Tena Koutou, Tena Koutou, Tena Koutou Katoa.
The title for this service is as you can see ‘Tales of Love midst Tales of Horror’.
The title and reflections began to percolate during the week in which Trump and Zelensky had their ‘fall out’.
Today I’m taking the step of telling stories rather than preaching an actual sermon. We need stories. We need to hear the bible stories of love but we also need to hear tales of love in these times of fear, horror, astonishment .. the list might go on.
So… here’s the first story.
As some of you know I belong to the Benedictine Oblates associated with the World Community for Christian Meditation. Continue reading Sunday March 23- Rev Yvonne Smith
Monthly Archives: March 2025
Sunday March 2 2025- Rev Stephanie Wells
Prayer of Illumination
Me inoi tatou, Let us pray,
Holy God, you revealed to the disciples
the everlasting glory of Jesus Christ.
Reveal this glory to us today through the gospel
and the power of your Holy Spirit
Amine/Amen
Introduction to Exodus 34:29-35 and Luke 9: 28-36
The two readings today talk about something strange happening to the appearance of Moses and then Jesus. Both glow with another worldly light.
In Exodus the reaction of Moses and the people has many explanations. What do you think is happening?
Sunday 9th March 2025- Rev Hugh Perry
Readings
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Maurice Andrew writes that the constitution expounded in Deuteronomy is realistic in recognising that one aspect of life cannot be isolated from another. He goes on to say that there is a sense in which this life grows out of the ground. In sharing the first fruits of the land there is an acknowledgment that Yahweh led their ancestors through slavery in Egypt to the land of milk and honey. Andrew sees this as the humanity of individual expression and communal participation. Their produce is not better than anyone else’s produce but as God’s produce, it is produce for them to share together. Andrew adds, for our time and place, that ‘Benefits do not trickle down but spread up and through’.[1]
Luke 4: 1-13
Fred Craddock notes that ‘the New Testament brings the wilderness trials of Israel forward, not only into the life of Jesus, but also into the life of the church.’[2] The church has continued to reflect on the place of temptation in the human condition, and to focus on this the Gospel reading on the first Sunday of Lent is always an account of Jesus’ temptation.
Craddock points out that this passage not only reflects the forty years in the wilderness of the Hebrew people but also Moses’ forty days on the mountain without food (Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 9:9) and Elijah’s forty days in flight to the mountain of God (I Kings 19:4-8).
Unique to Luke’s account is the final temptation at the temple in Jerusalem foreshadowing the climax of the gospel with both triumph and trials and the destination of Jesus’ journey. Luke draws our attention to this final struggle noting that the devil ‘departed from him until an opportune time’.[3] The opportune time was indeed Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.
Sermon
It is helpful to understand the development of a religious perceptive evolving alongside the development of humanity through migration. The Old Testament outlines this journey for us as the Hebrew Scripture gives a background story to three of the great religions of our world.