4. Voices in the Garden Genesis 3
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Genesis 2011
{podcast id=179}
4. Voices in the Garden Genesis 3
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on 29 May 2011
Bible readings: Genesis 3.1-24; Psalm 139.1-12; Revealtion 12.1-17; Luke 4.1-13
Humans becoming the ones who decide good and evil; judgments and promises of blessing and the fulfilment in the death of Christ; and the message for the nations of life instead of death
A church full of mandarins 29 May 11
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
A church full of mandarins
I have just been eating a couple of mandarins given to us by our local mandarin grower whose wife told me that this particular mandarin tree only produced fruit every two years until recently. Until, that is, her husband, the mandarin grower, got to it with a pruning saw and cut it right back – to almost nothing. Since then it has been fruiting with enthusiasm – as an energetic mandarin tree should.
After meditating on these two mandarins, I wondered whether that would work with churches. But churches are not really like inanimate fruit trees, are they? Although Jesus did think his bunch of disciples was like the branches of a grape vine – that is similar isn’t it?
And he talked about cutting back the vine. Although he said there were two different kinds of cutting. The branches that produced no fruit were removed by his Father and burnt in the fire. The ones that did bear fruit were pruned so they could produce more.
A bit radical don’t you think?
What is marriage? 22 May 11
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
What is marriage?
“Mawwidge,” said the Very Impressive Clergyman in that great Romance about True Love, The Princess Bride, “Mawwidge, that bwessed state, that dweam wiffin a dweam ...” That is one view, although not one that the Evil Prince agreed with.
What about this: “’marriage’ means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.” Not very romantic, but from the Australian Marriage Act 1961. Although it forms the basis of all legal marriages conducted in Australia in the last 50 years this idea has been under revision for some time.
Eulogies 15 May 11
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Eulogies
As I write this I am preparing a eulogy for my father. I don’t like the term eulogy, although it has a good ancestry (Paul uses it in 2 Cor 1, and Ephesians 1 and so does Peter in 1 Peter 1). It sometimes sounds like whitewashing, especially at funerals. Sometimes they are just opportunities to talk about ourselves (I have heard some terrible ones).
But most of us want to say something about a friend or father who has died. Of course there are far too many things that could be said, and many that probably should not be said. Many are anecdotes, memories, recollections, views from different angles. In the same family people have different memories and views – sometimes radically different.
So what to say? And who to say it to?
In the Beginning: Studies in Genesis 2011
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Reading Guides to Bible Books
In the Beginning: Studies in Genesis
These studies are meant to help us read and understand better the book of Genesis.
| "In the beginning" is available as a downloadable pdf file, ready to be printed as a small booklet. Click here to view, right click to save to your computer |
It is difficult to hear Genesis speak to us in its own right because there are many other voices shouting at us or at Genesis, demanding to be heard, demanding to answer questions that are not the concern of Genesis, and wanting to set their own agendas for our reading of the book.
Some of these voices are our own of course. Genesis has been caught up in debates about the origins of the universe and we want to have a clear idea what views we should have in the debate. However the debates about science and origins can hijack our reading of Genesis so that the book only becomes a source of ammunition in the debate.
Comfort Jams 8 May 11
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Comfort Jams
We are about to read again the stories of Abraham and his family. Old “Father Abraham” whose family had such a chequered history. Those of us with chequered families will be able to identify with (and take heart from) Abraham’s tribes.
We in our church family will also find lots of points of connection with Abraham and his kids. The stories in Genesis start wonderfully but end dismally – in captivity. But the beginning of stories often shows the ending. That’s the case in Genesis, although the end takes a long time in coming. In the middle there are many struggles, tragedies, acts of faith and disobedience, and over it all is a somewhat frustrated God.
Why did Jesus die? Good Friday 2011
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Why did Jesus die?
The simple answer is, “Because of death.” Why should there be death in the first place? How come if God created everything, he made things to die? Of course he didn’t. He made them so they could live with him forever.
But something went wrong with the humans he made. To tell the truth, the humans went wrong. They had a difference of opinion with God as to who was the boss – who got to say how things should be. They tried to have a kind of coup, a takeover, a rebellion, you could say. The only trouble is they weren’t capable of running the world like God. Certainly not capable of living like God – you know, always just, fair, good, loving, caring ...
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