This sermon was preached on the 24th of March 2024, Palm Sunday, the Sixth Sunday in Lent, in the Anglican Parish of Kalamunda-Lesmurdie Text: Mark 11.1-11; Mark 14.1-15.27 Beware of crowds. Look to your safety when large numbers of people are gathered together, especially when emotions are high. Especially when honour and shame are involved. Especially when right and wrong are involved. Especially when religion is involved. The truth of these assertions is self-evident, given our readings today from Saint Mark’s Gospel. ...

This sermon was preached on the 17th of March 2024, the fifth Sunday in Lent, in the Anglican Parish of Kalamunda-Lesmurdie Text: John 12.20-33 I’m going to begin this sermon with a reading from the Confessions of Saint Augustine: “Anxiety was making my heart palpitate and perspire with the destructive fever of worry, when I passed through a Milan street and noticed a destitute beggar. Already drunk, I think, he was joking and laughing. I groaned, and spoke with the friends accompanying me about the many sufferings that result from our follies; in all our strivings … we ourselves had no goal other than to reach such a carefree cheerfulness. That beggar was already there before us, and perhaps we would never achieve it. ...

This address was originally given at St Barnabas Church, Kalamunda at a long table lunch held in support of the Anglican Board of Mission Lenten Appeal. It draws upon the scholarship of The Reverend Doctor Lesley J. Borowitzka, and of The Reverend Doctor Bill Leadbetter. We’re gathered here today to support the Anglican Board of Mission’s Lent Appeal. I’m going to begin by sharing something of the complicated journey I’ve had with the idea of Christian mission. ...

This sermon was preached on the 10th of March 2024, the fourth Sunday in Lent, in the Anglican Parish of Kalamunda-Lesmurdie Text: John 3.14-21 I’m going to begin this sermon by quoting two of the first verses of Saint John’s Gospel. In him was life: and the light was the life of all people. The light shines in the darkness: and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:4-5) The light shines in the darkness. ...

This sermon was preached on the 25th of February 2024, the second Sunday in Lent. Text: Mark 8:31-38 “Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed…” Perhaps that’s all that Saint Peter and the other disciples heard that day, of what Jesus had said to them. Jesus told them that he would be killed, and then I imagine a feeling of visceral shock came upon them, leaving them stunned, dazed, grieved, uncomprehending. As the declaration by Jesus sunk in, the disciples grieved that Jesus, their leader, their friend, would be killed. But more even than that… they grieved the loss of a future that would never come. They grieved the loss of a future of their own imagining. ...

This sermon was preached on the 18th of February 2024, the first Sunday in Lent. Text: Genesis 9.8-17 I’m going to start today’s sermon by telling a story. So let’s take a moment to imagine. Imagine that you live in a village on a plain. You share your occupation with that of most of your friends and neighbours. You farm. Your life is tied to the seasons. You sow, you tend, you reap. And so you rely, utterly, upon the seasons, the climate, the ebb and flow of sun and rain. ...

This sermon was originally preached in the Anglican Parish of Kalamunda-Lesmurdie, on the Last Sunday after Epiphany 2024. Texts: 2 Kings 2.1-12, 1 Kings 19.11-12, Mark 2.2-9 What would you do if God appeared to you… and told you emphatically that they are not the God that you believe in? What would you do if God told they are not your God, the God that you picture in your mind… they are so much greater, so much more wonderful than that. Would remain faithful to God? Could you dare to let your own conception of God change, and broaden? Do you dare to embrace an indescribable God? ...

This sermon was originally preached in the Anglican Parish of Kalamunda-Lesmurdie, on the Third Sunday after Epiphany 2024. Texts: Jonah 3 My guess is that when most of us hear the word “Jonah”, the word whale comes into our minds. We remember that God sent Jonah to Nineveh, but instead, Jonah ran away. Jonah ran away, and a series of escalating events led to him being swallowed by a huge fish, in whose belly he spent three days. ...

This sermon was originally preached in the Anglican Parish of Kalamunda-Lesmurdie, on The Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, 2024. Texts: Mark 1.4-11; Acts 19.1-7 Why was Jesus baptised? In our reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear Saint Paul tell us that John baptized with the baptism of repentance. What did Jesus have to repent of? We all know that Jesus was fully human, but without sin: that’s the doctrine of our Church. ...

Here is the sermon I preached for Epiphany 2024 (we anticipated the feast by a few days and celebrated it on Sunday, 31 December, as the sometimes rather odd APBA Calendar suggested.) I don’t normally post my sermons, but a few people asked for a copy of this one. I drew upon Warren Carter’s Matthew and the Margins and upon James Crossley and Robert J. Myles' Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict in preparing this. ...