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© St Michael's Kelburn
Description
Homilies, public lectures and other provocations delivered at St Michael’s engaging with matters of faith. Find out more at our website: https://stmichaels.org.nz/
119 Episodes
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Scripture starts in a garden and ends in a city. So what's the problem with building a tower as part of a city, as in the Tower of Babel?
In this sermon, Matthew traces all sorts of interesting clues in the Babel story that the people are critiqued for imposing an "anti-pattern" on reality; a pattern that looks attractive, but it ultimately too rigid and imperial for God's purposes. By contrast, the life-giving pattern Scripture describes is more receptive. It involves receiving a name from God, against the life-sucking anti-pattern of seeking to establish a name for ourselves.
Scriptures
Genesis 11.1-9
Revelation 3.12-13, 21.22-22.2
For those who heard the Genesis stories as Sunday School kids, it's easy to overlook how profound they are. In this sermon, Matt Packer explores one aspect of the very profound story of Cain & Abel - the role played by imitative desire. Beginning with a summary of the theory of Mimesis, Matt helps us to see that we are by nature creatures who imitate others, often out of jealousy and envy. That sheds helpful light on the killing of Abel, and challenges us each to ponder, "Who am I imitating?"\
Texts:
Genesis 4
John 21.20-23
Matt also references the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgB9p2BA4fw
Mostly, this series takes the scriptures at face value, without asking the historical or scientific questions. This sermon is an exception, as Jonathan Boston takes a theistic evolutionary perspective on the account in Genesis 3. He then asks how a committed Christian should understand the doctrine of the Fall, and how that should shape our life in today's world. Fittingly, the sermon was preached on Hiroshima Day 2023, a day when we remember the tragic ability of humanity to wreak destruction.
Texts: Genesis 3
Romans 8.18-27
Tim continues our series on the archetypal stories of the Old Testament with a look at human vocation in Genesis 2. What can we learn from taking seriously the patterns of life in The Garden of Eden for life today?
Texts:
Genesis 2
John 20.10-18
Note: Tim assumes people have watched the following Bible Project video : https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/priests-of-eden/
In a world of perceived chaos and crisis, how do we find meaning and hope? This new series looks to the archetypal narratives of the Old Testament to find the repatterning to which St Paul calls us in Romans 12.1-2.
In this opening sermon, Matthew Bartlett explores the rich patterning of Genesis 1, and how it points us to the central place that humanity holds in God's creative intention. How can knowing this place, and living out of it, help us to live in a time when most people feel, as WB Yeats said, that "the centre cannot hold"?
Readings
Genesis 1; Luke 24.13-27 ; John 1.1-8
Who is God?
One Jewish answer to this question, repeated throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, is: "God is the God who liberated us from slavery in Egypt".
In this sermon, Dr Philip Fountain recounts the way that Jewish people recall the Exodus in ritual and story. He reminds us that this story has empowered liberation struggles throughout the world. And he closes by reaffirming that Jesus carries all those memories into the Last Supper, the meal he calls us to share every time we remember him
Readings: Psalm 114 | Psalm 136 | Luke 22.14-23
Music after the sermon: 'Let My People Go' by 1814.
What does God call us to give to the life of the church? And why? In this sermon, Sam exhorts us to see all we have as gift from God, such that it's easier both to give and to receive. And might that not encourage us to give a whole lot more?
Readings
Numbers 3.40-51
2 Corinthians 8.1-15
John 12.1-8
If worship is about offering our whole lives to God (Romans 12.1-2), what's so special about worship services? Can't we just worship Monday to Friday, and get a sleep-in on Sunday?
Readings:
Revelation 4
Revelation 5
Mark 12.28-34
In Episode IV of this series on The Church, Tim goes off lectionary to outline the kind of behaviour Paul expects of Christian communities. If a church is too big to tease the vicar, does it mean it's too big?
Readings
Romans 12.1-16
Matthew 12:46-50
Anglicans in Aotearoa & Polynesia celebrate Te Pouhere Sunday, the Sunday when we remember the unique 3-Tikanga Constitution of our Anglican Church. Alan Cameron today explores what being people of the Treaty of Waitangi might mean for the Christian church here.
The series on The Church continues, with this Trinity Sunday exploration of The Trinity & the Church. How does the doctrine of the Trinity empower and encourage us to live and witness as church?
Readings:
2 Corinthians 13.-11-14
Psalm 86.8-13
Matthew 28.16-20
This is the first sermon in a series on The Church, taking its cue from 3 Sundays in the New Zealand lectionary, with 3 bonus sermons on other aspects of Being the Church..
This week, Jessie Black discusses Pentecost as the Birthday of the Church, and probes how to retain hope when our hopes for God to do great things through the church are disappointed.
Readings
Acts 2.1-21
1 Corinthians 12.3-13
John 20.19-23
Fasting! The Lenten discipline we all want to avoid, or perhaps reduce to avoiding chocolate. But what is the logic behind this ancient discipline?
Tim guides us through fasting in this new series on the 7 Habits of Occasionally Effective Christians...
Readings
2 Samuel 12.15-23
Acts 13.1-3
Matthew 6.16-18
Why do Christians prize forgiveness so highly? Is is even possible, when we've been sorely wronged? What would it mean to forgive others for God's sake? Deborah Wilson expounds the logic - and power - of Christian forgiveness.
Readings
Matthew 18.21-35
Professor Jonathan Boston continues the Lenten series on the Habits of Occasionally Effective Christians. This week - charitable giving, or as it used to be called, "almsgiving". How do we give intelligently and faithfully in a world so different from the world Jesus encountered in 1st C Palestine?
Readings
2 Corinthians 9.6-15
Matthew 6.1-4
Geoff Troughton unpacks the 6th Habit of Occasionally Effective Christians, the discipline of study. What does it mean to love God with all our minds, as well as our hearts and souls. And what does this have to do with Palm Sunday?
Readings
Psalm 118
Deuteronomy 4.6-9
Matthew 21.1-17
The texts for the day were Psalm 46, Ephesians 6.17-20 and Matthew 6.5-8.
Rebecca speaks about prayer as a way of dwelling in Christ and seeing God's presence everywhere, particularly in the wilderness times in our lives.
She mentions Tim Mackie's talk Paradise Now.
Galatians 6
Luke 12.32-40
Sam Jackson wraps up our Galatians series by asking us if we really are carrying one another's burdens, and encouraging us with the reminder that God specialises in using broken vessels.
In our 3rd installment of the Galatians series, Matthew Bartlett explains why the cross is the way past cultural imperialism. And why Paul is therefore so adamant that converts to the Jesus movement aren't obliged to follow Torah. .
Galatians 3.1-14
Galatians 3.21-28
Luke 23.32-34, 44-47
With help from Fleming Rutledge and Lamin Sanneh.
Galatians 2, with Māmari Stephens
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