Sermons
Archives for October 2017
Date Based Archive: October 2024
Year A – Reformation Sunday – Truly set free
29 October 2023
Like a lot of people, maybe most people, perhaps all people, I don’t like to admit I’m wrong or to have my errors pointed out. It’s very uncomfortable and we… Read more
Year A – Twenty – first Sunday After Pentecost – Image is everything
22 October 2023
Image seems to be everything these days. In social media you have to get that profile picture just right so people will friend you, add you, follow you, swipe you,… Read more
Year A – Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost – You are invited
15 October 2023
Jesus has used quite a few parables in recent weeks to give us a picture of what the Kingdom of Heaven is going to look like. He used examples of… Read more
Year A – Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
8 October 2023
Two teams played off last week to determine who was the Premiership Club in the AFL. A week earlier both clubs were ecstatic to have made the achievement of playing… Read more
Year A – Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost – Is the Lord among us or not?
1 October 2023
Is the Lord among us or not? Great question. Have you asked that question before? Is the Lord among us or not? What has made you ask that question? What… Read more
Year C – Reformation – The 5 Solas
30 October 2022
Today we celebrate the Reformation of the church. An event that began just over 500 years ago with an Augustinian Monk by the name of Martin Luther nailing his infamous… Read more
Year C – Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost – Made righteous
23 October 2022
A couple weeks ago I spoke about heroes and villains and how we often make villains out of good people. Like the Pharisees who are often portrayed as the evil… Read more
Ringwood 60th Anniversary – Work in progress
23 October 2022
What an amazing achievement – 60 years – albeit now 61 because of Covid. A diamond celebration. It’s not an easy task to achieve and how fitting that a 60th… Read more
Year C – Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost – Gratitude or expectations?
9 October 2022
A lot of the TV shows and movies we watch have heroes and villains. It’s a natural categorization of people – the goodies and the baddies. Even in police dramas… Read more
Year B – Reformation Sunday – No distinctions
31 October 2021
Well here we are with a sense of freedom. Still some restrictions in place but a sense that we are beginning to enjoy some of the freedoms we had with… Read more
Year B – Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost – Blind faith
24 October 2021
Our Gospel reading today is interesting, not because of the story of Jesus healing a blind man, but because of what Jesus says to blind Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus has heard that Jesus… Read more
Year B – Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost – Humble glory
17 October 2021
When the 10 disciples heard about James and John’s request to Jesus – “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”… Read more
Year B – Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost – Heart surgery
10 October 2021
I find the question put to Jesus today rather strange. A man ran up and knelt before Jesus, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal… Read more
Year B – Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost – Childlike faith
3 October 2021
Why is it that life gets more complicated as you get older? As a child you really don’t have a lot of things to worry about. Your parents look after… Read more
Year A – Reformation Sunday – Freedom
25 October 2020
I’m sure many of us were glued to our TV screens last Sunday and scouring the news to see the list of freedoms that we were granted as we slowly… Read more
Year A – 20th Sunday after Pentecost – The Image of God
18 October 2020
As we get further and further into this period of lockdown and closed churches, I keep thinking of the incident in Acts 5 where the Apostle Peter was ordered by… Read more
Year A – 19th Sunday after Pentecost – Accepting God’s invitation
11 October 2020
During this period of Covid restrictions the challenges of invitation has been at the forefront. I’ve done a wedding, a baptism and 7 funerals – and all of them faced… Read more
Year A – 18th Sunday after Pentecost – Holding up a mirror
4 October 2020
One of the things I enjoy about the Pentecost Season in the church is that we spend a lot of time listening to Jesus’ parables. Parables are a special way… Read more
Year C – Reformation Sunday
25 October 2019
Ask anyone to describe “the church” and you’ll get a variety of answers. But, no doubt, top of the list would be – those do-gooders who keep telling us how… Read more
Year C – 19th Sunday after Pentecost – Persistent in prayer
20 October 2019
Last week saw a week of disruptions in the city, including other states around Australia, and in fact around the world to demand what they call “climate justice”. Despite the… Read more
Year C – Sunday after Pentecost – Unity through suffering
13 October 2019
Border Security is a major political divide in many countries. Whether it’s the wall being built on the border of the USA and Mexico – or the sending of those… Read more
Year C – 17th Sunday after Pentecost – Increase our faith?
5 October 2019
It’s an interesting request from the apostles to Jesus today – Increase our faith. I wonder why they made that request. Were they having doubts? Were they going through some… Read more
Creation Sunday- God’s gift through pets
5 October 2019
There is an old saying that says – Dog spelt backwards is still man’s best friend. Often a person will get asked – are you a dog person or a… Read more
In God’s Image
22 October 2017
I love it when a baby is born and there is a scramble to identify family images in the child. Whose nose does he have? Whose eyes does she have?… Read more
The invitation
15 October 2017
Having been involved in the preparation for our daughter Grace’s wedding earlier this year this reading today took on a new meaning for me. Usually people only see the end… Read more
Stewards of God’s vineyard
8 October 2017
Often when watching Current Affairs on TV you’ll see a story about a tenant of a rented property who has trashed the house and left it in a disgusting mess… Read more
By what authority?
1 October 2017
There is not much doubt that the church has little to no authority in today’s modern world. In Luther’s time the church was very powerful. The Pope was a person… Read more
50 years of Unity
30 October 2016
Quite often when I attend a Lutheran function I have to explain how a person with a surname like mine ended up, not just in the Lutheran Church but as… Read more
Being made right before God
23 October 2016
Is the Pharisee’s prayer that bad? On the surface he sounds like a good and righteous man who does more than most. He observes the evils of the world around… Read more
Nagging God with prayer
16 October 2016
If you’re a parent then the chances are you’ve experienced the supermarket meltdown where your child has had a tantrum because they really want that chocolate that the supermarket has… Read more
Jesus brings justice
2 October 2016
A new and controversial law was passed in Victoria this week. People who drop their pants to show their backside in public face up to six months in jail with… Read more