Sermon 1 The Bible and Getting Ready

Every night we have strange visitors. We sleep, we dream, but often we are puzzled and even confused. Do we think about our dreams or forget them? I will argue that they can be like angels, who sometimes bring messages from God.

The Bible reflects the way people valued dreams as a way that God spoke to a pharaoh, pagan kings, prophets and apostles. In the 20^th century psychoanalytic thinking saw dreams coming from the unconscious with important implications for daily living. I will preach four sermons on how to understand your dreams from a spiritual perspective. Then I will offer a Saturday afternoon workshop for you to share a dream with others – perhaps gain further insights.

Early in the year we had some study groups on dreams, but I thought that there might be wider interest in the topic, hence this series of sermons and a workshop.

Dreams were important in the Bible. This is obvious in the Genesis passage of Jacob’s dream, “There was a ladder set up on earth, the top of it reaching to heaven and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” (28:12) My first thought is of Bath Abbey and the portrayal of this dream in stone on the west face. (overhead image) But Jacob was given a more spiritual interpretation with the land as a promise to him and his descendants. God said, “I will not leave you until I done what I have promised to you” (28: 15). However, I am not the only person to remain puzzled at the link between this dream and that promise.  Jacob at least understood “this is the gate of heaven”.

Perhaps like Jacob we have mysterious dreams, but find it hard to make any sense of the experience, and somehow find any relation to ‘everyday reality’.  

Illustration When I was a young man, before my conversion to Christianity, I broke off an engagement as a result of a dream. Has a dream ever influenced your actions?

Abraham Herschel had a dream in the late 19^th century of the Jews returning to the promised land. This led to establishing the Zionist movement and the eventual Jewish state.

[Read more…]

Reading: Luke 2:1-14

In this sermon I would like to ask one important question and provide a surprising answer.

In the gospel reading Luke provides a picture that we most associate with Christmas: the baby Jesus in “swaddling clothes” and a “manger”. And a host of angels appear to shepherds in the field singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among us with whom he is pleased.” (2:14). Usually, the wise men make an entrance, but sadly not in this gospel reading (see Matt 2).

Now my question: “Why the big fuss?” When you think about it, we all had a birth scene. When I was born 72 years ago, I think my parents were excited by the event, but it caused no ripples beyond my immediate family. It was not particularly notable, just a sanitised hospital, no manger, shepherds, wise men, or angels. Handel or Bach did not compose music, neither Leonardo da Vinci nor Rembrandt paint my nativity scene. There may have been a line or two in the newspaper (I suspect not) but that was it. Completely forgettable except that I’m standing here today!

But the birth of Jesus led to an excitement which has lasted 2000 years. You can visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and countless churches throughout the world similarly dedicated. The artistic and musical legacy has enriched our Western civilisation. I think of libraries such as St Mark’s filled with books, universities such as Harvard which started in a pastor’s study, even wars have been fought in Jesus’ name. Today, right now, we gather… and the fuss continues.

It is reasonable to ask why? Can we offer an answer that does justice to this birth of one child in relative poverty, with a hint of scandal (Mary was pregnant before marriage), not of royal blood and in a context of world events ? insignificant.

What kind of event has such an impact? We need to come up with an answer that does justice to it. And that is no easy task.

[Read more…]

CS Lewis, the brilliant Oxford academic, lay theologian and author provides one in his book Miracles. Lewis invited the reader to imagine the incarnation as a diver plunging into a deep pool of water to retrieve a lost precious object. The diver first strips off his clothes and then dives into the warm green water, as the diver swims downward, the pressure increases, he swims down further to the black and freezing cold waters, to an area of ooze, slime and decay, then, the diver comes up again towards the surface, back to the colour and light, with his lungs almost bursting, he breaks the surface, holding in his hand the dripping, precious thing that he went down to recover. And what is this lost yet precious object, that merited this dangerous and difficult descent? It is “human nature”. God “descended into his own universe, and rose again, bringing human nature up with him.

[Read more…]

Text: 1 Cor 15:1-11

Alice in Wonderland laughed and said to the White Queen “One can’t believe impossible things”. The Queen observed that Alice simply lacked discipline and practice, boasting that she sometimes believed “as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” This begs the question: Does the church encourage you and I to believe impossible things? And then to feel guilty if we can’t? I think this is a problem for many thinking Christians – perhaps most obviously with the resurrection of Christ.

Paul explained his understanding of the Christian message that, “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day.” (15:3-4) Paul then gives a long list of appearances of the risen Christ: to Peter, then to the 12 apostles and then “He appeared to more than 500 brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.” And “last of all to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles because I persecuted the Church of God.” (11:7-9).

Obviously, Paul believed that Christ could be seen. Paul was trying to be rational and cited the evidence of many people including himself. He did not add, though possibly worth noting, that many died as martyrs for their Christian faith. Maybe it was a more credulous age? Maybe unexplained things were more common?

Now what do we do with this? Most of us consider ourselves educated, rational people, inhabiting the 21^st century. My close friend Shayleen used to chide me that I believed in Jewish fairy tales, and I suppose believing in the risen Christ amounts to an impossible thing or less charitably a fairy tale.

[Read more…]

I am continuing a sermon series on Christology. I am asking who is Jesus and what did he do? The Uniting Church stands in the Protestant tradition which placed the death of Christ at the centre of its ‘protest’ against the Roman Catholic Church. So it is important, I think, to look at the various ways in which the atonement, meaning of his death, has been interpreted in the church. It is not surprising that there are various theories since the New Testament does not speak with ‘one voice’.

Since the beginning of humanity: How many people have lived and died? I asked Dr Google who estimated 117 billion. How many lives have been really significant? Just a few, maybe Ghandi and Nelson Mandela in recent years? How many deaths have had significance? Even less. There have been martyrs for a cause, but only one death has changed western civilization.

I am continuing a sermon series on Christology. I am asking who is Jesus and what did he do? The Uniting Church stands in the Protestant tradition which placed the death of Christ at the centre of its ‘protest’ against the Roman Catholic Church. So it is important, I think, to look at the various ways in which the atonement, meaning of his death, has been interpreted in the church. It is not surprising that there are various theories since the New Testament does not speak with ‘one voice’.

[Read more…]