The Good Life

30 August, 2010

Delivered on 29 August,2010
By Rev Dr John Evans

Jeremiah 2:4-13
Psalm 81:1, 10-16
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14

Today I wish to consider “the good life”. What is it – how do we get it?

The good life could be described in many ways – a fulfilled life; perhaps a life lived with meaning and purpose; scripture speaks of eternal life or the fullness of life. Even a happy life is in a sense “a good life”. The point is this purpose of living- is indeed to  live well; and then doesn’t our faith have something to do with that life lived well?

Last week I considered the ministry of the prophets, in particular the ministry of Jeremiah. In a real sense this also was Jeremiah’s concern – the Children of Israel, the Jewish people, were not living a good life . . . and they would soon suffer for this. They had forsaken the covenant, that covenant  – the law of Moses – the way of Yahweh offered a fulfilled life.  Moses much earlier had put to the Children of Israel a choice – certainly as they were about to cross into the promised land:
“See I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am …

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By john | Posted in sermons |

Elections and Prophets

23 August, 2010

Delivered by Rev Dr John Evans
on Sunday 22 August 2010

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17

In the commissioning of the prophet Jeremiah it was said

“See I today appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and overthrow,
to build and to plant.” (Jer 1:10)

Here is the commission of one of the greatest prophets ever. What does it mean?  How are we as a congregation to our understand our prophetic task?  What is our prophetic ministry for our nation, as we await the formation of new government after the election yesterday.

However, let us first be sure we understand Jeremiah a little, and his context.

Many years ago I was assured by the wonderfully eccentric Jesuit, Tony Campbell, I really only had to know four or five dates, and the whole of the Old Testament would fall into place.

1290 BC  thereabouts,  was the Exodus out of Egypt, Moses and the “promised land”

1000 BC King David

722 BC the destruction of the Northern Kingdom by Assyria

587 BC the fall of Judah and Jerusalem and exile to Babylon

520 BC the restoration or return to Jerusalem after Babylon (Iraq) got knocked off by Persia (Iran)

The Jewish people really began with the leadership of Moses and his forging of new nation over and against the empire of Egypt.  There were …

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By john | Posted in sermons |

some Hard Words of Jesus

15 August, 2010

Delivered by Rev Dr John Evans
on Sunday 15 August, 2010

Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56

Have you ever been watching the news, or reading the paper and thought: that can’t be right?

Early in January 2005 we had been overseas for a holiday. We were only away three weeks; not long. Jean was reading the paper when we returned to WA and asked – who was the premier? I looked amazed. Of course she knew who the premier was. I said Geoff Gallop, of course; no she said – it says here it is Alan Carpenter. No-ooo – I said – that can’t be right –it is Geoff Gallop.  Well, I was wrong. Geoff Gallop had resigned for health reasons while we were away – and indeed there was a new premier.

So when we hear, for example, someone we know and respect and they are charged with a serious criminal offence – say like that strange recent murder case of Mr Rockefeller; or a couple we know who we always thought had a great marriage – and they then separate; or we see the headline like political parties agree to tackle climate change; or the Dockers win the Grand Final – it just does not seem right.

Well our gospel reading today is just like that. There must …

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By john | Posted in sermons |

Our 1st Conversation at The Clare

9 August, 2010

The Church of All Nations has launched a cultural program it calls Australia Dreaming. Its first offering is a series of ‘conversations’ with notable public figures exploring “What I believe and why.” They happen one evening a month at the Clare Castle Hotel on the corner of Palmerston and Rathdowne Streets, where some very good pub grub and brain food are on offer for $25 a head.

Dr Michelle Foster, Melbourne Law School

Dr Michelle Foster, Melbourne Law School

The first of these ‘Carlton Conversations at the Clare’ was host to Michelle Foster, a refugee lawyer from Melbourne Law School. She was in conversation with Melbourne Uni chaplain Wes Campbell, who interviewed her about her background and upbringing and what led her to become a legal academic passionately defending the wretched of the earth who find precious little sympathy in contemporary Australia.

Foster described herself as naturally optimistic, which contributes to her staying power. Her hopes were raised with the advent of the Rudd Government and its efforts to reverse some of the immigration policies of the Howard years – such as the Pacific Solution and Temporary Protection Visas …

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By olivia | Posted in local events, parish events |

Sacrifices and Purses

8 August, 2010

Delvered by Rev Dr John Evans
On Sunday 8 August, 2010

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Luke 12:32-40

If one was looking for a title to this sermon today, it could be “Purses and Sacrifices”, or if you were here last Sunday, you might also call it “Possessions: The Sequel”.

In the gospel, back at the beginning of Luke 12, Jesus had been asked to adjudicate on an inheritance dispute. He declines, but perceives that in this well known situation of “where there is a will there is a relative”, the real issue is greed and a fixation over money and possessions. This attitude derails a person from a fulfilled life. He tells the story of the rich fool, who despite his obvious wealth dies with nothing; a hollow sort of death. However, as we found last week our relationship with our possessions can be problematic and ambiguous. Our life has to be able to deal with the material, stuff and possessions. Their manufacture and sale are the very basis of our economy, and an equitable distribution of material things and services is indeed a critical measure of justice. Jesus’ teaching points to the idolatry we show towards possessions, our abundant vice of greed, and it is not about absenting ourselves from the materiality of the world.

Yes, there …

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By john | Posted in sermons |

What Possesses Us

1 August, 2010

Delivered by Rev Dr John Evans
On Sunday 1 August, 2010

Hosea 11:1-11
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21

Jesus says  – Luke 12: 13 “ Take care! Be on your guard against all kind of possessions.”  Then later the apostle Paul says in his letter to the Colossians “Set you minds on things that are above. Not on things that are on earth.”

The teaching of scripture is pretty clear. All that stuff we have, or aspire to have – can derail us in the pursuit of a fulfilled and meaningful life. The prophets of the Old Testament  and in the teaching of Jesus himself have this common theme: greed and the avaricious pursuit of wealth is idolatrous. It is easier for a rich person to pass through an eye of a needle than to enter the kingdom of God; recall the rich young ruler who was told to sell all his possessions and give to the poor – and he went away sorrowful. Today we have the story of the person who we have come to regard as the rich fool.

I always think of the late Laurie Connell – when I think of this story. Laurie was one the main actors in the infamous WA Inc saga in the 1980’s of greed and corruption – Alan Bond was another. …

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By john | Posted in sermons |

Overhearing a love song

28 July, 2010

a pen and paper drawing a love-heartdelivered 18 July 2010
by Rev. Dr Wes Campbell

Amos, 8:1-12
Psalm 52 God’s judgement and grace
Colossians 1:15-28 Paul’s message of reconciliation
Luke 10:388-42 Martha and Mary

Paul writes:

Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God; in him the fullness of God was pleased to make a home.

In the name of the reconciling God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN

Have you ever found yourself reading someone else’s love letters? Perhaps accidentally, or maybe published correspondence of a famous person; or maybe the overheard telephone conversation in the tram.

It can be embarrassing to be taken into another person’s intimacies.

Believe it or not, when we read from the letter to the Colossians, we were overhearing a love letter.

But we should not be embarrassed – it was written to be read aloud.  It is hard to take it in – the language is so rich.  In the original Greek, the sentences are long, one thought tumbling after another.  The translators of the New Revised Standard Version have broken it into shorter sentences.

Powerful and passionate.  What else would you expect from a lover?  This is no carefully written text; it is a passionate love song.

True, some want their love songs to be kept simple: like Paul McCartney’s song:

‘You’d think that people would …

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By olivia | Posted in sermons |

Prayer

25 July, 2010

hands folded in prayerdelivered Sunday 25 July 2010
by Rev. Dr John Evans

Hosea 1:2-10
Psalm 85
Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)
Luke 11:1-13

Prayer is a core aspect of the Christian faith. Prayer indeed is a core, observable aspect of any religion. Our Muslim friends have their regular times and pattern of prayer. We have the image of Jewish pilgrims at the so-called Wailing Wall in Jerusalem – but all religions in some way or another involve prayer. Prayer is the background practice or custom to our own worship, indeed all worship.

Karl Barth the great theologian from last century, dramatically asserted that prayer is our theology. What one prays for, shapes and expresses our theology and what we actually believe. How we understand prayer, how we pray, lies at the heart of faith and how we live and act as Christians.

However, what is involved; how we understand and practice prayer – is not clear. Yes we might be able to say there are different sorts of prayer – prayers of thanksgiving, or confession or intercession – but then what is prayer, why pray? Our whole life is our prayer – isn’t it.

At the beginning of our reading from Luke, the disciples observed Jesus praying. This prompted these sort of questions and issues in their mind – …

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By john | Posted in sermons |

Life from the Ditch

11 July, 2010

stained glass depiction of the parable of the Good Samaritandelivered 11 July 2010
by Rev. Dr John Evans

Amos 7:7-17
Psalm 82
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25-37

Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan is probably the best-known of all his parables.  It is an oldie, but a goodie! The very image of the compassionate assistance of the Samaritan traveller has entered the language and the public imagination. If a person is described as a Good Samaritan, we know exactly what they mean. A Good Samaritan is a person who has put their life on the line for another. In Western Australian the Uniting Church even one of its caring services is known as Good Samaritan Industries – and it is lovingly known as Good Sammy’s.

So when it comes to sermons on the Good Samaritan – well you can lay them end on end and they will stretch to the moon and back; and you already sort of know what I will say. Typically, the sermon will be couched as an example, an illustration of what it means to love one’s neighbour as oneself. It will be a call to compassion. Along the way references will be made to the great antipathy between Jews and the Samaritans. So our compassion is to transcend such …

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By john | Posted in sermons |

Cross Purposes

4 July, 2010

Delivered by Rev Dr John Evans
Sunday 4 July, 2010

2 Kings 5:1-14
Psalm 30
Galatians 6:(1-6), 7-16
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Here is something to ponder. Has the cross, just the plain cross, become more than a just Christian symbol. Yes it is a Christian symbol, but is it actually now secular? Consider jewelry, road side shrines – those white crosses marking where someone has died, or war cemeteries. Has the cross been secularised . .  or at least its symbolism secularised?

Just a couple of weeks ago the US Supreme Court had to consider this matter. (Today is the 4th July so there is some American flavor!)  The dispute concerned a large plain cross which was a war memorial in California’s Mojave Desert. The US, at least according to its constitution, endeavours to maintain a separation between church and state. Certainly the state cannot establish any religion. So could this cross remain as a war memorial? On a split vote, the Supreme Court ruled that it could. Justice Anthony Kennedy, in speaking for the majority said “one plain cross in the desert evokes far more than religion . . . it evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles.” In other words, the cross is more than a …

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By john | Posted in sermons |