(Luke 4.1-14) Lent 1 10 March 2019 – © Neil Millar Deserts are beautiful places. A few years ago, when backpacking in Morocco, I had an opportunity to enter the Sahara Desert and sleep in a Bedouin camp, to climb one of those amazing sand dunes on a moonlit night and sit on the lip … [Read more…]
(Luke 9.28-36) Transfiguration 3 March 2019 – © Neil Millar This Sunday marks an ending in the church’s liturgical calendar. Over the past two months in the season of Epiphany, we’ve been reflecting on events in the gospels that reveal Jesus’ divinity – the coming of the Magi, his baptism in the Jordan, the miracle … [Read more…]
(Acts 1.12-17, 20-26) St Matthias, Apostle and Martyr 24 February 2019 – © Neil Millar In the Western church’s calendar, February 24 is designated as the feast day of St Matthias who, as you’ve just heard, was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot as apostle after Judas died. Of course, not everyone will be celebrating St … [Read more…]
(Luke 6: 39-45) (Epiphany 6)17 February, 2019 – © Sarah Bachelard Becoming a disciple of Jesus means being inducted into a whole new way of seeing and being in the world; it means learning to live out of a different relationship to reality. Chapter 6 of Luke’s gospel sets out the key elements of this … [Read more…]
(Isaiah 6.1-8; Luke 5.1-11) Epiphany 5 10 February 2019 – © Neil Millar The title of today’s sermon is no doubt recognised by some of you as the title of the 1977 American sci-fi classic: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, written and directed by Steven Spielberg. Have any of you seen the film? It … [Read more…]
(Luke 4.22-30) Epiphany 4 3 February 2019 – © Neil Millar God give us rain when we expect sun.Give us music when we expect trouble.Give us tears when we expect breakfast.Give us dreams when we expect a storm.Give us a stray dog when we expect congratulations.God play with us, turn us sideways and around. Amen … [Read more…]
(Luke 4.14-21) Epiphany 3 / Australia Day 27 January 2019 – © Neil Millar ‘Poor bugger whitefella got no dreaming’ is the arresting title of a research thesis written by Mary-Anne Gale. This observation of an Aboriginal person may be casually dismissed by some, but the more I talk with indigenous brothers and sisters, the … [Read more…]
(John 2.1-11) (Epiphany 2) 20 January 2019 – © Neil Millar In vino veritas – in wine truth. The title of todays’ sermon was inspired by a cartoon by Michael Leunig (see bulletin). It may have you a little concerned about where I’m heading today, (after all, I did come from a denomination known for … [Read more…]
(Luke 3.15-22) The baptism of Jesus13 January 2019 – © Neil Millar Well, once again this Sunday we’ve taken a chronological leap in our recapitulation of the gospel story. Jesus is now thirty, and on the cusp of commencing his public ministry and mission. Prior to that commencement, Luke records two experiences that complete his … [Read more…]
(Matthew 2.1-12) Epiphany 6 January, 2019 – © Neil Millar I started the sermon last week by noting that liturgical time can be disorientating because it unfolds differently to chronological time (with which we’re more familiar). Last Sunday (only days after Christmas) we contemplated an event that occurred when Jesus was 12 years old. And … [Read more…]