Certainty of being right is the surest way of keeping the truth at a safe distance. Those things that bring doubt into our lives - like grief, disappointment, failure – are really uncomfortable, but they can be our Damascus Road experiences that bring us with open hands and open minds into the presence of true truth - that is, the presence of Jesus. George MacDonald is one of the most influential authors in modern history. When one of his readers wrote to him complaining about his habit of questioning Christian orthodoxy his reply included these words: "With all sorts of doubt I am familiar, and the result of them is, has been, and will be, a widening of my heart and soul and mind to greater glories of the truth – the truth that is in Jesus – and not in Calvin or Luther or St Paul or St John, save as they got it from Him, from whom every simple heart may have it, and can alone get it… Doubt is the hammer that breaks the windows clouded with human fancies, and lets in the pure light."
Good Shepherd Sunday always seems to come at just the right time! We do not know what the future holds for the Anglican Church, but we do know that the body of Christ – the communion of all people who look to Jesus as their shepherd – will survive. The church is eternal and indestructible. The gates of death will not prevail against it. GAFCON will not prevail against it. On the other side of whatever dark valley we might be called to walk through there will be green pastures and still waters. There will be feasting and anointing. And always, there will be God’s border collies, goodness and mercy, tracking us down, rounding us up and keeping us on the path of life.
Rev Kathy Hammer's Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter
Rev Pam Hynd's sermon for Easter 2
Grateful, excited crowds gathered outside Jerusalem to welcome their new leader with praises and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been removed from Israel. The new leader cleansed the temple and city and strengthened Jerusalem’s fortifications. He then placed his sons in positions of authority so they would be ready to reign after him and begin a dynasty that would last 100 years. The year was 142 BC and the leader was Simon Maccabeus. You can read about him in the book of 1 Maccabees. Would Jesus be any different from all the others who have trodden the well-worn path from revolutionary to saviour to dictator to executioner?
Rev Pam Hynd's sermon for Lent 5 (audio only)
Do you remember when people used to ridicule changes in our language around disability? There was resistance to using word words like vision impaired instead of blind. Resistance to talking about people living with impaired vision instead of “the blind”? Do you remember such signs of respect being labeled as "politically correct" or "woke"? Ours is not the only culture to resist shoring respect to people who are seen as lesser and other. In this story at the centre of John's Gospel we find a man living with severe vision impairment and: 1. We see Jesus' disciples talking about him in front of him, as though he were an object rather than a person. 2. We see neighbours controlling his movement as though his disability placed him under their authority. 3. And we see religious leaders trying to co-opt him for their own cause. Jesus is not the one who turns all this around. The man who has lived all his life with a disability is the hero of this story!
Jesus was thirsty So he offered living water To a woman Who was desperate for a better world
It is everyone's favourite verse with good reason. John 3:16