There are two themes in our readings for Ash Wednesday:

1. return to God (i.e. repentance), and

2. intent.

In Joel, God says, “rend your hearts, not your clothing.”

King David sings to God, “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

In Matthew, Jesus warns his listeners against religiosity – the practise of religious practices for the sake of being seen to be doing them, rather than for the ways in which they bring us closer to God. To be seen by our friends and our frenemies, rather than to return to God.

The fast that God chooses is:

• to loose the bonds of injustice, 

• to undo the thongs of the yoke, 

• to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke

• to share bread with the hungry, and

• bring the homeless poor into our houses; 

• to cover the naked, and

• not to hide from one’s own kin.

Christmas lights have been on my mind these past few weeks, for many reasons, not least of which being that I hadn’t put ours up until a couple of days ago.
But the other week, I was driving at night and noticed the different colours and styles people had decorated with. It was beautiful. And it struck me anew that we require the darkness to see this particular beauty, and I remembered listening to a podcast with theologian Alexander Shaia who said that we “decorate the darkness.”
Not our homes; we decorate the darkness.

Joseph is characterised in Matthew as a “righteous man and [was] unwilling to expose [Mary] to public disgrace [and] planned to dismiss her quietly” (v 19). Joseph is not righteous because he is unwilling to expose Mary, they are two separate points.

I am curious, as one who has born children, how long that saving from disgrace would have lasted? Three months? Six? Eventually, it would be known that Mary was pregnant and not married. Eventually there would be someone looking to carry out the Law upon Mary.

I come from a particularly conservative (and saint-less) background which emphasised our sinfulness and all we should be doing to pay God back for not smiting us right here and now. Being Christian was a defence mechanism. This was done so well that even several years later when visiting my in-laws’ church, I could not hear the preacher’s argument. I do remember my response over lunch: “I’m not a saint, I’m a sinner!”

This reading about babies and toddlers being dependent upon God is coupled with the story of the ruler who wants to know how he can inherit eternal life. If we read it the way Luke places it, the ruler has just heard Jesus say that the kingdom of God belongs to babies, and he asks, ‘well how can I get a piece of that? I follow the commandments.’

Over the next few weeks leading up to November the 16th, with our patronal festival we will be thinking about stewarding our parish. There are lots and lots of ways to steward, and today I thought we would take a look at stewarding our values: Love and Compassion, Belonging, and Discipleship.

I want to make sure you walk away with two points today: first, all ten people with leprosy were healed. They all had faith, they all obeyed Jesus’ directions and were healed. Secondly, our correct response to goodness is to praise God, through Jesus.

We’re looking at two gifts of the church, this week:

1. The gift of lament, and

2. The necessity of forgiveness. 

I’ve read many commentaries on this parable and none of them agree on the main points.

Here is what they do agree on:

1.     The parable ends at verse 8a, with the “rich man” praising the shrewdness of the manager, and

2.     That this is the most difficult parable that Jesus told, and that it contains the most difficult verse in the whole of the New Testament, verse 8.

This Mother’s Day I notice a connection with the roles of shepherd and the traditional roles of mothering. We spend a lot of time thinking about God as father, today we are going to think about God as mother and imbue that role with some divinity.

This sermon is part testimony, part theology.

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf,
for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
- Jeremiah 29.7

We always start with a little apocalypse, that’s what we’ve just read.  So, I’m wondering, what’s the scariest apocalypse you can imagine? Is it zombies? Vampires? That’s what’s in the pop culture at the moment; lots of movies and TV series about the end of the world being brought about by vampires or a virus that creates the undead. For some of us it might be world domination by a foreign power. Something like Russia, North Korea, or the USA – I find that just as terrifying.

As far as we know, Catherine of Alexandria is not a historical person. Some scholars believe that her story is a combination of lots of young women from the time which have been put together to create one great hero of the faith from whom we can draw inspiration and encouragement.

Catherine is the patron saint of:

• Scholars

• Young women

• People who work with wheels

• The St Catherine’s United Football Club

• This Parish!

What comes to mind when one speaks of a widow?

Savvy?

Young?

Courageous?

So faithful that they entrust the whole of their life to God?

There are many stories of widows in the bible and they are often epic!

Tears are a theme this week, as we engage with the celebration of All Saints’ Day. In Isaiah and Revelation we are told that “tears will be wiped away,” and “be no more.” In John, though, we see many tears. There are Mary’s tears, the tears of the people who had come to mourn with Mary and Martha, and of course, the tears of Jesus.

As I was reading it over and over during the week the themes of empathy and compassion’s role in action, and the power of love to overcome barriers, are what kept niggling at me.

When we see protest, how do we respond? By telling the person to, “Shut up?” Or by calling them to us and asking, “What do you want me to do?”

This is the third time that Jesus foretells his death and resurrection in the gospel of Mark. We’ve already heard the first two this year, and each time disciples really don’t want the bar of it. The first time that Jesus foretells his death and resurrection they are in Caesarea Philippi. Peter has just correctly said who Jesus is, the Messiah. Jesus then predicts his death and resurrection and Peter says, “No! Stop saying that you can’t say that!” And Jesus says, “Get behind Satan. Because you have your mind set on human things not on Godly things.”

Is Jesus wise?

This week’s readings, all of them, tell us what a life lived in wisdom looks like.

Pastor Jeremiah Steepek transformed himself into a homeless person and went to the 10,000 member church that he was to be introduced as the head pastor at that morning’s service. He walked around his soon to be church for 30 minutes while it was filling with people for service. Only three people out of the 10,000 people said hello to him. He asked people for change to buy food….NO ONE in the church gave him change...