After offering many teachings and engaging incidents along the road south Jesus arrives in Jericho on his way to Jerusalem. In Jericho he surprises local tax administrator Zacchaeus with an unmerited offer of relationship and acceptance that melts the heart and transforms the mind of this legal crook. That’s the power of grace to lead…
Two went to pray… What could be wrong with that? It all depends on what they pray and why. Francis draws out key Gospel issues from Jesus’ story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.
Jesus constructed a story to bring teaching to his disciples and those missing the main thing in his message of the Kingdom. After some opening comments about discipleship and setting the context, Francis takes us to meet the Judge and the Widow. The Widow is Jesus’ example of a disciple sharing God’s priority on righteousness…
Today we picked up the first verses of Paul’s tender letter to his young friend Timothy. Pastor Francis reads it as a letter of encouragement from which we might learn much both about bringing encouragement and receiving it. After an opening greeting and words of affirmation, Timothy is asked to reboot what God has given…
Hsiang Ling opens up Jesus’ parable from Luke 17 of ‘The Richman and Lazarus’ in technicolour detail. She breaks through any assumed familiarity we may have about this to show how the human heart is rightly judged and draws us to reconsider the glories of God’s grace in Christ that lead to heaven.
Fresh from a tour of biblical sites in Israel, Francis looks at a key verse in the Gospels where the question of Jesus’ identity is addressed. This conversation took place in a setting with a lot of context to the point that the context is part of the message.
Today’s guest preacher was Paul Vrolijk our archdeacon. Paul spoke around Jesus’ story of lost sheep and the shepherd who went looking for it.
Mark Hill picked up the story of Jesus healing a woman bent double during synagogue worship on Sabbath as told in Luke 13:10-17. This is rich gospel at several levels. It is only available here as an audio.
Following Good, Better, Best comes another message about God’s values and how we either get them or miss them. We engage the Philosopher of Ecclesiastes, Pastor Paul commending Christ and the Farmer/businessman with a bumper harvest -‘Mr. Bigger-Barns’- who Jesus described as a ‘fool’.
In the summertime it’s good to review our priorities. The readings for today all reflect the need to be sure about what is necessary and what is not in God’s Kingdom economy as represented by Jesus. To give the sound crews a holiday there is not audio for this message.