Church of All Nations

delivered on 3 July 2011
by Rev. Dr Wes Campbell

Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67 Isaac and Rebecca
Song of Songs 2: 8-13 A song of the beloved
Romans 7: 15-25a Living ‘under the Law’’
Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30 ’My yoke is easy’

Last Sunday Bev and I went to an Anglican service. I noticed, as we sat down, three panels facing us: the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Ten Commandments.

I understand that the Ten Commandments are there to remind us of the claim of the Law, even to remind us of our failure to keep the law.

That puts a finger on the very uneasy feeling we have about law.

In previous generations great stress was placed on duty. Doing what is right was crucial. We see that now in cultures which stress a person’s obligation to their family, and the shame that falls on them when someone breaks the law. And for us? – the sense that we need to be moral, to be socially just.

It was like that in the Victorian era: very strict rules were applied, high codes of morals were laid down. But, lift the lid and we learn that …

'Pentecost' by Giotto (1320-25)

delivered 12 June 2011
by Rev. Hon. Prof. Brian Howe

‘How is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” (Acts 2:6-11 RSV)

The theme of the Canberra Assembly of the World Council of Churches in 1991, 20 years ago this year, was: ‘Come, Holy Spirit: Renew the Whole Creation’.

‘When the life giving power of the spirit poured into the faithful, they saw a vision of a new world:
‘where there sons and daughters shall prophecy
where their young men shall see visions
and their old men shall dream dreams
and where their women and slaves shall prophecy.’ ( Acts 2:17-18)

The rush of wild wind and fire for life from God called them out from their culture of silence, violence and death and called them into speech, the language of their own. They no longer …

by Rev. Dr Wesley Campbell
delivered 5 June 2011

Ephesians 1:15-23
Psalm 47
Luke 24:44-53
Acts 1:1-11

Last Thursday, forty days after Easter, we celebrated Ascension Day (as we do today this Sunday). Here we follow Luke’s calendar. He recalls the importance of forty in the biblical story: forty days and nights for the Noah flood; forty years when the Hebrews wandered in desert wastes; Jesus’ fast for forth days and nights in the wilderness (a long time).

And now, forty days after Easter, Luke records the ascension of Jesus twice. At the end of his first volume, the Gospel, Luke gives an account of the Ascension: it concludes the earthly ministry of Jesus. Then, to begin his second volume – the Acts of the Apostles – Luke gives a second account of Jesus’ ascension. Here the story of the church begins. With the ‘ascension’ Jesus goes ‘up’ to God.

Luke, along with the rest of the New Testament wants us to hear that Jesus has power over life and death.

The earliest Christians knew how odd that sounded. After all the Roman Caesar rule, the Roman Empire stretched in very direction; and Jesus had been executed in the name of that Empire.

Now, the tiny Christian movement declares that – not the Emperor but Jesus – has …