Reconnect WP Weekly

26th July, 2026 (Year A – Pentecost 9) “True and Beautiful Words “

Some people consider the Romans passage for today, the greatest chapter in the Bible. The Spirit intercedes for us and nothing can separate us from God and so all things work for good who love him. Words that have been cheapened by its use on bric-a-brac , slogans on clothing, mugs, posters etc. Paul believed and despite his trials and tribulations, knew that nothing could separate him from God’s love. The Christian faith is a true story. AMEN!

19th July, 2026 (Year A – Pentecost 8) “Hands off the Weeds”

Pulling weeds may disturb the final harvest, the weeds are not the problem but weeding is. So allow them to stay. The word “allowing’ in the original text of the NT, is ‘Aphiemo’, which translates to “forgiveness”. In society who gets to decide who are weeds?  Sometimes God is doing something that escapes us. Patience (another word for ‘love’) is needed. The goal is to tend , watch and wait, to see the seeds in people and the world.

12th July, 2026 (Year A – Pentecost 7) “The Gentle Invasion “

Jesus offering is more than expected, He is proclaiming the heart of the kingdom – a new kingdom. This parable is about seeds. What happens when they fall on concrete, rocky places, and in thorns? We all have these places that will not let anything through. Pain, hidden hardness and emotions hold us back and our desire to not stand up to things that need to be changed. What defenses do you have that inhibit change?

5th July, 2026 (Year A – Pentecost 6) “You Do You”

Jesus and John were cousins on the same mission, however they were very different people and did not always see ‘eye to eye’. Conformity in our churches may be somewhat dangerous.  There is not just one way to be spiritual! God is revealing himself all the time and working new things in a new generation. The Lord will reveal, so there is always a word for the church in what is best…but it may be hard.

28th June, 2026 (Year A – Pentecost 5) “Telecommunication For God”

Before any technology was developed people often had to send ‘envoys’ to deliver messages and to make business arrangements, especially if they were not able to go themselves. Jesus was God’s envoy, the disciples were Jesus’ envoys – these ‘Apostles’ were sent out to share the heart of God which is love and compassion. Down the generations we are now God’s envoys and the ‘sent’ ones to be committing ourselves and sharing God’s vision for the world.

21st June, 2026 (Year A – Pentecost 4) “Fear Not”

The most repeated commandment in the Bible is in today’s Bible passage….”Don’t be afraid”. Fear is at the heart of so much trouble, this produces anxiety and so many other reactions. However, today we are assured that God knows each one of us and we are never alone. Trust God with whatever your burdens may be – He cares for you and knows your needs.

14th June, 2026 (Year A – Pentecost 3) “Like Sheep without a Shepherd”

Having sheep  in the time Jesus was in Israel, was very different to being a sheep farmer now. In this story Jesus sends disciples out to the lost sheep (people) of the house of Israel. They were to go and do what He did – face all the challenges and spread the gospel to all the nations. They were to belong to and continue, the movement Jesus began.

7th June, 2026 (Year A – Pentecost 2) “The Heartbreak of Hope”

Hosea in the 8th Century lived in a divided Kingdom and he spoke to the people about their separation from the God that still loved them. By returning back to God’s ways they knew God would heal them, bind up their wounds and restore them. It seems this message of ‘turning back to God’ is as relevant today in this Century, God wants more than words but our actions. God does not give up on His people.

31st May, 2026 (Year A – Trinity Sunday) “Grace, Love and Communion”

How can the Holy Trinity be explained? Maybe it is better to regard any understanding of God that we may have a concession or gracious gift from God – not a totalised revelation of God’s essential nature. The fullness of the trinitarian teaching is surely to affirm, above all, the oneness of God.

24th May, 2026 (Year A – Pentecost) “Pentecost Today”

“Devout Jews from every nation under heaven” gathered in Jerusalem and witnessed an electrifying, mind blowing event as the Spirit of God breaks in to declare a new reality. Pentecost is a movement of renewal and transformation for no-one is excluded and where every race, culture and nation, has a calling and a place’.

17th May, 2026 (Year A – Easter 7) “Relating to our Enemies”

In the Old Testament, enemies are seen as enemies of God and to be destroyed. In the Gospel, Jesus teaches that we must love our enemies. They are to be offered forgiveness, power is not displayed through destruction, but through self-giving love. The tension between justice and mercy and our calling to love, is the challenge for the Christian Faith.

10th May, 2026 (Year A – Easter 6) “Seizing the Moment”

Paul finds himself in Athens at an altar built “To an unknown God” – this is his opportunity to talk about Jesus. A ‘Risen Christ’ not an ‘Unknown God’ is available. Paul shares his faith and many respond. With the knowledge that God walks with us, may we not miss opportunities to share the Gospel.

3rd May, 2026 (Year A – Easter 5) “Jesus is our Sat-Nav”

Here we learn that Jesus is the way to the Father. If we are going somewhere, we need an address and directions to travel -we use our Sat-Nav or Google. However the disciples had to see that the God they had a vision of was very different, to the Jesus they knew. But Jesus was their Sat-Nav and the person to lead them in God’s ways.

26th April, 2026 (Year A – Easter 4) “The Good Shepherd”

This parable is a well known story of the Good Shepherd who was prepared to lay down his life for his sheep to keep them safe. The sheep knew the voice of their shepherd – as sheep do we know and hear the voice of Jesus and God? This story is talking about a reckless love for his sheep – a matter of life and death. We need to listen.

19th April, 2026 (Year A – Easter 3) “The Road to Emmaus”

The disciples walked the road to Emmaus and were lost and confused by what had happened. Jesus joined them but they did not recognize Him.  He opened the scripture, restored their hope and re-framed their understanding. Many of us still walk through the seasons of confusion and disappointment and do also not recognise Jesus. We need to expect Jesus to meet us along the way, in the course of everyday.

12th April, 2026 (Year A – Easter 2) “Jesus Brings a Message of PEACE”

In our very troubled world how do we navigate a sense of peace? Many are locked away in fear but Jesus tells us 3 times “Peace be with you”. Take Notice! Jesus has a solution for doubters – not only Thomas but for all of us. This is so all may have life and a life that takes away our fears.

5th April, 2026 (Year A – Easter Day) “The Risen Lord”

If Christ is not risen, then our faith is futile.  The first 2 people to see the risen Jesus were 2 women. We are called to focus on the people in the Easter Day Story whom God engaged with, in a real and personal way. We can find resurrection in the tough places of life, where fear and joy combine for positive responses. Easter is a beginning and not the end!

29th March, 2026 (Year A – Palm Sunday) “High Hopes and Deep Hope”

It’s a wild, subversive and glorious scene, full of defiantly high hopes in the face of oppression and threat. The momentum is unstoppable, and the only question now is: how is Jesus going to make it happen? Then Sunday’s King will be plotted against, abandoned, denied, arrested, tortured, mocked and end up defeated in a borrowed tomb. And yet, in the darkest of time, mending and joy happens!

22nd March, 2026 (Year A – Lent 5) “There’s Life in These Old Bones”

In living out our faith, what hope is possible.  Can shattered lives be restored, dignity reclaimed and self worth be rediscovered? Can our society look with outward eyes and love with open arms to see greed replaced by grace, and fear and suspicion replaced by love and trust? After all, it is God’s kingdom and not ours.

8th March, 2026 (Year A – Lent 3) “Jesus – the Source of all Living Water”

Jesus asks for help from a Samaritan woman. She is symbolic of her people. For her and Jesus to be in conversation challenges the status quo and breaks 2 taboos. A Jew talking with a Samaritan, a man initiating conversation with a woman in Public. The only water she knows is Drinking Water…Jesus offers “Living Water” – the Holy Spirit and eternal life.

1st March, 2026 (Year A – Lent 2) “Walk with Intent”

The Lenten Walk is with the intent to find deeper meaning. Nicodemus met Jesus in the dead of night and Jesus told him what he needed to hear. The invitation Jesus gives, is to face our brokenness as there in lies the way to being led to God’s healing. The path to healing often unfolds by weird and unexplainable ways.

22nd February, 2026 (Year A – Lent 1) “Moses & the Job of Cosmic Abundance”

In the text, Moses has moved out of the Empire and is in the wilderness with his people living in tents. God provides to their worried minds about the need of sustenance, a rain of bread comes in the morning, so their bellies have food. He assures them hoarding of food is not needed. Abundance in scripture is about how life is organised so that all have enough.

8th February, 2026 (Year A – Epiphany 5) “The Midwives & Liberation on the Job”

The midwives teach us that liberation does not begin with a burning bush. It begins when ordinary people decide that obedience to God sets limits on what the state, boss, or the system can ask of them. It tells us to train our attention, to help us recognise what faithfulness looks like when it shows up quietly without applause.

1st February, 2026 (Year A – Epiphany 4) “Joseph and His Imperial Con Job”

When we read Exodus, we are hearing a memory of ancient oppression, told by a community living under later empires, trying to learn how God’s people survive, resist, and stay human inside<br /> someone else’s system. This story is still around in our modern day – money, assets and land centralized for the rich and their enablers. Joseph’s story is much more than a Disney production.

25th January, 2026 (Year A – Epiphany 3) “Come with Me”

How often are we told we don’t listen!  The disciples didn’t question anything when Jesus said ‘Come follow me”. They dropped everything and listened. Then they knew they belonged in this group, they were needed to support Jesus. Their task was changing other people’s lives through the power of Jesus who shared the the love of God. Do we obediently answer God’s calls?  It could drastically change our future?

18th January, 2026 (Year A – Epiphany 2) “Come and See”

People in Lake Macquarie, NSW, who experienced something wonderful when the water lit up with a bright luminescence, wanted everyone to come and see it.  When John baptised Jesus, he realised the spirit had come and that Jesus was the one to bring healing and wholeness to people and wanted others to come and see.  We are called to share excitedly, (just like the phosphorescence people did) God’s divine peace and love to those around us and invite them to come and see.

4th January, 2026 (Year A – Christmas 2) “What if – GOD WAS ONE OF US?”

God comes close not in power but in human life.  He took on flesh and blood in Jesus and is close by. In our busy, noisy lives it is easy to miss seeing this astonishing truth, that we see what God is like by seeing who Jesus is. God makes a home for everyone. Those who trust in Jesus are children of God by grace. The challenge is to expect the breathe of God in unexpected places.

21st December 2025 (Year A – Advent 4) “Joseph who Married Mary”

Joseph was a carpenter of Nazareth.  No words he spoke were ever recorded, but his life showed his characteristics. He was an ordinary man, a spiritual man and a very obedient servant. Loving and wise and accepting of his role. Even though his role as an earthly father was misunderstood and people were suspicious. God continues to entrust Jesus to each of us in all situations.

14th December 2025 (Year A – Advent 3) “Catching up with Jesus”

John and Jesus knew changes were to come. However it seems they were not thinking along the same pathways to achieve an end. Jesus was healing people and doing things to renew people’s lives, so they could do the same for others. When change happens you become partners with God which may take you on a different path.

30th November 2025 (Year A – Advent 1) “Waiting with Intention this Advent”

Here we have the first Sunday of Advent – the beginning of the New Christian Year, which leads us to Christmas. How are we to respond – for many people it is a complex time? But even long before Jesus was born, Isaiah encouraged us to draw away from all the flurry and take time to listen, pray and long for the vision of the Kingdom of God, for each of us.

23rd November 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 24) “Christ the King”

Christmas is just around the corner! Advent starts a new season and new year for the Christian Church next week. Today we see Jesus as the ‘King of the Jews’ on a Cross, from which He still speaks words of forgiveness and grace to those who were mocking Him, all could hear. Jesus had qualities very<br /> different to earthly kings.

16th November 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 23) “The End of the World, or is it?”

Many passages were specifically written for a time, place and particular group of people. We must not hastily translate the literal understanding into our present time. Looking at the metaphorical meaning we can decipher what God’s desire for us is for the present day. His desire here is to witness to the goodness and love of God – words of comfort for those in their own apocalypse!

19th October 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 19) “The Widow’s Might”

Jesus is at it again, offering a mysterious and perplexing teaching about ‘Prayer’. There are many ways at looking at this parable. The Widow teaches us about God and ourselves and it teaches the way of Jesus. Sometimes we may be the widow, sometimes the judge!.

12th October 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 18) “The Leper Who Gives Thanks”

“The real joy of living is knowing that life is a gift.” Rev Don Affleck. Of the ten Lepers that Jesus healed only one, a Samaritan (a foreigner), came back to express his thanks. God offers us all the wholeness and fullness of life, are we fully appreciative of what we have been given and remember to always be thankful?

5th October 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 17) “What a Difference a Day Makes”

Dates in our times and lives stand out like milestones. Dates can alter our lives so they will never be the same again. Isaiah wrote many prophesies of the coming Messiah. He caught a glimpse of God’s plan! 800 years later, Jesus says “Today your scripture is revealed”.  Have you met the Messiah?

28th September 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 16) “Take Hold of the Life that Really is Life?” “Church Life as the Centre of Community Action and Solidarity”

David Barrow calls us in the Uniting Church to be the “salt of the Earth” and embody public, practical discipleship that challenges market-driven culture and builds communities rooted in justice, generosity, and hope. Through community organising—churches, unions, and civic groups—he urges faithful, to strategic action that reflects Christ’s radical love and counters “empire” or market values, citing that the church must be “the conscience of the state”, engaging politically and prophetically in the world to protect creation and uphold justice for all.

21st September 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 15) “Something Becomes Everything”

Pastor Kim offers an excellent exploration of a difficult parable in which risks and sacrifices are<br /> needed in a tricky situation. Alluding to the Kingdom of God, where there are not always even matches or perfect balances, but in which grace abounds as we hear God’s message “Maybe you don’t think you have enough or are enough. Give me what you can and come as you are. You can start afresh!”

14th September 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 14) “The Loving Eye of God”

Jesus tells the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin to show God’s urgent and compassionate focus on what is lost. Unlike the Pharisees, Jesus emphasizes rejoicing over recovery, not punishment. These stories reveal God’s loving gaze—a divine attention that sees, values, and embraces each<br /> person. We are invited to live within this “solar system of grace,” held by unconditional love. Though such love can sometimes make us feel inadequate, it also reminds us that everyone experiences failure and brokenness, and yet God loves us just as we are.

7th September 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 13) “Useful Christians”

The work of a potter reflects the ongoing, creative process of life—reshaping and renewing. At times, our past ideas no longer match the reality we see, leading to a necessary unravelling. Growth comes when we weave what we’ve known with what we now understand—being flexible, open to change, and willing to see new possibilities. Beauty matters as much as utility—it nourishes our souls. While much of our work may seem ordinary, we must also feed our spirits with creativity, openness, and grace.

17 August 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 10) “Not Gentle, Meek or Mild”

Rev Jon Humphries explores the striking contrast between the gentle, image of Jesus we learned as children and the, challenging Jesus revealed in the Gospel. We are invited to wrestle with a deeper, more dynamic understanding of who Jesus is—and what it means for us to truly follow Him.

10 August 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 9) “The Kingdom Surprise”

This message explores a powerful teaching from Jesus, reminding us to focus on what truly matters in life. With warmth and clarity, Rev Dr Drayton unpacks Jesus’ words about greed, worry, and the illusion of security through possessions—challenging us to reflect on our values and where we place our trust.

3 August 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 8) “Fools for Christ’s Sake”

After instigating a report on poverty and disadvantage, the Bishop of Liverpool was described as a Maxist, a socialist and a communist. He responded by saying that he was simply reading the gospel of Luke. Luke emphasizes the compassion of Jesus highlighting mercy, equality and inclusion and showing bias towards the poor and disadvantaged.

27th July 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 7) “The Greenhouse of Grace”

Jesus gave a prayer to his Disciples – the “Our Father…”. Prayer comes alive when we experience a deep sense of our own need, and a deep sense of God’s unconditional love. That is the ‘greenhouse of grace’ in which the plant of prayer grows. Prayer is a living, breathing conversation, God is right there and waiting.

20th July 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 6) “Who’s At Work”

Martha was so busy with the preparations of the meal for hosting Jesus, it was a huge chore for her. While Mary was completely oblivious and just concentrated on what Jesus had to say. Sometimes work just becomes a habit for us…even though we think we are showing Jesus’s Love. The church is not about just work!  It is about discerning the Love of God, to hear it and share it.

13th July 2025 (Year C – Pentecost 5) “The Really Good Samaritan”

We would all like to be the Good Samaritan in this story. But to be honest we sometimes are more like the priest, or Levite and even the bandits. Maybe we are even the man lying in the ditch, beaten and bruised and calling out for help. Jesus – the God of love, draws near and binds the wounds in humility and gives hope.

22nd June 2025 (Year C – UCA Anniversary) “Don’t Lose the Ting!”

‘Oneness’ – is creating a faith where it is ok to be yourself and be affirmed. The message of Jesus is inclusiveness. Some may see “Oneness” as divisive, the message of Jesus is that it is inclusive. The ‘Oneness’ of God can reach out to all people – need to have room for everyone in our community. ‘Oneness is really important in ourselves, our church, our community for love to be shared and everyone openly welcomed.

15th June 2025 (Year C – Trinity Sunday) “An Invitation to Unity”

The 3 persons of the Trinity are in perfect relationship, what one has, they all have, one in purpose, one in will. God operates in a way that is completely unselfish, 3 persons but one being, so as to pour out God’s love and justice. The God we worship, the trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is a God of hope, love, forgiveness and justice.

8th June 2025 (Year C – Pentecost) “What a Story”

The disciples come together praying. God comes and blows them away. Turns them inside out and fills them with life. The Pentecost story reverses what happened at Babel. When the festival was over, they went back to their places of origin and took the God of Unity to others.

1st June 2025 (Year C – Easter 7) “Saved”

Paul and Silas are in jail for doing a good deed, an earthquake strikes! The Jailer – a gentile pagan, running a Roman Jail House and who arranges for floggings, is terrified. The fearful Jailer, recognizes he needs to find a way out of the mess, and sees what Paul and Silas have as an answer. He yields to putting his whole trust in Jesus and his whole life turns around.

25th May 2025 (Year C – Easter 6) “Do You Want to be Made Well”

Jesus said, “Do you want to be made well?” Of course he did after being by the pool for 38 years! When the time came he simply did as Jesus asked him … and was made well and was so happy. The trouble was – it was healing on the Sabbath! The Jewish leaders were not happy! Do we, in a moment of another’s moment of grace and joy, sometimes react negatively, like those leaders?

18th May 2025 (Year C – Easter 5) “Who Could Stand in God’s Way”

The Pakistani lady, Jamila, talked of in this message, did not focus on our differences. We have a choice, to hold onto our assumptions, or to embrace new and deeper relationships. Peter’s vision calls us to step beyond our boundaries and brace new relationships. God’s grace has no boundaries.

11th May 2025 (Year C – Easter 4) “Resurrection – Our Story”

Peter prays over Tabitha and she is given new life and raised up. Resurrection is a call to rise, get up, stand up tall, and come out. Resurrection is to be called from all that inhibits us, being raised to new heights. Called to embrace ‘our story’, so we can be raised to a greater and more profound reality.

4th May 2025 (Year C – Easter 3) “Peter, Do You Love Me?”

Following the resurrection the disciples were ‘shell-shocked’ and wondered what they might now do with their lives. Fishing was something they knew.  Jesus re-met them there and asked if they loved Him more than life as fisherman? Jesus gave Peter a mission.  Jesus keeps coming back to us and asks us to prove our love by serving Him.

27th April 2025 (Year C – Easter 2) “The Unstoppable Kingdom of God”

William Carey, the first English missionary in India, had a terrible experience. He lost all the translation work he had done over 20 years in a fire.  He found that following God can be costly, but the flame of the Holy Spirit was lit in many peoples lives – grace abounded. He, like the disciples, discovered no situation can hinder the spread of the gospel.

20th April 2025 (Year C – Easter Sunday) “Meeting Christ on the Road”

Many voices can be heard in our world – What is true?  What is false? What do we disregard? Is it reasonable to believe something we did not get to experience? The 2 people traveling to Emmaus may have the answer… on that road, the stranger with them, shared the scriptures which were enough to believe that what they had heard was true – Jesus<br /> died and rose again – their hearts were set on fire!

6th April 2025 (Year C – Lent 5) “Mary, Paragon of Devotion”

What Mary did was challenging for both Martha and Judas. For Mary, devotion was exemplary to service and at this particular time she was performing an act of welcoming no matter the cost. There are times when we need to celebrate the quiet and beautiful, abundant and meditative, superfluous and the pretty as followers of Jesus.

30th March 2025 (Year C – Lent 4) “New Rules – New Beginnings”

The story of the father and the 2 sons who choose different paths is a real life story! Often people make disappointing choices,  they don’t always turn out as planned. The father in this story is like God – loving and forgiving and welcoming. Lent is a time for making new starts, examine yourself and bring your best to God.

23rd March 2025 (Year C – Lent 3) “God’s Second Chances”

We humans have been given free choice. Sometimes we use it wisely – other times we cause harm and can hurt people. The latter is is not the kind of life God wants for, and from, us. God is always looking to call us back to living the way of love. God always offers a 2nd chance if we fail. Lent is a time when we are called to look at how we are living – is it the example Jesus showed us?

16th March 2025 (Year C – Lent 2) “Seeking God’s Face”

What we most long for is what we most fear to find. What if we did, indeed, see the face of God? The season of Lent calls us to confront our frailty, fallibility and fallenness and yearn for God. The one we have longed for and feared to seek has already and always been seeking us. May we be willing to be found.

9th March 2025 (Year C – Lent 1) “The Transforming Power of the Wilderness”

The wilderness is a space where we unearth our innate potential and begin to transform into the individuals we are destined to become. Lent offers a transformative space that encouraged deep reflection, growth, and connection to a broader spiritual reality. In this time may we emerge from our wilderness stronger, wiser and ever closer to the heart of God.

23rd February 2025 (Year C – Epiphany 7) “Love Your Enemies, Don’t Draw Lines”

Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hurt you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Love is big enough to serve us all, to be present to us all , to fill us all and to consume us all. There is enough of God for each of us and we don’t need to ‘draw lines’ between us and someone else.

16th February 2025 (Year C – Epiphany 6) “Challenge To See Differently”

Today’s reading is a wake up call! Seeking the wrong things in life will do you no good! Luke’s version of the Beatitudes is challenging us to live a life against the grain of our society and to see things differently. The Kingdom of God is the reverse of the earthly kingdom we live in. It seeks to level the playing field.

9th February 2025 (Year C – Epiphany 5) “Let Down Your Nets”

Peter must have felt strange when he had been a fisherman all his life and Jesus a carpenter , tells him how to catch fish! Go out deeper! When we feel discouraged and in need of ‘catching fish’ Jesus calls us to listen to him and he will take us into deeper waters, to form honest Christ centered relationships when people will encounter God – and Grace – in a safe place. Jesus will teach us how to ‘fish with people’.

2nd February 2025 (Year C – Epiphany 4) “God of the Underdog”

The ‘real world’ is not kind to underdogs! Mary was a young Jewish woman in a Roman empire and pregnant out of wedlock – an underdog! In her lonely situation she still sings praise for the God who extends mercy. A God who has good news to the poor and oppressed.

26th January 2025 (Year C – Epiphany 3) “Is our Body Connected and Coordinated?”

Hugh Mackay notes that the level of social connection in society is declining. People are happier when they have meaning and purpose and also deep and significant connections. The Church is a place that still provides this, where our differences and different gifts are valued, and community and connection is enabled through Christ’s living presence and mission.

19th January 2025 (Year C – Epiphany 2) “Water Into Wine”

In John’s Gospel Jesus’ public ministry begins at a wedding…where he turns water into wine. Is wine a metaphor for grace…abundant and wondrously good? Jesus was after all, full of grace. Signs point to God’s abundant provision, all that we need, more than we need, GRACE.

29th December 2024 (Year C – Christmas 1) “Looking for Jesus”

Jesus is increasing in wisdom by asking and listening and even amazes his elders! It is frustrating when we have to call on one much younger, to teach us about computers! However, there are also times when the wisdom and experience of having lived a bit of life is both important and valued. The acronym for TEAM: ” Together Everyone Achieves More”, opens us to possibilities and to actively encouraging each other.

22nd December 2024 (Year C – Advent 4) “Women’s Business”

Being women, Mary and Elizabeth would have not been more than ‘homemakers’ in the culture of that day. Mary sang a song which presented a new set of values – she was referring to what Jesus would do in His later Ministry. In 2024 out culture still thinks of Christmas as being a story about a baby – not about Jesus, who God is and who you and I are invited to be – this is what Mary sang about.

15th December 2024 (Year C – Advent 3) “Not Getting into Hot Water”

In Biblical times it was common for water to be used for cleansing (not just washing). John did it differently when he immersed people, baptising in Jesus’s name. Inviting them to be partners for God and into the warmth of God’s goodness and then taking goodness into the world, for all to partake of.

8th December 2024 (Year C – Advent 2) “Road works in the Desert”

John was God’s bulldozer! He prepared a road in the wilderness. God chooses unlikely people in unlikely places to bring about his purposes. ‘Deserts’ for many people are very different places – places with guilt, disappointment, loss. The way out of deserts is repentance then forgiveness, to bring about Grace and Peace.

1st December 2024 (Year C – Advent 1) “Living out a Commitment to Creating The Kingdom of God”

Jesus came into the world as the ‘upside down’ king – his kingdom is not of this world. To commit to following Jesus is not to go along the pathway of power, authority or prestige. Rather to relate with humility, through compassion, holding fast to a righteous way of living. The turmoil of the heavens was a sign that a new creation was in the making. In Christ’s birth God proclaimed that the reality of peace had dawned on earth. The proclamation of peace is costly…even Jesus and his parents became political refugees in Egypt. In the struggle for liberation all must be connected and so we need each other.

3rd November 2024 (Year B -Pentecost 24) “Travelling Light”

Jesus travelled light – stripped away all that was not necessary. In times of much transformation – we need to travel lightly. Let the unnecessary go. Simply carry with you the Love of God who loves you. Love yourself, neighbor and even enemies.

27th October 2024 (Year B -Pentecost 23) “Seeing Is Believing”

James and John struggle to get the picture of what Jesus was telling them. However Bartimaeus, even though he was blind, did get the picture. He had faith to become part of that contingent that walked with Jesus towards Jerusalem. Sometimes our the path to God may mean ‘turning around’ (Metanoia) and seeing things differently.

20th October 2024 (Year B -Pentecost 22) “Pride in the Name of Love”

Jesus and Martin Luther King Jnr had many things in common. U2 in a song about the assassination of MLK Jnr said, “Free at last, They took your life, they could not take your pride, In the name of Love”<br /> Jesus and MLK Jnr were both Servant Leaders, who enabled social change and both died, for their commitment and respect for the powerless and a new way of looking at the world. Commitment to this new way was at personal cost. Jesus needs His disciples to know this.

13th October 2024 (Year B -Pentecost 21) “Nothing is Needed”

God invites us into deep relationship that is not based on being rich, having all the earthly needs we require or being, good enough. To follow Jesus we have to see ourselves differently – die to our old selves and be born to a new life. A new life of generosity, trust in God, free from things that hold us back to simply receive the inheritance of love and grace on offer.

6th October 2024 (Year B -Pentecost 20) “What’s Cooking”

The disciples just followed Jesus  – no questions asked! They wanted to “see the Father” he spoke of. However Jesus sometimes really confused them with his teaching. He went out and changed the world and showed the work of God and the Holy Spirit to all and told them to go out and do likewise.  What did all that mean?

29th September 2024 (Year B -Blessing of the Animals) “Faith Running Wild”

This Sunday we remember God’s creation in the animal world. Kira’s work across the world with animals is not only connecting with her faith but continuing to carry out conservation of many species in many countries. She is connecting with 10,000 species scientists from almost every country, with partners like Zoos, Aquariums, Botanic gardens, Corporate agencies and Government agencies.

22nd September 2024 (Year B -‘Season of Creation’) “Acting with Hope”

Many rivers and wetlands are being revived and cleaned so that in the environment, people and animals can share the spaces. This is happening world wide. Today we hear about some of the places in NSW where programs and places are being developed. New hope is being given to species in our environment. Rivers are being refreshed.

1st September 2024 (Year B -Season of Creation – “Earth Sunday”) “Hope and Action: Begin Again”

God’s dream for the world, is woven into the world where we live. Some would argue we need to ‘begin again!’ Will the earth be scorched or flourish?  Might hope be found in re-creating a world of shared wealth, appreciation of other cultures, and global harmony instead of conflict, and a long term view of what makes life liveable? Jesus offered restoration and hope in life, live differently – hope and action! Today is not about people fighting but about fighting stuff that is spiritual. Making us want to live well and the qualities needed as followers of Jesus. What we need to cut through all the stuff in life that directs us away from Living the Jesus way.