Tag: prophets

Palm Sunday | The two parades

(From the archives) The medium is the message, and our guy is the clown. (Listen here.)

In many churches around the world, today’s story will be called ‘The Triumphal Entry’, and it will be told with great pomp and dignity. Perhaps you’ve been at one of these services. The choir slowly processes down the aisle, solemnly singing, then priests wearing exquisite garments follow behind as acolytes waft incense everywhere. The church is aflutter with beautiful banners; and a pipe organ contributes sparkling notes. The congregation stands in their Sunday best and joins in the hymn: Glory! Praise! Honour! and Hosanna! – which means, Lord, save us!

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Ezekiel | Preach to the bones

In places of death, speak words of life. (Listen here.)

How do you imagine the bones? Do you think of the news reports? The broken bones of young children at an elementary school in Iran, torn apart by an American Tomahawk missile. The bullet-riddled bones in Mexico’s streets left by paramilitary forces and drug cartels. The blood-stained bones in El Fasher; the bomb-shattered splinters in Ukraine; the charred fragments in Gaza. The bones of Rwanda, Cambodia, the Holocaust. Or perhaps you think of the bones which are dotted throughout this country, left to rot in lake, valley and hollow, abandoned in paddocks to dry out in the sun. Do you imagine the bones created by violent policing, by war, by genocide?

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Isaiah | To be like Birrarung or, To serve & thrive

In a world and media landscape which threatens to overwhelm, Isaiah offers a way of hope. (Listen here.)

‘Why have we fasted and you haven’t seen?’ the people ask God. ‘Why have we humbled ourselves and you haven’t paid attention?’ We’ve given up coffee, chocolate, alcohol and even social media: so why aren’t you answering our prayer?!

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Matthew | Expectation management

What are we waiting for? And how, then, do we wait? (Listen here.) Content note: One mention of suicide, in the first paragraph only.

The saddest funeral I ever did was for a young woman who died by suicide. She attended a very high energy local church, all praise and worship. However, it did not do funerals and certainly not for suicide. Trying to find a pastor who would hold a service for their daughter, her distraught parents were eventually given my name.

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Isaiah | A vision for the City of Manningham

Isaiah’s vision of the city of joy, shared at the induction of Rev Con Apokis. (Listen here.)

A city of joy, its people a delight: this is what God promises through the prophet Isaiah. It sounds wonderful! So, what are the elements of this joyful city? First, says Isaiah, health and wellbeing. No child will die young; no senior die prematurely (Isaiah 65:20). And we can imagine it. In this city, the air is clean, and the soil and waters, too. There are no coal-fired power stations; no rampaging wildfires; no unprecedented floods. No children or elders are struggling for breath through air yellow with smog; no one is sick from forever chemicals because these are forever banned; no one is collapsing from extreme heat.

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Jeremiah | Planting with the prophet Jeremiah

In the face of climate catastrophe, seek the welfare of your place. One from the archives, dusted off and revisited in a new context. (Listen here.)

Driving to church this morning, I nearly hit a kangaroo. It was a juvenile male moving frantically through the many acres of roadworks at the freeway exit in Bulleen. I slammed on my brakes as he hopped past my bonnet, then across two more lanes of traffic and over the freeway bridge into suburbia. I had wondered about whether the following would preach here in Templestowe. But the wave of grief I felt for this young kangaroo, whose home has recently been torn up around him so we can build yet another major road which will very soon fill up with traffic, told me that the following is exactly what we need to hear.

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Hosea & the cycle of violence

Not every image of God is faithful to Jesus. (Listen here.)

‘When Israel was young, I loved him … It was I who taught Ephraim to walk … I bent down to feed them,’ says God through the prophet Hosea. These beautiful words resonate deep in my body. They recall the love I had for my own little children, the hours I spent holding their upstretched arms as they tottered down the hall and learned to walk. I remember the thousands of times I bent down to feed them, wipe their chin, see eye-to-eye with them and hug them. So it’s a crying shame that I find these words nearly drowned out by a long litany of violence.

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1 Kings | Elijah in the age of kings

In a world of authoritarian leaders, Elijah’s story should give us backbone and courage. (Listen here.)

What a story! Old Elijah heads up a mountain and encounters God in silence. Those of us who hang around churches have probably heard it before, and we’ve probably also heard that it’s an invitation to personal prayer. Get away from it all, get quiet time alone, and listen for God’s voice in the stillness. And on a good day, if you’re blessed, you’ll have a spiritual experience.

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Isaiah | The politics of love

A fascinating pairing of texts from Isaiah and Philippians, and an invitation to speak on love in a troubled world, from West Preston Baptist Church. (Listen here.)

“Today Christians stand at the head of this country … I pledge that I will never tie myself to those who want to destroy Christianity … We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit—we want to burn out all the recent immoral development in literature, theatre, the arts and in the press—in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess …”

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Luke | Where God’s word comes

The word of God comes to the one who relinquishes privilege and works for justice. (Listen here.)

Once upon a time, long, long ago, I lived in America. My mother was a pastor, and she had been called as parish minister by the First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, DC. First Baptist had once been Harry Truman’s church, then Jimmy Carter’s. Older members had fond memories of President Carter teaching Sunday School up in the balcony, protected from sniper shots by a vast stone pillar

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