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he spirit and responds to it i ve spoken about holy communion because that s where good seed fell on me it s part of my experience good soil is receptive to the seed and responds to the seed allowing it to germinate and grow edward schillebeeckx was correct it begins with experience a specific experience a seed taking root in good soil it is an encounter with the spirit of jesus such an encounter can come anywhere anytime it could be at church or reading your bible it could come as you try to right an injustice as you see a person in need as you look into the trusting eyes of a child jesus the sower is all over the place yet mostly unseen unrecognised so when good soil encounters the spirit of god it responds as time goes on there must be some sifting some reframing and maturing of our response as brian zahnd writes where we begin may be only a remote auxiliary path leading to the real road we are to walk i told you of an encounter with jesus when i was 14 imagine if i got up today and preached my sincerely held teenage ideas about god it would be bizarre to say the least good soil gives birth to good fruit things grow in good soil we grow and keep on growing in faith hope and love until we yield a harvest of a hundredfold sixtyfold thirtyfold west end uniting church 12 june 2026 leave a comment filed under parables of jesus sermon tagged as eucharist holy communion wednesday 17 june 2026 11 03 christ died for us romans 5 1 8 christianity is the only world religion that confesses a god who suffers it is not all that popular an idea even among christians we prefer a god who prevents suffering only that is not the god we have got what the cross teaches us is that god s power is not the power to force human choices and end human pain it is instead the power to pick up the shattered pieces and make something holy out of them not from a distance but right close up both quotations from barbara brown taylor god in pain there will come a day when all creation will be made new and the suffering of this present time will not be worth comparing to the glory that shall be revealed until then we have a choice to deny the death that will eventually come for us all or to surrender to the face of love a face that suffers with us that tasted death for us that will one day wipe the tears from all faces because he himself is a man of sorrow deeply acquainted with grief rachel rim natural death and christian love in the christian century june 2026 the apostle paul says this in today s reading from romans god proves god s love for us in that while we still were sinners christ died for us i believe christ died for the sins of the whole world only how did that work exactly were they all piled up there at the foot of the cross sins past and sins to come and when he breathed his last they simply vanished or was it more like a ledger in the hands of an angry god god proves god s love for us in that while we still were sinners christ died for us let s look at what christ died for us might mean for us there s a worship song you may have heard called in christ alone in christ alone my hope is found he is my light my strength my song it has a really nice tune but it contains some very disturbing words about the death of christ til on that cross as jesus died the wrath of god was satisfied for every sin on him was laid is that what it means to say christ died for us does it mean god was angry with our sin couldn t forgive sin without blood to be shed and accepted the innocent blood of jesus as our substitute perhaps you ve heard this before how do you feel about it it won t satisfy me it hasn t satisfied some people who compile hymn books either the authors of in christ alone have been asked if a hymn book could change the words to this til on that cross as jesus died the love of god was magnified for every sin on him was laid the authors refused to change the words and their song didn t appear in the book this so called gospel of blood and wrath is confusing it could mean that god is a bit of a monster and not at all the god and father of jesus of nazareth remember paul s words god proves god s love for us in that while we still were sinners christ died for us it all has to do with god s love so what could christ died for us mean if it s about god s love let s see the first thing for us to get is this jesus death was fully consistent with his life jesus didn t have a deathbed conversion after a ne er do well life jesus is not like the penitent thief who said jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom no jesus life and death was one consistent and seamless whole so when we say christ died for us we re including the life that led up to the cross and resurrection his whole entire life was for us his birth in bethlehem his childhood about which we know precious little and his ministry of teaching and healing was for us it is the christ who went about proclaiming the kingdom of god healing the sick welcoming those on the margins of society giving women their due dignity and annoying the pants off the men in charge that s who died for us jesus died because he didn t turn back when it was becoming clear that his life was in danger he continued to bear witness to god s kingdom and to stand with the discarded and disregarded he let himself be taken and strung up to keep faith with them what more can we say in our declaration of reconciliation today we heard the apostle paul s voice in christ god was reconciling the world to godself not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us 2 corinthians 5 19 when jesus went to the cross it wasn t just to stand with the people of his own time but for all time because in christ the eternal god was reconciling the world to godself it was god who was present in christ being fully human in christ acting in christ reconciling the world and all of time to god in christ god calls us to join in that work of reconciliation in today s gospel reading jesus sends the twelve out to go out in his name with his authority to declare good news and heal people we aren t meant to copy exactly what they did but we are called to work out what it means in our day to be a community of good news a healing and inclusive community who meet and and bear witness and work together in jesus name so in jesus god identifies fully with us being born growing embodying a fully human life right up to the point of death all this is for us christ s death for us is the fulfilment of the life he lived for us in willingly dying by the shameful way of crucifixion god in jesus identifies with the very least of us those who are put down in a society that turns a blind eye to their suffering as our opening song reminded us only love that freely entered the pit of life s despair can name our hidden darkness and suffer with us there jesus fully identifies with us being one with us we are invited to share his life to participate in the joys and struggles of being a disciple of jesus one thing more and this may be the fullest meaning of christ died for us christ died in order to overcome death and the fear of death for us the orthodox church says by death christ conquered death because he was raised from the dead and brought life to all who were in the realm of the dead resurrection makes all the difference resurrection proclaims loud and clear death is not defeat no in christ death is defeated the firm reason for this hope our hope is the resurrection of the crucified christ jesus christ lives today holy spirit plants this hope in our hearts nurtures it and transforms us from within and holy spirit applies this hope to our life together in christ as the great woman mystic julian of norwich has said in the end all shall be well and all shall be well absolutely everything will be well if all is not well it s not yet the end if all is not well god is still at work actively bringing life out of the chaos of death so god was in christ reconciling the world to godself christ lived for us christ died for us christ rose from death for us christ became fully human subject to suffering and death for us for everyone for the whole creation that we may share in god s life and so wonderfully god has entrusted us with this message of reconciliation amen west end uniting church 14 june 2026 leave a comment filed under sermon monday 12 january 2026 12 26 here is my servant readings isaiah 42 1 9 matthew 3 13 17 we long for words like love truth and justice to become flesh and dwell among us but in our violent world where hate speech generates rabid support for certain wannabe leaders it can be risky to infuse our frail flesh with the language of heart and soul parker palmer https onbeing org blog when words become flesh risking vulnerability in a violent world he is not the god of accomplishment but the god of incarnation he does not eliminate injustice from above by a show of power but from below by a show of love said francis during a dec 24 mass in st peter s basilica he does not burst on the scene with limitless power but descends to the narrow confines of our lives he does not shun our frailties but makes them his own pope francis https www ncronline org vatican vatican news pope francis love not power changed world christmas today we heard these beautiful words from isaiah here is my servant whom i uphold my chosen in whom my soul delights i have put my spirit upon him he will bring forth justice to the nations the book we call isaiah is a compilation which was gathered together over something like a 400 year period so more than one author was involved we ll just use isaiah for all of them isaiah introduces us to a figure he calls the servant today s reading which was written while jews were in exile in babylon is the first of four appearances of the servant in the book of isaiah here is my servant whom i uphold my chosen in whom my soul delights who is this chosen servant who will bring justice to the nations from what isaiah says in 49 3 it seems the servant is israel itself it is israel who will not cry out or lift up its voice or make it heard in the street israel who will faithfully and gently bring forth justice in the earth that words bring forth justice sound to me like isaiah is describing a birth like israel was being called to bring justice to birth of course justice is not birthed in most of the films and books we have usually a hero of some type uses violence to overcome the bad guys and rescue those in need of help rather than give birth to justice the hero usually a bloke wins it through redemptive violence the false redemption of the so called good guys it s obvious why it s named violence but this violence is supposed to be redemptive it s supposed to bring about something like peace justice and the american way as if yet many fall for it mike huckabee us ambassador to israel and an evangelical christian said the recent violent us action in venezuela was good news for the whole world michael youssef an evangelical pastor in the us wrote that trump had raised the hopes of millions of oppressed people everywhere in the world i repeat as if this is not the way god acts in jesus continue reading leave a comment filed under baptism rcl sermon tagged as antisemitism baptism baptism of jesus genocide isaiah israel justice to the nations one in christ redemptive violence servant of god venezuela friday 12 december 2025 10 09 getting in god s way readings isaiah 35 1 10 matthew 11 2 11 creatures are not so much saved from this world as we are saved in with and through it for if god creates all things to flourish and if christ reveals the fulfilment of that intention which continues to be realised through the spirit s work among us then hope for heavenly salvation must be understood in concert with and never apart from fullness of life in this world paul schutz in a theology of flourishing taken together the creation texts of the hebrew bible from genesis through exodus to the psalms and wisdom literature present life abundance and flourishing as god s principal intentions for creation these are indeed texts of natality proclaiming the magnificent story of a world being born paul schutz in a theology of flourishing sometimes our ideas about god are just flat out wrong i want to tell you about a time when i got in god s way because my ideas about god were out of kilter it all happened when a friend asked me to tell her about god you ve got to remember that i d received some pretty ghastly christian teaching in my teens and early 20s it was the kind of teaching that says this is the default position of humankind we are born with the burden of original sin and we are on our way to hell that is unless we turn from our sins and believe in god who ll send us to hell for ever and ever if we don t believe a bit bleak do you think the story of my failure when a friend asked me to tell her about god i was a uni student in my early 20s i used to carpool with another student a lovely young woman she had just got engaged and was filled with joy and happiness she wanted to give thanks to god she had great instincts her problem was this she felt she knew nothing of god she d been brought up with no reference to god at all she knew i was a christian so she came to me for help so parked at corinda railway station before i got out of her car she asked me to tell her about god so she could give thanks in a better way it was a wonderfully privileged position for me to be in so i jumped up and put my size 10 feet right in it i told her what i knew and what i knew was the terrible story i ve just mentioned my story of god got in god s way i got to the end of recounting that we were hell bound unless we accept jesus who died on the cross as our substitute my friend just said that makes no sense as i said she had great instincts she drove away and i sloped off to the train towards home at first i felt a huge disappointment that my friend didn t receive my message but after some time i realised she was quite right the gospel i believed made no sense in fact the god i had described was quite a monster and not at all the god who jesus bore witness to i failed my friend i didn t see the joy she was bringing to god and i gave her a fundo cookie cutter version of jesus i did begin to learn though that we can learn huge amounts from failure this event was a milestone on my faith journey which twisted and turned and went here and there until it finally led me to the uniting church another failure while i m at it continue reading leave a comment filed under advent rcl sermon tagged as advent 3a flourishing joy paul schutz tuesday 11 november 2025 12 45 the future is not the past on repeat sing a new song readings haggai 2 1 9 luke 20 27 38 to think of the past as a better and maybe more glorious time than the present seems to be a common human tendency nelson rivera in feasting on the word year c vol 4 christianity is not a religion it is lif...