Category: Sermon Notes

Good Sam ? Great Sam

Read Luke 10: 25-37 We’re jumping forward to involve children church.  (Did you enjoy the drama ?) Many of us are familiar with this story that Jesus tells. In it there are three groups of people who react to the victim. Group 1 ) The robbers  They believe “Your Stuff is My Stuff” and will use force to take it. Their T-shirts say “Here to hurt”.   Most of us like to think we are not like them. We do sometimes have people we want to hurt or to have bad stuff happen to.  Group 2) The Passersby. They believe that their stuff is their stuff and they stand apart wearing T-shirts saying “Here to hold”. Their goal is to…

Bring a friend together

Read Luke 5: 17-25 In the healing that happened in the story before this an individual approaches Jesus. This story is more about communal responses. The friends who bring  their paralysed mate, the pharisees with  a fixed view of how things should work.  NT Wright says “The Pharisees were a pressure group, not an official body.” “(For Everyone NT 18 Vols.) The Pharisees’ kingdom-plan, in line with plenty of earlier Jewish aims and ideals, was to intensify observance of the Jewish law, the Torah.” Essentially that mean’t that they thought if they could just be religious enough then God would bring the messiah. Unsurprisingly they also thought they were right. We too have religious groups who believe this.  The friends…

“Do what I …” (p2)

Do what I (p2) do – Making do  Luke 4:31-5:11 Last week Jesus read from the book of Isaiah Luke4:18-19 and declared that he was about freedom for captives and the time of the lord’s favour. This week we watch to see how he lives and how his life stacks up with what he has said. Lurking the background for all of us is the unspoken question “How do our lives line up with what we say?”. We watched a clip from youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69hsVuxa3Jk of a bike owner confronting someone who was riding a stolen bike. How would you respond if this was you (the owner)? How do you reckon he did ? Background Information In western culture we are…

“Do What I ….” (p1)

Reading : Luke 4:14-30 Ours is an age marked by cynicism. When Politicians stand and make promises to us we seldom believe them. Opposition parties make bold promises until they get into power and then we all watch to see what they actually do. In Luke 4 Jesus starts his public ministry by reading from the scroll of Isaiah. Luke 4:18-19 This is like his election manifesto, or his vision statement. Apparently it was acceptable to pick and choose what you read because he reads from Isaiah 58:6 and Isaiah 61:1-2. (for extra homework read Isaiah 61. Leviticus 25 talks about a year of Jubilee. Did the Jews ever do this ? When ? or why didn’t they ?) When…

40 Acts of Generousity

It’s not only what we believe that changes us, What we do also changes us. We’re having a crack at doing 40 acts of generousity in the lead in to Easter and you are invited. We’ll be taking our inspiration from the book of Acts. You can sign up for a daily email with inspiration and suggestions by signing up at https://40acts.org.uk/signup/ What would our lives be like if we were all generous ? 

The Treaty of Waitangi

A great wee picture book about the treaty is found here. Thanks to the spinoff for hosting it. Te Tiriti o Waitangi: the comic book

Love – hang on you want me to love who?

Four key biblical themes came to their fulfillment in the arrival of Jesus: Peace, Hope, Joy, and Love. We use love in all sorts of ways, “I’d love a pizza”. and “I love Game of thrones.” are quite different to “I love you”.  SO what was Jesus on about with love ? Check out The Bible projects video on Love.

The Psalmists Cry

A look to the Psalms for guidance to embracing lament. Moments when we need to honestly cry out to God in ways and words not generally accepted by our society. A guide to help move past our denial, honestly engaging our lament and arriving at genuine praise. By Walter Brueggemann with Steve Frost. DVD and workbook