What is love?

“Love one another” says Jesus. But what is love? How can we love one another? This was my sermon on the different types of love and how that makes a difference to us.

Pentecost

Pentecost is one of the major festivals in the church’s year. Unfortunately, it’s often the least celebrated of the festivals, so this is my exploration of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit, and the difference that he can make to us.

Breakfast on the beach

After the resurrection, Jesus appears to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee. What were the disciples doing there? What do Jesus’ actions and words teach us about him and about us? These are some of the questions I thought about in this sermon.

Re-telling stories

Telling stories is an important part of how the Bible was written. But how reliable were those stories before they were written down? Recent research on the accuracy of Indigenous Australian story-telling shows how reliable it can be!

Harvest 15

What’s the point of harvest festivals? Why should we celebrate them? How should we mark harvest and what are the problems with the ways that we often do mark it?

Living water

Living water is one of the images for God, particularly the Holy Spirit, that we are given in the Bible. What does that tell us about what God is like? What does that mean for our faith?

Christian Aid Week 15

Jesus encourages his disciples to “bear much fruit”. The challenge is how we can and should do this! That’s particularly the case during Christian Aid week, when we can be challenged again to work for God’s kingdom to come.

Transforming love

Jesus shows his love for Peter by challenging him as well as forgiving him. What does that look like for us? And, as we prepare for a General Election, what does that tell us about our actions and how to use our vote?

Remembrance 2014

How do we remember? What do we remember? Why do we remember? And what do we do when we have remembered?

Wholeness

What is wholeness? What does it look like? The answer to that depends on your eschatology! (On what you think happens at the end of time) It depends on what you think God’s ultimate purpose is and what he is planning to do with his creation.

Trinity

The Trinity is always a hard subject to preach about and think about, but one that’s at the heart of our faith! So, it’s something that we need to spend time thinking about and letting shape us. This is a sermon that I preached on the Trinity a month or so ago.

God’s mission

We misunderstand Jesus’ words to the disciples after his resurrection. We often think it’s about our mission, not about him mission, which we’re invited to be a part of. We’re also too hard on Thomas!

Holiness

Holiness is one of those things that perhaps we don’t think about enough, or perhaps don’t really know what to do about it… Maundy Thursday seemed like a good time to think about some of these things.

Legacy

What will you leave behind when you go? In the week of Margaret Thatcher’s death and the fierce debate over her legacy this seemed a good question to ask of us as well.

Fruit of the Spirit

We don’t spend enough time thinking about the fruit of the Spirit, about how our lives can reflect Jesus’ love (I know I don’t anyway…). Thinking about the fruit of the Spirit seemed like a good way to finish our sermon series on discipleship.