s reading, John 10:1-10, up in most Bibles you’ll find it under the subheading “Jesus the Good Shepherd”. And no wonder – that’s the bit of the passage that we know, that’s the famous bit, the bit which is found in a thousand works of art, countless religious images. Jesus the Good […]
Encounters with Jesus… The Woman at the Well
As we travel through the weeks of Lent, we’re taking the time to look at a series of encounters between Jesus and different people who came across his path. Last week we had the story of Jesus and Nicodemus; today, the Samaritan woman at the well. Two stories that are placed almost next to one […]
Encounters with Jesus… Nicodemus
Genesis 12:1-4 | John 3:1-17 A couple of favourite passages come together, today. Our New testament reading from John, containing as it does the most cited verse in the Bible – John 3:16 – a favourite, especially, it seems, of people who hold up banners at American sporting events.
Encounters with Jesus… The devil
Matthew 4:1-11 Encounters with Jesus. For the next six weeks, as we journey through this time of Lent, the traditional forty days that lead up to Holy Week, to the death and resurrection of Jesus, we’re going to make that journey through a series of encounters with Jesus.
But I say to you
Matthew 5:21-37 Last week we explored the way that Jesus, in his teaching on the sermon on the mount, declared that he was not abolishing, but fulfilling the law and the prophets. And there’s a very important idea hidden in that phrase; that Jesus did not say “I have not come to abolish the law […]
Salt and Light
Isaiah 58:1-8 | Matthew 5:13-20 It’s a sad truth – but the Bible doesn’t always say what we want it to say, what we think it ought to say, what it would say if we wrote it. And that is certainly the case when it comes to Jesus’ words about the Old Testament law in […]
The Beatitudes
Micah 6:1-8 | Matthew 5:1-12 In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ three years or so of ministry is bookended by the word disciples. It begins, with the calling of disciples, and ends with the great commission, to go and make disciples of all nations.
Baptism of Jesus
Matthew 3:13-17 The fact that we have four different accounts of Jesus’ life, recorded in the four gospels, is both a great blessing and a potential problem.
No one has seen God
John 1:9-18 One of the major themes of John’s gospel, perhaps his most striking imagery, is that of light and darkness.
Peace on Earth?
Matthew 2:1-12 One thing that has really stuck me over the weeks of advent, as we’ve taken as our theme Isaiah’s words that “he shall be called the Prince of Peace” – and that, judging by the comments I’ve heard from others, has struck more than just me, is how powerful an idea, and how […]
Peace through justice through truth
Isaiah 11:1-10 | Matthew 3:1-8 A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. How timely an image is this for us in New South Wales at the moment, as we watch the news of bushfires and breath the smoke blanketing the city.
The Prophets
Isaiah 2:1-5 And so today we begin that journey of getting ready for Christmas, the journey of advent.
A Church for the Environment
Genesis 1:31 | Psalm 24:1-2 | John 3:11-17 So over these few weeks before we move into advent we’ve been exploring what it means to be part of a bigger Church – part of a Church which is more than just Roseville, more than just Uniting, more than just early twenty-first century.