Recent 2CH Talks
Alan Best - Sunday 19 February 2012
A few years ago I was hiking in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney. It was spring, and at that time, there were many wild flowers. As I walked ahead of one of my fellow hikers, I turned a corner in the track and there at my feet was a patch of flannel flowers. I commented, “Look at those, aren’t they beautiful.” My friend replied, “Yes, they’re great, but look up!” When I lifted my head, I saw that the hillside in front of me was completely covered with flowers. I had been so busy looking down at my feet as I walked, that I had seen only a few flowers – but I was surrounded by thousands of them.
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 12 February 2012
I guess if you or I were born into a life of great opulence, beauty, wealth, and privilege, and always lived in such spectacular circumstances, we might well take for granted, and consider commonplace, what others, less fortunate, would see as quite exceptional. It would not be the case that we allowed “familiarity to breed” actual “contempt”, for the word “contempt” tends to carry a negative connotation, which might not be true for us; we might not actually despise our very good fortune. Rather, it might be more a case of familiarity breeding familiarity and, as a consequence, lead us to lose an appreciation of just how privileged we are.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 5 February 2012
One of the sadder things about modern life, especially in our cities, is our unwillingness to get involved. Perhaps we have an elderly neighbour we haven’t seen for some time, but in the busyness of life we keep putting off knocking on their door to see if they’re OK. We see some poor person in trouble of one kind or another, but we’re more likely to keep walking or driving than turn aside to see if they need help. Perhaps we’ve heard stories about people who by stopping to help have endangered themselves - and that’s a risk we’d rather not take. So through fear, or busyness with our own concerns, or the sheer pace of modern life, any stirrings of compassion we might feel are easily silenced.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 29 January 2012
Here’s an interesting question: Do we dare to trust God? It takes a while before we can fully trust someone. First we want to observe them over a period of time to find out if they’re trustworthy. We watch whether they keep their promises and truly care about us. But do we dare to trust God when we can’t see him? How do we know if he’s reliable? What do we do if we obey what God commands, and believe his promises, but then it seems that God’s not keeping those promises? What if we follow God’s ways then find that life seems to be falling apart? Can we still trust God? Let’s explore that question this morning by considering a fascinating story from the Bible.
Michael Jensen - Sunday 22 January 2012
In 1990 scientist Richard Dawkins wrote a book called The Selfish Gene. His book was about genes and evolution - but I think the title is catchy for another reason: it pretty much sums up how deeply embedded in the human soul stinginess is. Self-interest is the only kind of interest we pay. Greed springs eternal in the human breast. There is a meanness within. Generosity is profoundly unnatural...
The genius of capitalism is that of course it understands this. Whenever communism has been tried - the idea being that you had to share everything with everybody - it has never worked. We humans much prefer the possibility of having more than others. And we hate to think of people getting things when they haven’t earned them. Make the dole bludgers work, we say. Australia can be a very ungenerous place. We hate to think of sharing Australia too widely with others, unless they pay for it of course. We don’t want people to think they can get something for nothing, do we?
Steve Cooper - Sunday 22 January 2012
Good morning! Here’s an interesting question: Do we dare to trust God? It takes a while before we can fully trust someone. First we want to observe them over a period of time to find out if they’re trustworthy. We watch whether they keep their promises and truly care about us. But do we dare to trust God when we can’t see him? How do we know if he’s reliable? What do we do if we obey what God commands, and believe his promises, but then it seems that God’s not keeping those promises? What if we follow God’s ways then find that life seems to be falling apart? Can we still trust God? Let’s explore that question this morning by considering a fascinating story from the Bible. It’s the story of an unnamed woman – she’s simply called the widow of Zarephath. She had to wrestle with this very question: ‘Dare we trust God?’
Leo Douma - Sunday 15 January 2012
When you read through a list of the most commonly asked questions about Christianity one is “Aren’t all Christians hypocrites?” Actually it is more of an accusation than a question. It’s the most common reason people give for not wanting to have more to do with Christianity. It may well be that the question about hypocrisy is asked because of what has happened to a person. May be a person grew up in a home where the father was very religious at church but at home has was abusing his children. Perhaps a person has simply read enough news papers to be very wary of priests, considering the number accused of sexual abuse. Perhaps a person in the past went to church, but was terribly hurt by the arrogance and insensitivity of the minister. May be it was the betrayal of trust by a church friend. You may well have your own stories of why you think Christians are hypocrites.
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 8 January 2012
Perhaps the most defining and fundamental assertion of the Bible is that God is the Creator of all that is. You and I live in his creation. Genesis opens with the majestic words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The Psalms repeat the theme: “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof”. Paul makes the same claim before his cultured audience in Athens: “The God who made the world and all things in it … He is Lord of heaven and earth … He … gives to all people life and breath and all things.” The great Creeds of the Christian Church affirm that, “We believe in God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth”. Now, Genesis’ claim that God is the Creator is regularly the focus for debates about God’s existence, but this morning that’s not my interest. Rather, I want to think with you, not about apologetics – reasoning for the existence of God - but about ethics - about living, about what it might mean for our daily lives to say, “This is God’s world. He made it.”
Steve Cooper - Sunday 1 January 2012
Good morning, and Happy New Year! I wonder if you’ve made any New Year’s resolutions? Perhaps like me you find it hard to keep some of them. Many of us make plans to lose weight and get more exercise, but within a week or so those resolutions become hard to sustain! For me, the New Year always gives me more energy for the year ahead. After the rush and tiredness of the Christmas season, it’s great to enjoy some time off, relaxing with family and friends. There’s a sense of the past year gone, and the fresh possibilities of a clean slate to write on.
Karl Faase - Sunday 25 December 2011
Christmas is a great time of year - celebrations, gatherings, Christmas family lunches, church services – good feeling in the community. Yet we struggle to experience these at Christmas, so much happening, we feel living out peace, joy and love is a struggle.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 18 December 2011
At this point of the year, just a week before Christmas, very few of us have the leisure to contemplate any questions other than how many presents we still have to buy, how to prepare for an influx of visitors, where to put all the food, and how on earth we’re going to fit in all we have to do, especially if we’re to be ready for holiday travel as well. It hardly seems the best time for contemplating the big questions, which rise up to confront us.
David Kerr - Sunday 11 December 2011
Have you ever had the thrill and the promise of a new beginning? I’ve been so relieved and grateful on many occasions to have had a second chance. I think we all welcome the possibility of a new beginning. I heard about the Police in the USA who had stopped a teen-age girl in Idaho, after complaints that a car had been seen going around her neighborhood in reverse for some time. The girl told police that her parents had let her use the car, but she had put too much mileage on it. "I was just trying to unwind some of it," she said. I think we would all like to unwind parts of our lives. Is that true for you?
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 4 December 2011
Years ago Dr. Paul White, affectionately known as ‘The Jungle Doctor’ because of his engaging series of tales from Africa, had a list; it was his BWW list. Keen to nurture and develop younger people as they matured he kept his list of ‘Bods Worth Watching’. He would do whatever he could to help them develop their full potential both for their sakes and for the sake of God’s Kingdom. Well, I too have a list. Mine is my PWC list. In my case PWC stands for ‘Prayers Worth Copying’. I find there are prayers that others have used that express better than I can my own desires and aspirations before God. There are also prayers that teach me the things for which I should pray.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 27 November 2011
I enjoy a good story, both in novels and movies. One story I like is Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice. I know as a bloke it’s uncool to say I like Pride and Prejudice, but it’s true! It’s a story about people who are proud and prejudiced. At the end of the story the two main characters, Mr Darcy and Elizabeth, admit their vanity, pride and conceit. It’s a pity it took them so long to realise how proud and prejudiced they were! In my pastoral work I see many tragic examples of people who are proud and prejudiced. They don’t take the time to examine their own hearts and inner worlds to see the pride lurking there. To be honest, there are many times when I’m aware of pride motivating my attitudes and conduct, and I find it difficult to be open about it.
Karl Faase - Sunday 20 November 2011
I want to ask you if you think you’re good at seeing what’s new? Mostly we think we know what the future is going to be like but we struggle to see it. Change is always a part of life; like the quote “if you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less” but the question is; will we see the new? The prophet Isaiah wrote about what was going to be new to the people in exile and also that in the future the person of Jesus would come and Isaiah writes; “See, I’m doing a new thing, it springs up but you do not perceive it”. The new thing that Isaiah was talking about was actually the person of Jesus and what we know of Jesus is that people missed Him and we often miss the new.
Bob Smith - Sunday 13 November 2011
One of the most powerful images of Ground Zero – the site of the World Trade Towers destroyed on 9/11 – is that of The Ground Zero Cross. Frank Silecchia, a rescue worker, was the first to see it. He found a Catholic Priest, Father Brian Jordan, and said: ‘Father, do you want to see God’s house; look over there.’
The priest and a group of other rescue workers followed Frank to a six metre cross made of two steel supporting beams standing upright in the midst of the rubble. There, amidst the ruins of what had been the very symbol of economic power, stood the cross, the symbol of faith. It is now part of the National Memorial and Museum to 9/11.
David Kerr - Sunday 6 November 2011
Good morning. Let me introduce myself. My name is Benjamin. You can call me Ben though ... most of my friends do. I remember when I didn’t have any friends. I was a leper. My days were numbered. I lived in the time when Jesus walked the earth. Things were pretty rough for lepers then. Not like now. If a doctor finds leprosy in someone today, early enough, a tablet or two soon fixes the problem. But there’re some people in Sydney, and in various parts of the world, that have diseases like leprosy. They have a pretty rough time. They feel just like I did before Jesus healed me. Do you want to hear my story?
Steve Cooper - Sunday 30 October 2011
Good morning! This morning let’s reflect on a theme that’s relevant to every one of us. The subject is health and sickness. We all want to be healthy, but the reality is that we become sick from time to time. Some people live with health issues all their lives. As we all grow older, we all have to come to terms with increasing weakness, frailty, and eventually, death. For a Christian, we know that God has the power to heal us and remove our sickness if he chooses to. We read in the Bible of miraculous healings, where sick people were made well. Jesus healed sick people, and so did his apostles.
Graeme Best - Sunday 23 October 2011
Good morning. Last time I was speaking with you I shared with you some thoughts on our role as Christians concerning the environment. I pointed out that we as people were put onto this earth to be rulers over the rest of God’s creation. But not just rulers, we are to be stewards, carers for the world that God has given us. However, instead of acting as carers .. humankind has so often acted more like pirates, taking what they want as they please. Leaving a mess behind. Treating the environment with carelessness and a lack of respect. Polluting, abusing, over-farming, killing off species, taking far more than what is sustainable.
Graeme Best - Sunday 16 October 2011
Good morning. Well, whether it be pollution - or climate change – or the carbon tax, it is true to say, the environment is a very important issue in Australia at present. We regularly witness the arguments between those who want to protect the environment, in some cases at any cost, and those who want to use our natural resources .. those who are often accused of putting people and profits ahead of the environment, again in some cases, at any cost. It is fair to say, there is a tension, a divide in our community over environmental issues. And everyone has their own ideas.
Graham Agnew - Sunday 9 October 2011
It was one of the biggest Church scandals of my lifetime: sex…lies…video? (I’m not sure) –but there was certainly money involved: A LOT OF MONEY! And the Minister at the centre of the scandal was originally sentenced to 45 years imprisonment, although he only served about 8 years in the end. I’m referring to the rise and fall of Jim Bakker, the famous tele-Evangelist who fell from grace in the late 80’s. Following his release from prison in the early 90’s, Jim Bakker wrote a book, the title of which is quite striking. Simply: “I Was Wrong”. What a contrast to the sort of books normally written by notorious criminals, who do everything possible to justify their actions and rationalise their misdemeanours.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 2 October 2011
Many people these days are living longer than folk used to live. Not long ago most Australians died before they were 80, but now a lot of people live into their 80s and beyond. There are all kinds of reasons for this, including advances in medical care. One result of longer lives is that many older people have to live with the frailties and aches and pains of old age. It’s hard, after a lifetime of good health, to suffer from increasing weakness and vulnerability. As a pastor I often visit people in retirement villages and nursing homes. I meet many who find the challenges of being an older person to be discouraging and daunting. I often ask myself the question: ‘Can an older person flourish and thrive?’
Michael Jensen - Sunday 25 September 2011
We all like humility, but it is a rare thing to find. As one writer put it, “The trouble with humility is, you can’t brag about it”. Humility is a wonderfully attractive and pleasant quality - for other people to have. In the seventeenth century John Selden said “Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear.” When we are committed to success and beauty as we are as a society, then it is inevitable that we will celebrate arrogance and boasting rather than humility. Of course, you musn’t APPEAR to lack humility - everyone knows that that is a terrible mistake in Australia. But we become very good at promoting ourselves and ensuring that our good points are shown to everybody as much as possible.
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 18 September 2011
“Does Jesus Drive a School Bus?” What a question, but it is a chapter heading in Dr. Diane Komp’s little book, “A Window to Heaven”. If you want to get a lump in your throat but have your faith inspired, read her book. It’s subtitled, “When Children See Life in Death”. In 1992, when the book was published, Komp was Professor of Paediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine, and Attending Physician at the Yale-New Haven Hospital. Her chosen speciality was paediatric oncology – children suffering from cancer. Dr. Paul Brand writing the Foreword to her book said: “Dr. Komp has chosen to specialize in paediatric oncology, which means that, however well she does her job, a high proportion of her patients are going to be little children who will die of cancer.” She confesses that her experiences brought her from being “agnostic and atheist” to belief in God and a recognition of the reality of his love.
Bob Smith - Sunday 11 September 2011
There’s a wonderful line in one of Yeats’ poems that says. ‘Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.’ I used to remind myself of these words when my daughters were in their teens and were full of wonderful ideas that didn’t fit with the sensible plans I had for them. Most people in the second half of life think that dreams belong to youth and as we grow older we lose our capacity for them. But we never lose it completely.
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 4 September 2011
There’s a fascinating story in the sixth chapter of the second book of Kings about the King of Aram sending troops to capture Elisha. During the night, the armed company surrounded the city where the prophet was staying. Early the next morning Elisha’s young servant came out, and seeing the enemy forces surrounding them, dissolved in fear at the prospect of what might lie in store for them. The prophet’s response to his servant’s anxiety was one of reassurance: “Fear not”, he said, “for those who are with us are more than those who are with them”: which, understandably, might not have been the easiest thing in the world for the young man to take on board, seeing the fearsome array that circled the town. But as it happened, Elisha was, as they say, “On the money”.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 28 August 2011
More than two hundred years ago, the American Declaration of Independence stated that one of the inalienable rights of humankind is the pursuit of happiness. I once heard a comment on those words that sticks in my mind - that since they were penned there’s been a shift in what they mean - that for the founding fathers the pursuit of happiness was not so much about an individual’s right to feel good about themselves. It was more about a state of well-being in society as a whole - a kind of common good. Since the Declaration didn’t define what was meant by the pursuit of happiness, it’s not surprising there’s been a shift in its meaning.
Karl Faase - Sunday 21 August 2011
Are you falling asleep? Now you’re probably thinking; it’s 7:30 in the morning, I’ve only just woken up, I am feeling a little sleepy. But I don’t mean physically falling asleep, I don’t mean slothfulness or consciousness, I’m actually asking are you asleep in life? And I want to say that being asleep in life is unconscious and uncontested acceptance. Unconscious and uncontested acceptance of all that goes on around you. Norman Cousins, an author from America wrote this; “Death is not the greatest loss in life, the greatest loss is what dies within us while we live”. And there is plenty that can die within in us while we live in unconscious and uncontested acceptance of all that happens around us.
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 14 August 2011
Good morning and thank you for listening again. A simple question once asked of Jesus by one of his disciples resulted in an answer that, in all probability, has been repeated around the world more than any other words. Jesus’ disciples had observed him at prayer, and one said, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples”. The answer to that request has been echoed down the centuries in what we know as The Lord’s Prayer. Luke, in his account of this incident in Chapter 11 of his Gospel, not only gives us the words that Jesus gave either as an actual prayer, or as an outline for prayer, but also includes a story Jesus told to encourage us in our praying. Let’s think a little more about both the prayer and the story.
Alan Best - Sunday 7 August 2011
Good morning. In the main street of Williams, Arizona, USA, there is a striking mural, with the motto, Freedom Is Not Free. This is not a new expression and at least four songs were published with this title, or variations of it, as far back as 1965. In 1981, Commander Kelly Strong of the US Coast Guard wrote a poem with the same title. Its opening stanzas read like this:
I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze;
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease...
Steve Cooper - Sunday 31 July 2011
Good morning! Helen Keller once observed that ‘life is either a daring adventure or nothing.’ I wonder, though, whether you think of the Christian life as ‘a daring adventure’? For many people the Christian life seems like a dull, adventure-less routine. Sadly, if that’s our view, we won’t be very enthusiastic about living as a Christian. When I was young I thought of the Christian life in terms of duties and activities – such as attending church, learning about the Bible, praying to God, and treating other people with respect and love. These things are good, but they did not excite me a great deal! For me the Christian life was just one part of several strands in my life. What changed everything for me was coming to a fuller understanding at the age of 18.
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 24 July 2011
Dostoyevsky lived and wrote in his native Russia during the 19th century. Some consider him to be one of the great psychologists in world literature. In 1849, as a young man, he was, along with others, imprisoned and sentenced to death by Tsar Nicholas I for what were considered to be politically dangerous views. A mock execution before a firing squad was staged, but at the last moment the condemned men were spared and sent off to prison in Siberia. The experience of facing death, and the rigours of imprisonment in extremely harsh conditions, brought about something of a conversion which greatly strengthened his personal faith and his commitment to the Faith of the Orthodox Church. His ‘onion’ is an element in one of his great stories.
Karl Faase - Sunday 17 July 2011
If I asked you to think about Christians and what characteristic comes to mind, I’m guessing that it isn’t joy, but it ought to be; the bible is actually full of joy. Consider these verses; Psalm 100 “Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth”, “worship the Lord with gladness, come before him with joyful songs”. Jesus says (John 15:11), “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you, and your joy complete”. And even in Philippians 4, which I’ll refer to later, “rejoice in the Lord always, I say it again, rejoice”. On the basis of those verses, joy ought to be a key characteristic that comes to your mind when we think about Christian’s, but that’s not is often the case. We’re going to look this today, how we can find joy, and how we can live joyful lives.
Michael Jensen - Sunday 10 July 2011
There seems to be less and less time these days. Time is something we now manage, or share, or flex. (But hopefully not do). It is more important to save time than to spend it, and loathsome to waste it. It is painful to have to kill time. Time is money. Because of time’s rarity, we are forced to offer each other of quality time because we have no quantity of it left to give. We live in the great age of the time-saving device: the microwave, the word processor, the elevator, the dishwasher, the vacuum cleaner, the automobile, the long-haul passenger aircraft, 256Mb of RAM. Instant coffee. Fast food. And yet the microwave, for example, saves us just four minutes a day. Many supposed time-savers come with their own time-traps: the airport delay, the baffling computer malfunction, or eternal traffic. We sleep less, work longer, commute further. Where did all the time go?
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 3 July 2011
The celebrated German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonheoffer once wrote, “For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened and oppressed with besetting concerns for the day’s work. At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it. All the darkness and distraction of the dreams of the night retreat before the clear light of Jesus Christ and his wakening Word.” As lovers of God and followers of the Lord Jesus he is offering us both a negative and a positive challenge. The negative is not to allow the concerns for the coming day to be the first things that occupy our thoughts. The positive is the opportunity to meet first with the Lord who has made our day and to allow the “clear light of Jesus Christ and his wakening Word” to refresh us and prepare us for all that our day may bring.
Graham Agnew - Sunday 26 June 2011
Nobody would have thought it strange when a 34-year-old monk nailed some papers to the door of his local church. In that town, at that time churches were the focal point of activity within the community and church doors served as the public notice board where the minutes of town council meetings may have been found fluttering in the breeze, along with notices posted by enterprising sales people advertising their wares. The church door was also where people would place papers expressing their ideas and opinions – an early form of “Letters to the Editor”. But on this day, as the young monk nailed his thoughts to the door, I wonder if anyone casually watching realised they were witnessing an event that would radically change the course of human history.
Michael Jensen - Sunday 19 June 2011
In 1990 scientist Richard Dawkins wrote a book called The Selfish Gene. His book was about genes and evolution - but I think the title is catchy for another reason: it pretty much sums up how deeply embedded in the human soul stinginess is. Self-interest is the only kind of interest we pay. Greed springs eternal in the human breast. There is a meanness within. Generosity is profoundly unnatural... The genius of capitalism is that of course it understands this. Whenever communism has been tried - the idea being that you had to share everything with everybody - it has never worked. We humans much prefer the possibility of having more than others. And we hate to think of people getting things when they haven’t earned them. Make the dole bludgers work, we say.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 12 June 2011
Many people these days are living longer than folk used to live. Not long ago most Australians died before they were 80, but now a lot of people live into their 80s and beyond. There are all kinds of reasons for this, including advances in medical care. One result of longer lives is that many older people have to live with the frailties and aches and pains of old age. It’s hard, after a lifetime of good health, to suffer from increasing weakness and vulnerability. As a pastor I often visit people in retirement villages and nursing homes. I meet many who find the challenges of being an older person to be discouraging and daunting.
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 5 June 2011
Good morning. I hope you’re feeling alert this morning because I want to play a little game with you. Ready? Here are three letters from the English alphabet. What word or words can you quickly make of them? Here they are: First, D for Delta, then G for Golf, and then, O for Oscar. Got it? D, G, O. If you’re a Scrabble player you’re off and running....
Michael Jensen - Sunday 29 May 2011
We all like humility, but it is a rare thing to find. As one writer put it, “The trouble with humility is, you can’t brag about it”. Humility is a wonderfully attractive and pleasant quality - for other people to have. In the seventeenth century John Selden said “Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear.” When we are committed to success and beauty as we are as a society, then it is inevitable that we will celebrate arrogance and boasting rather than humility. Of course, you musn’t APPEAR to lack humility - everyone knows that that is a terrible mistake in Australia. But we become very good at promoting ourselves and ensuring that our good points are shown to everybody as much as possible. In the end, we quite comfortable labelling arrogance and pride as “self-belief” and we find attractive those who can list their best qualities and achievements.
Warwick de Jersey - Sunday 22 May 2011
Too often Christians are seen to be kill joys… as the fun police who want to stop people enjoying themselves. Too often we don’t do our Heavenly Father any favours because we come at godly living as getting to know a list of rules, and mindlessly applying them, rather than understanding what lies behind our godliness.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 15 May 2011
Good morning. Years ago, I heard something that stuck in my mind. It was about someone chalking on a wall in the New York subway, I love grils. Someone else had written underneath, Not grils, stupid - girls. Someone else had written in response, What about us grils? What about us grils? People for whom the generally-accepted norms - not of spelling, but of life - have not been followed. Perhaps someone who would have loved to marry, but the opportunity never came. The couple who would love to have children, but can’t.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 8 May 2011
Good morning! And, if you’re a mother, a special greeting to you on Mothers’ Day! Today all mothers should feel that they’re valued and appreciated by their families. If you’re a mum I hope that will be the case for you. I’m thinking too of all mother figures, like stepmothers, guardians, or foster mothers. Perhaps you will be given breakfast in bed, or special gifts, or family phoning or visiting with cards. Maybe your children are young, and today they will present you with a roughly drawn card made at school, but it will mean a lot to you!
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 1 May 2011
“Does Jesus Drive a School Bus?” What a question, but it is a chapter heading in Dr. Diane Komp’s little book, “A Window to Heaven”. If you want to get a lump in your throat but have your faith inspired, read her book. It’s subtitled, “When Children See Life in Death”. In 1992, when the book was published, Komp was Professor of Paediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine, and Attending Physician at the Yale-New Haven Hospital. Her chosen speciality was paediatric oncology – children suffering from cancer.
Graham Agnew - Sunday 24 April 2011
Three guys were talking at a barbecue when the conversation strangely came around to the subject of death and dying. “What would you like said at your funeral?” one asked.
The first guy said: “I’d like someone to say, he was a great humanitarian, who did a lot for his community”.
The second guy said: “I’d like it said, he was a wonderful family man who set a great example for us all.”
The third guy paused for a moment and said: “I’d like someone to say, look, he’s moving!”
Philip Jensen - Friday 22 April 2011
Which sentence scares you more: “Christianity is false” or “Christianity is true”? Of course truth itself should never scare you. It’s not truth but lies that cause damage. But sometimes the truth is scary because sometimes the truth is about a threat to your way of life. The truth that a tsunami is coming or that you have cancer are the kinds of messages of truth that arouse deep fear. And so they should, for they are speaking of something that will threaten your way of life, or threaten life itself.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 17 April 2011
Good morning! In a week from tomorrow Australia will be celebrating Anzac Day. We will honour the heroes of conflict and war. This morning I want us to reflect on what a ‘hero’ is. Australia today seems obsessed with sport and entertainment, and the word ‘hero’ is overused. We give excessive money and fame to young men and women just because they can wield a cricket bat, pass a football, or sing in a way that moves people. These people may be disciplined and talented, but not many are really heroes.
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 10 April 2011
There’s one thing about which each of us can be reasonably sure: at some point in our lives we will face suffering. It may be mild or profound, but few, if any, pass through life totally unscathed. You may be listening as a sufferer. You may have been spared the experience thus far, but be aware that suffering can, in an instant, turn your whole world upside down. When it happens it can become a test of any faith in God that we have: some lose faith, others grow stronger.
Bob Smith - Sunday 3 April 2011
There’s a wonderful line in one of Yeats’ poems that says. ‘Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.’ I used to remind myself of these words when my daughters were in their teens and were full of wonderful ideas that didn’t fit with the sensible plans I had for them. Most people in the second half of life think that dreams belong to youth and as we grow older we lose our capacity for them. But we never lose it completely. Deep within us there remains a sense that there is still something more; inner longings that we can’t quite identify and never seem able to satisfy.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 27 March 2011
Accusation and condemnation were heavy in the air one day in the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus was teaching the crowd who’d gathered to hear him, when he was interrupted by a posse of the religious authorities, thrusting in front of him a woman caught in the act of adultery. They reminded Jesus that Moses had commanded such women be stoned to death. What did Jesus say? In the hush that followed, Jesus said nothing. He simply knelt down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
Michael Jensen - Sunday 20 March 2011
Who could object to compassion? You’d think nobody; but it is a cruel and cold-hearted world. The suffering of people on a large scale fails to move us, partly because it is so everyday, so ho-hum. Every evening we have beamed into our lounge rooms some new disaster; and if we were to care in every case, it would kill us! We have compassion fatigue, they say.
David Kerr - Sunday 13 March 2011
You may not realise it, but there’s a strong chance you may have something in common with the great composer Beethoven or England’s great statesman, Winston Churchill, or the actor John Cleese, best known for his role in Fawlty Towers and the Monty Python series. You may share the same road that these significant people took on their journey through life; Oliver Cromwell, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, T H Huxley, John Keats, Vivien Leigh, and Abraham Lincoln. The list goes on.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 6 March 2011
Good morning! Recently my wife and I watched the classic Australian movie Phar Lap. The movie tells the story of the famous race horse that won so many races, including a Melbourne Cup. Phar Lap was enormously strong and determined. The sad part of the movie is that the officials loaded Phar Lap down with weights so the other horses had some chance of catching him. As the weights became heavier, Phar Lap found it hard to bear the strain. He became increasingly tired and weary. The movie made me think about the lives most of us live.
Graham Agnew - Sunday 27 February 2011
It was chilling television, seeing the ease with which little children could be lured into the hands of total strangers. I was watching a current affairs programme where they used hidden camera’s to show the vulnerability of children when not in the direct care of their parents. Invitations from total strangers like: “would you like to come over to the car and hold my puppy?” or “I know your mum and she’s asked me to take you home” – these were enough to see children responding with frightening ease.
Why? Because small children can be so trusting.
Alan Best - Sunday 20 February 2011
Good morning. I was privileged to visit Rio de Janeiro for a conference during the days leading up to the 2010 Football World Cup in South Africa. It was amazing to experience the build-up to the tournament. Wherever we went, there was no escaping the growing excitement in a football-mad city and nation. But the build-up was only a foretaste of what followed. How thrilling it was to be there when the Brazilian team played its first match. Green and gold decorations were everywhere and tens of thousands gathered on Copacabana Beach to watch the match on a huge screen and celebrate together. Businesses were closed in the middle of the afternoon, the streets were deserted and when the home team scored, fireworks erupted across the city.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 13 February 2011
A while back the front-page news in a well-known publication for motorists was headed Twenty Cars That Could Change Your Life. It’s amazing to think a car could have that kind of power. But such a headline fits in with the sort of titles stocking the shelves of the self-improvement sections in our bookshops - with sub-titles like How to Change Your Life in Seven Days. They tap into the dissatisfactions we all feel from time to time with the way our lives are going - that wish that things were different - that we were different.
David Kerr - Sunday 6 February 2011
Hansel and Gretel ventured in to the forest, heaving a trail of breadcrumbs – right idea, wrong marker. How often have you parked your car and not taken sufficient notice of the location and return to conduct a search that severely tested your ability to remain civilized an dignified? It becomes a little more serious, when you’re in a foreign city, and can’t speak the language, and only have a rough visitor’s map as your sole source of help.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 30 January 2011
Good morning! We all need faith and courage to deal with what life throws at us. In our church is a couple who are currently facing a very tough time. The man was diagnosed with brain cancer, and underwent surgery. Since the operation he has been physically weak and slow in recovery. Now the doctor has discovered another cancer on his brain, and they face the ordeal of surgery again. As the pastor of this couple, I sat with them, heard their anxiety, and shed tears with them. They desperately need faith and courage for the hard times ahead.
Graham Agnew - Sunday 23 January 2011
Researchers tell us we spend up to 20 per cent of our entire lives talking! That’s on top of the 1/3 of our time spent sleeping! So, from a Christian perspective it’s reasonable to ask the question: what does the Bible teach about how we should talk?
What does it say about the tone of our conversation…the words we should use and so on? Surprisingly, for something that takes so much of our time, the Bible doesn’t offer that much direct teaching about speech and conversation, but what it does say is fairly direct and compelling.
David Reay - Sunday 16 January 2011
Whenever people gather together to engage in casual conversation, invariably mention will be made about how busy life might be. This applies to stay at home mothers, to retired men, to corporate executives, to tertiary students, and even to children. It seems everyone is busy and they usually complain about it. The question we pose now is whether being busy is something to boast about or whether there ought to be limits to our busyness. No one is advocating a lazy, slothful existence. No one denies the fact that certain times and occasions cause us to be busier than we might like to be. But what about constant busyness?
Graham Best - Sunday 9 January 2011
An atheist – that is a person who believes there is no God – was sitting under a tree one day smugly thinking: “God, I know you don’t exist but if you do exist you must be really stupid. “Look at this huge oak tree. It’s got tiny acorns on it. And look at that large pumpkin carried by such a small pumpkin plant. Now, if I had been you, I’d have created the huge oak tree to carry the big pumpkins and the pumpkin plant to carry the little acorns. That would make a lot more sense.”
Steve Cooper - Sunday 2 January 2011
Good morning, and Happy New Year! I wonder if you’ve made any New Year’s resolutions? Perhaps like me you find it hard to keep some of them. Many of us make plans to lose weight and get more exercise, but within a week or so those resolutions become hard to sustain! For me, the New Year always gives me more energy for the year ahead. After the rush and tiredness of the Christmas season, it’s great to enjoy some time off, relaxing with family and friends. There’s a sense of the past year gone, and the fresh possibilities of a clean slate to write on.
Michael Robinson - Sunday 26 December 2010
At last, Christmas is over – and here we are bright and early on Boxing Day. Well, early any way. Who can be bright the day after Christmas? Most people feel a little flat after the excitement, excesses and running around of Christmas Day. If you are already feeling a little flat, let me make it worse.
Peter Jensen - Christmas Day 2010
I have a marvellous photo of a friend who has just received some really good news, some life-changing, life enhancing news. His face is transformed: he almost looks drunk with excitement; he has been overtaken by a joy spontaneous, and uncontrolled. He has experienced a hope fulfilled and a future assured; he has seen an evil overcome. His face is transformed. Has this ever happened to you?
Michael Jensen - Sunday 19 December 2010
If there’s any one emotional state that is characteristic of our experience of the contemporary world it has to be worry. If we know how to do one thing, it is to be worried. And there’s no shortage of things to be genuinely worried about: we worry about loneliness, about whether we will be able to meet our mortgage repayments, about our health, about our relationships; we worry about our children – and about whether we will be able to keep the safe and how they will turn out.
Bob Smith - Sunday 12 December 2010
Do you remember that wonderful song from the musical South Pacific where Nurse Nellie Forbush looks out across the islands and sees what she thinks are little clouds on the horizon? But Emile, the French planter, tells her they aren’t clouds, they are gunsmoke.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 5 december 2010
Good morning! The most commonly used Christian prayer in the world is the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus gave it to us a model to guide our prayers. Yet too often we mouth the words of the Lord’s Prayer, and don’t reflect on what those words mean. I learned the Lord’s Prayer by heart when I was young boy. I remember standing in line at Primary School Assembly, and reciting the prayer along with all the teachers and students. But as the years went by it faded into the background, and my mind drifted whenever a person up the front led us in reciting the prayer.
David Kerr - Sunday 28 November 2010
A few days after the destruction of the World Trade Centre, a friend of Dr. Stuart Rees, the director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, was on a commercial jet leaving Los Angeles airport en route to Calgary. Just before take off, the pilot announced that the doors were closed, saying: ‘We are all alone. We could be a family. Please turn to the people next to you and introduce yourselves. If during the flight anyone stands up to threaten you, I want all to act together against that person. Terrorism will not be defeated by armies or by the latest computer technology but by caring for one another. Now sit back, relax and enjoy the flight.”
Margaret Hall - Sunday 21 November 2010
The film Casablanca is over sixty years old, but still appeals with its portrayal of the realities of life in the Second World War for people in Occupied France. As was the custom in those days, it was filmed entirely in Hollywood. I remember being surprised to discover that the plane, towards which Ingrid Bergman walks in the closing scenes, was actually a cardboard cut-out of a plane. Well, Hollywood is all about pretending, and that’s O.K. when we’re just being entertained. But in other areas of life we need to know whether something’s real or not.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 14 November 2010
One of the big problems these days is anger. Our pace of life has become so busy, and there are so many pressures on us. Anger seems to lie just under the surface, and for many of us it doesn’t take much to provoke our anger. I spend a fair bit of time with police, since I serve as a volunteer police chaplain. I’ve discovered that much of what the police deal with arises due to anger. A car driver has become angry, leading to an accident. A spouse or parent has become angry, leading to violence or abuse in the home. A teenager is angry with society, leading to break-and-enter stealing.
Leo Douma - Sunday 7 November 2010
When you read through a list of the most commonly asked questions about Christianity one is “Aren’t all Christians hypocrites?” Actually it is more of an accusation than a question. It’s the most common reason people give for not wanting to have more to do with Christianity. It may well be that the question about hypocrisy is asked because of what has happened to you or someone you know.
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 31 October 2010
There’s great dignity in simply being human. We know of no other creature quite like us. We are endowed with so many capacities, capable of some much that is good and sadly just as capable of so much that’s evil and reprehensible. Spectacular as all that undoubtedly is there is something that outstrips all else: we have been created for fellowship with the One who dreamed us up. The call the Bible issues summoning us back to God is a call to a personal relationship with our Maker and Redeemer.
Bob Smith - Sunday 24 October 2010
For most of us, the biggest struggles we have in life come not from outside of us, but from within. We present an image of ourselves that is out of kilter with what we actually feel about ourselves. The result is that we frequently find ourselves bewildered by the angst we feel, that seems to have no connection with the outward reality we present. Coming to terms with this disparity is essential to psychological growth. Understanding what to do about it is essential to spiritual growth.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 17 October 2010
Good morning! In our society it’s easy to invest our time in things that are not central, like achieving in sport, being fit, looking well dressed, earning lots of money, owning lots of impressive possessions. Yet we don’t invest much time or thought on cultivating character. I find personally there are lots of pressures to distract me from growing in maturity of character. For those who follow Jesus, the development of character is a central goal, not one project that may happen on the side.
David Reay - Sunday 10 October 2010
An elderly Chinese philosopher was once approached by a grieving mother who had lost her only son. She wanted his counsel and help to overcome her grief. He replied that he would only be able to help her if she brought a mustard seed from a home where there had never been any sorrow. So the woman went off in search of such a mustard seed and the answer to her problems.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 3 October 2010
I suspect many of us when we were younger had a picture in our minds of how we’d like life to be – a satisfying job, a happy marriage, preferably to someone good-looking, a nice home with some healthy, happy children to fill it. Those who ended up with children now want to see all those good things in their lives. None of us has experienced a perfect life, but we’d still like things to be as close to perfect as possible.
David Kerr - Sunday 26 September 2010
When I wake up of a morning now, I wonder what catastrophic events may have happened overnight, in the space of 7 or 8 small hours. How do you feel when you wake in the morning? Some folk I speak to say their sleeping patterns have changed and they’ve had restless nights. They’re concerned for friends or family travelling overseas. Others are anxious about their financial security with the markets in turmoil.
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 19 September 2010
There are sights and experiences that not even time will allow us to forget. Such was the experience of Elie Wiesel when as a boy entering the death camp at Auschwitz he witnessed the bodies of babies being thrown into a ditch of gigantic flames. In 1960 he wrote: “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night..."
Michael Jensen - Sunday 12 September 2010
What kind of friend are you? And what kind of friends are your friends? What would it look like to be wise in your friendships? It is pretty obvious to most of us how important friends are: if you have good friends you have confidence in your place in the world. Friendship is a basic human need, without which it is almost impossible to survive: even Tom Hanks on Castaway made a friend - Wilson - out of a volleyball.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 5 September 2010
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a courageous Christian leader who was imprisoned in Germany during WWII. Bonhoeffer refused to comply with the demands of the Nazi government, so he was executed. He once said: ‘When Christ calls [people], he bids [them] come and die.’ Here is the essence of what it is to live as a true follower of Jesus. Bonhoeffer didn’t mean that every Christian is called to literal martyrdom, but we’re all called to other forms of dying.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 29 August 2010
I suspect many of us when we were younger had a picture in our minds of how we’d like life to be – a satisfying job, a happy marriage, preferably to someone good-looking, a nice home with some healthy, happy children to fill it. Those who ended up with children now want to see all those good things in their lives. None of us has experienced a perfect life, but we’d still like things to be as close to perfect as possible.
Bob Smith - Sunday 22 August 2010
The highlight of my 33 years service as a chaplain in the Australian Army was the six months I spent as the force assigned chaplain for Operation Anode in the Solomon Islands. A decade ago that small Pacific nation was being torn apart by bitter conflict that had resulted in many deaths and atrocities, and had made the country ungovernable. At the request of what government remained, Australia sent a military force in to restore order.
John Edmondstond - Sunday 15 August 2010
Good morning. I want you to think about a statement I read recently. “Jesus lived his life in italics”. Why do we use italics? For emphasis! No one else like him has ever existed.He was mild and gentle, tough but tender. His life was a perfect blend of grace and gristle. Yes, he was mild and gentle, but, when necessary, forcefulness pushed through his humility.
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 25 July 2010
In 1956, five young American missionaries died in the jungles of Eastern Ecuador. They’d planned to share the message of Jesus with a previously unreached tribe. But, sadly, misunderstanding their intentions, the tribesmen speared them to death. Jim Elliot was one of those five. His young wife Elisabeth and their small daughter later returned to that same tribe and lived and worked amongst them.
Michael Jensen - Sunday 18 July 2010
It took a team of expert philologists aided by a bizarre crew of amateur crackpots sixty-eight years to compile the Oxford English Dictionary, from 1860 to 1928. It has over half a million entries, and needs the best part of a standard sized book case to contain its 22 or so volumes. The word "set" alone takes 37 pages to explain.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 11 July 2010
Good morning! Recently I chuckled at an article called ‘Perks of reaching 50 or being over 60 and heading towards 70!’ Here are some of the (so-called) perks: ‘People call you at 9pm and ask: Did I wake you?’ and ‘Your supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size!’ and ‘Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can’t remember them either!’
David Kerr - Sunday 4 July 2010
You may not realise it, but there’s a strong chance you may have something in common with the great composer Beethoven or England’s great statesman, Winston Churchill, or the actor John Cleese, best known for his role in Fawlty Towers and the Monty Python series. You may share the same road that these significant people took on their journey through life; Oliver Cromwell, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, T H Huxley, John Keats, Vivien Leigh, and Abraham Lincoln. The list goes on.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 27 June 2010
There are three things we need if we’re to keep going and come through as we’re meant to. We find them again and again in the Bible, in the letters written to people who’d chosen to believe the great news they’d heard about Jesus of Nazareth - that he was God in human form, that he’d lived as God meant us to, endured death as we have to, and overcome its power. Three things then defined those people.
Michael Jensen - Sunday 20 June 2010
What kind of friend are you? And what kind of friends are your friends? What would it look like to be wise in your friendships? It is pretty obvious to most of us how important friends are: if you have good friends you have confidence in your place in the world. Friendship is a basic human need, without which it is almost impossible to survive: even Tom Hanks on Castaway made a friend - Wilson - out of a volleyball.
Bob Smith - Sunday 13 June 2010
For most of us, the biggest struggles we have in life come not from outside of us, but from within. We present an image of ourselves that is out of kilter with what we actually feel about ourselves. The result is that we frequently find ourselves bewildered by the angst we feel, that seems to have no connection with the outward reality we present. Coming to terms with this disparity is essential to psychological growth. Understanding what to do about it is essential to spiritual growth.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 6 June 2010
Life these days is fairly hectic for most of us. I think of one typical day recently when I got out of bed with a determination to do one project this day – but after an unexpected phone call, the arrival of some emails that demanded time for reply, and people asking me to do things I hadn’t planned for, it was almost lunch time before I got around to thinking about that project I’d planned! We’re so busy being busy, that we don’t take time to ponder the purpose of life.
David Kerr - Sunday 30 May 2010
What will the world be like in a weeks time, a month or a year? It may not be very different from the way it is now…..but then again it may. We live in uncertain times. Someone asked me the other day, “Do you think we’re nearing the end of the world?” That’s a good question. What do you think? There are some people who point to the problems in the world at this time and say, “Yes, this is the sign of the times…..the beginning of the end.”
Margaret Hall - Sunday 23 May 2010
In our comfortable society we have many good options for finding a drink when we’re thirsty. We turn on our taps many times a day without thinking that in most places in the world, as in most periods of history, clean drinking water on tap is a luxury scarcely to be imagined. But we do have thirsts that aren’t so easily satisfied.
Michael Jensen - Sunday 16 May 2010
What is the secret of life? What is the secret of living the prosperous, healthy and fulfilled life? What is the key to maximizing your potential as a human being? When life is so complicated that it feels like an overgrown jungle, how can you cut a clear path through? Answering this question is big business. The self-help section of any book store is overflowing with books about how to live.
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 9 May 2010
Thank you for allowing me to share a few moments with you this morning. My name is Harry Goodhew. About three years ago my wife and I, along with one of our daughters, took a sentimental journey to the wild and wind-swept islands of the Outer Hebrides.
David Kerr - Sunday 2 May 2010
A few days after the destruction of the World Trade Centre, a friend of Dr. Stuart Rees, the director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney was on a Commercial jet leaving Los Angeles airport en route to Calgary. Just before take off, the pilot announced that the doors were closed, saying: ‘We are all alone. We could be a family. Please turn to the people next to you and introduce yourselves..."
Richard Quadrio - Sunday 25 April 2010
Anzac Day is a day to remember. A day when we as a nation stop to give thanks for the bravery and service of previous generations. A day when many families personally remember the impact of war. For me, with a grandfather who fought on western front on WWI, with another grandfather who was in the merchant navy who twice survived having his ship sunk, and a father in law who helped hold back the Japanese advancement in PNG – it is a very personal day to remember.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 18 April 2010
If you had to come up with one word to describe your life, what would it be? My life is wonderful?.....ordinary?.....disappointing?.....difficult? Someone said to me once, “My life is pointless.” I don’t remember how I responded, but of course there’s a point to every life. We may not always see it clearly if we’re asking, “Is my life successful?” - and thinking of the way success is usually measured - good job, nice home, happy marriage, great kids, lots of friends. Better questions to ask might be the bigger questions: What am I for? Where am I heading? Who am I about -- myself, or the One who’s really at the centre of the universe?
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 11 April 2010
I listened recently to an interview with a wonderful Australian woman. She has been a great benefactress of numerous worthy causes over many years. Her interviewer, seeking to probe her motivation for doing so much good over so many years, asked if she had a faith in God. Her reply was not an uncommon response to such a question. She said she thought there was perhaps "something" there behind it all, but she did not believe in a personal God.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 4 April 2010
What’s the greatest word that’s ever been spoken? Countless words have been uttered in so many centuries in so many languages. There have been many famous speeches that have moved millions and important announcements that have changed the world. What about the countless intimate conversations that have altered the course of history? Is it possible to identify one word that is the greatest word ever spoken? I believe it is possible. This morning I want us to consider one word recorded in the Bible that was spoken by Jesus as he was about to die on the cross. It’s a word we translate in English with 3 words: ‘It is finished’.
Margaret Hall - Good Friday, 2 April 2010
The last words spoken by someone who’s dying can remind us of the kind of person they were. Take, for example, the words of Oscar Wilde, who took exception to the wallpaper in the room where he lay dying, and said, “One of us has to go.” The words Jesus spoke as he was dying reveal his character. The first words he uttered after the nails had been driven through his hands and feet were a cry to God the Father for all those who were in any way responsible for his being there: “Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing.”
Alan Best - Sunday 28 March 2010
Good morning. In recent weeks I have been preparing for some coming events and it has been thoroughly enjoyable. There is something special about making plans and looking forward to their implementation. Then after a period of expectation, we hope to experience the satisfaction and joy of seeing them fulfilled. In a previous message, we considered some of the things people face when they look back, especially at the start of a new year or on important days such as birthdays or anniversaries. We saw that looking back can be a either a positive or a negative experience for a variety of reasons. And this morning we will discover that this is also true when people look forward.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 21 March 2010
When Henry Lawson was 30 years old he wrote a poem entitled ‘The Men We Might Have Been.’ It’s a sad and wistful poem, where Lawson laments his failures to be all that he could have been. He is haunted by what he describes as ‘the ache of remorse or weak regret.’ It’s an honest description of Lawson’s own struggle with a guilty conscience. Most people struggle with some form of a guilty conscience. For some, major failures cause huge amounts of guilt. Other people don’t think much about their guilt, but it’s there, lingering below the surface.
Harry Goodhew - Sunday 14 March 2010
I’m a city boy - born and bred. But some 40 years ago I went and did a stint in the outback as a bush padre. That was quite a shift – being translated from the order and close settlement of suburban life to which I had always been accustomed, out to the long treeless miles of the Nullabor Plains. I did return to work in the city when I finished my term ‘in the outback’ but I’ve never forgotten some of the lessons, impressions, and experiences gained from those days. One in particular sticks in my memory and I would love to share it with you in the few moments we have together this morning.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 7 March 2010
There’s an episode of the nineties’ television sitcom Seinfeld where George is complaining that nothing good ever happens to him. He says, “God wouldn’t let it happen.” His friend Jerry says, “I thought you didn’t believe in God.”
“I do for the bad things,” says George. If we’re honest we can all relate to that. When things are going well, we don’t necessarily attribute that to God. We might even take credit ourselves for the fact they’re going well. We might think it’s only right they should go well - it’s what we deserve.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 28 February 2010
Good morning! An advertisement once appeared in a London newspaper. It was placed by the famous explorer, Sir Earnest Shackleton. He invited volunteers to join his team which would cross the Antarctic. Here’s how the ad was worded: Men wanted: for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.’ Now, who would answer such an ad? Shackleton was flooded with applications, almost 5,000 men.
Bob Smith - Sunday 21 February 2010
Do you remember what it was like when you were a teenager always trying to present the right image to your peers and what a burden it was to live like that. The sad thing is that many of us have never grown out of it. Some years ago, the psychologist Eric Berne wrote a bestseller about this very thing entitled Games People Play. He observed that many of us unconsciously play psychological games with each other in order to present an image of ourselves that we feel will make us more acceptable to others.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 14 February 2010
Good morning! I wonder if you’ve heard the story of the little boy who couldn’t sleep. He was alone in his room, surrounded by darkness, and he was scared. When he called out to his mom, she said: ‘Don’t worry about the dark, God is with you’. She heard his trembling reply: ‘But God doesn’t have a face like you do!’
We all frequently go though times when we feel insecure. The darkness seems to close around us. We may have faith that God knows our situation, that he’s present with us, but we still struggle with our inadequacy.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 7 February 2010
Good morning! Simon and Garfunkel commenced their famous song ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters’ with the words: ‘When you’re weary, feeling small’. Maybe that’s one reason for the song’s popularity. We all go through seasons when we feel weary and discouraged. The song lyrics continue: ‘When times get rough, and friends just can’t be found ... When darkness comes, and pain is all around’.
Today let’s talk about this feeling of weariness.
Michael Jensen - Sunday 31 January 2010
Is love is the only god we have left in our disenchanted and agnostic age? If people are not able to say ‘God is love’, then can we not at least say ‘love is God’? Against the turbulence of modern life, love seems to be the one thing that promises both constancy and fulfilment; it is the one credible transcendental. Love, we feel, is surely stronger than death itself.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 24 January 2010
Good morning! It’s interesting how a person’s early experiences of life shape the issues that become important to them. For me, some difficult times as a teenager raised questions that became very important to me. When I was 16 and 17, two good friends of my own age died. One was my next-door neighbour, who died of an asthma attack. A year later a school friend was severely burnt and died before he reached hospital. These two deaths were quite a shock. I had never been so close to death before.
Alan Best - Sunday 17 January 2010
Good morning. I was recently planning some upcoming activities and I was struck by how important my diary is to me. I’m sure that nearly all of us have a calendar or diary that we use to help organize our lives and some of us would struggle to function if ours was lost. We often spend quite a lot of time considering possible dates as we plan events, both big and small, and if we are busy people we will also find ourselves looking at the present day to see what appointments we must keep.
John Edmondstone - Sunday 10 January 2010
I’m sure you have those moments when you too think back over your past. Sometimes it brings sadness, sometimes it brings joy. I thought of times that filled me with regret for my mistakes. But then my mind travelled over the period when I became a Christian, which did not mean I stopped making mistakes. I thought of missed opportunities in my youth and later too. And then I began to think of the influences that finally made me come to the most important decision in my life, that changed the direction of my life. I became a Christian. I moved from knowing about Jesus Christ to knowing Him as my personal Saviour.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 3 January 2010
Few of us would deny that the world we live in seems to be seriously out-of-whack. The natural order on which we depend appears to go feral, producing catastrophes which in a flash destroy the lives of many thousands of people. Then there’s the pain and suffering produced by the human will to hurt others, or by human carelessness. All the things that are wrong can blind us to the world’s good order which we wake up to every morning, as well as to the comforts and pleasures we still have to enjoy.
Michael Jensen - Sunday 27 December 2009
If there’s any one emotional state that is characteristic of our experience of the contemporary world it has to be worry. If we know how to do one thing, it is to be worried. And there’s no shortage of things to be genuinely worried about: we worry about loneliness, about whether we will be able to meet our mortgage repayments, about our health, about our relationships; we worry about our children – and about whether we will be able to keep the safe and how they will turn out. We worry about what people will think of us, and about what will become of us.
Richard Quadrio - Friday 25 December 2009
Can you believe that it’s Christmas Day again? Where did that year go? How come when we were kids the year dragged slowly from one Christmas to another – and now they seem to fly by. We no longer take the decorations down- pack them back in the linen cupboard and then it’s time to start all over again. But to be honest my highlight this Christmas is be here with you on 2CH this Christmas Day. I hope you enjoy our special time – a time to sing some great carols and remember the birth of Jesus.
Steve Cooper - Sunday 20 December 2009
In our family we like to keep traditions at Christmas that keep us focussed on the coming of Jesus into the world. We listen to Christmas carols. We attend church, where we hear and see the wonderful story of the nativity. Especially important to me at Christmas time is to read again the accounts of the birth of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Today I want to share with you part of the Matthew’s narrative of Jesus’ birth, and to ask the question: ‘What is the heart of Christmas?’
Bob Smith - Sunday 13 December 2009
Some weeks ago I received the sad news that one of our chaplains, recently returned from a war zone, had lost his adored little grandson in a heart operation that had gone wrong. Coming, as it did, after months of witnessing the sufferings of children in war, the loss of his grandson hit him hard. When I talked to him by telephone he told me about all the times he had prayed for miracles for children who were suffering, but had never seen one of those prayers answered as he’d wanted. But this time, it was too much for him; ‘Why couldn’t God have given me just one win,’ he said.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 6 December 2009
One of my past students was a young man who became a Christian in his first year at high school. In his last year he was made school captain. Somehow he spent less and less time with his Christian friends. He took up with the in-crowd that was into heavy drinking, and appeared to give up his faith.
I came across him a couple of years later and took the opportunity to ask him what had gone wrong. He said he’d made some mistakes, done some bad things, and then was too ashamed to ask God for forgiveness all over again. He thought it was better just to leave it.
Michael Jensen - Sunday 29 November 2009
After consulting the local veterinarian in the Danish town of Kolding, the Police decided to act. They removed from an exhibition a work of art with goldfish as the focal point after an animal rights group complained that the fish were in peril. The creation by artist Marco Evaristti consisted of goldfish swimming inside regular kitchen-blenders. Exhibition visitors could switch on a blender, transforming the content to, well, fish soup.
Bob Smith - Sunday 22 November 2009
While most people remember J.F.K.’s famous words: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”, they may not be aware of some, in my opinion, equally famous words by the younger Kennedy who said: “Some look at the immense problems confronting the world and say, why? But I dream dreams of how it could be and say, why not!”
Graeme Best - Sunday 15 November 2009
Good morning. I’m not sure about you but I don’t know very much about sheep. Not really. I was born and spent the early part of my life in a coal town in the Hunter Valley. Since then I have lived in the suburbs of Sydney and my family didn’t have sheep. And although I have spent time on sheep farms and wrestled a few to the ground over the years, been to the Big Merino... I am certainly no expert on sheep.
Leo Douma - Sunday 8 November 2009
So many of us, in faith have prayed about the health of someone we love, but they are still sick or have even died. We have prayed often about the things we struggle within our marriage, or that child who resists the faith, but nothing has changed. We asked God for a Christian partner, but still we are alone. We have asked God for guidance – what should I do with my life - but me get nothing but silence. I think all of us have struggled with this stuff, and probably still do. How do we respond to unanswered prayer?
Margaret Hall - Sunday 1 November 2009
In our comfortable society we have many good options for finding a drink when we’re thirsty. We turn on our taps many times a day without thinking that in most places in the world, as in most periods of history, clean drinking water on tap is a luxury scarcely to be imagined. But we do have thirsts that aren’t so easily satisfied. We may long for the mistakes we’ve made to be wiped away. We may crave some assurance about what will happen to us when we die. We all want someone to understand us, and love and accept us as we are.
David Reay - Sunday 25 October 2009
Choosing the right people to do the job is not easy. Lots of applicants have glowing references. Lots of them know how to say the right things at an interview. If only we knew what they were really like. If only we knew everything so that we could infallibly make the right choices as to who should be chosen. We don’t have that luxury, so it’s no use complaining. Only God and Jesus can do that sort of thing. See what people are really like, choose just the right people for just the right job.
Chris Witt - Sunday 18 October 2009
Dealing with disappointments is part of life for all of us. No exceptions. They can be large or small, come in all shapes and sizes, and most of them come and go without too much problem. If there’s a movie we’d like to watch and it’s left the theatre we can wait till it’s out on DVD. It’s not all that important. When we’re young our disappointment can be something as simple as not getting invited to a birthday party. But, of course, at that age it can be a big disappointment. As we grow older they change in their perspective.
David Kerr - Sunday 11 October 2009
What will the world be like in a weeks time, a month or a year? It may not be very different from the way it is now - but then again it may. We live in uncertain times. Someone asked me the other day, “Do you think we’re nearing the end of the world?” That’s a good question. What do you think? Within every one of us there is the curious voice that wants to know the answers to the big questions in life. Where have we come from? Where are we going? What is our destiny?
Richard Quadrio - Sunday 4 October 2009
Years ago I worked for a major department store in Sydney – at one time I was the manager of the cookware department of this store in Parramatta. I noticed a product on the shelf and asked what it was called. No one knew and not surprisingly no one had ever sold one. I discovered the mystery item was a Mongolian Steam boat. I found a woman who could cook and demonstrate and before long we were the leading sellers of Mongolian steamboats in the company. When you find your purpose – you find something of rare value.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 27 September 2009
Some years ago now, the British Lions’ rugby team toured Australia, accompanied by a crowd of enthusiastic fans. Being British, they loved to sing, expressing their support with songs like Land of Hope and Glory and Over the sea to Skye. Sometimes they sang that great Welsh prayer for strength: "Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, / Pilgrim through this barren land. / I am weak, but Thou art mighty; / Hold me with Thy powerful hand. / Bread of heaven, bread of heaven / Feed me till I want no more." For some Lions’ supporters it might have expressed their hope for sporting victories and Aussie meat pies. Still, it’s a great hymn.
Bob Smith - Sunday 20 September 2009
At the close of World War II the allies gathered thousands of homeless children into large camps. There they were well fed and cared for but many of them did not sleep well. They seemed restless and afraid. Finally, a psychologist hit on a solution. After the children were put to bed, each received a slice of bread to hold. If they wanted more to eat, more was provided, but this particular slice was not to be eaten—it was just to hold. The result was that the children went peacefully to sleep, subconsciously feeling they would have something to eat tomorrow.
Graeme Best - Sunday 13 September 2009
General George Patton once received a letter from a soldier who had been in the American Third Army, written following completion of active service to thank the General for his efforts, particularly for the care and concern that he had shown to this particular soldier. The general responded to the letter and he wrote, “In 35 years of trying to do the best for my men, you are the first to ever write a letter of thanks.” Perhaps there are few points at which human nature is more lacking, than in the area of gratitude.
John Edmondstone - Sunday 6 September 2009
There’s a philosophy about today that can best be described as the do-your-own thing philosophy. It’s the emphasis upon individual freedom and personal rights that seems to have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. A recent report tells us that some aspects of crime are on the increase. Some have indicated a fear of being on the streets at night or traveling on public transport outside of peak hours, a loss of confidence in law enforcement exists and morality is on a downward spiral.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 30 August 2009
Some years ago one of the actors in the television show The Bill was being interviewed on radio here in Australia. He related how when he’d left home at 18 to go to London to train as an actor, his uncle had given him a Bible as a parting gift. Although he had a Catholic background he didn’t see himself as a religious person and had never read the Bible, but because it was there and his uncle had said to him, “Just read it”, he began with one of the records of Jesus’ life.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 23 August 2009
Recently I heard an interviewer on television ask his interviewee, “Do you believe in an intervening God? It was a good question. But I was a bit surprised when without any hesitation she said, “Yes”. It’s not so difficult to vaguely believe in God, as some kind of force, out there somewhere - a distant, detached God. But a God who steps in, who’s actively at work to achieve some over-arching purpose? It can be quite difficult.
Bob Smith - Sunday 16 August 2009
When I was a young man starting to think about how I might grow rich there was a commonly held standard that said you could call yourself wealthy when you owned three houses. Now this was long before the real estate booms of the past twenty years, but it provided me with a benchmark. Then I heard the Duke of Edinburgh complaining that if the British Parliament didn’t provide the Royal Family with more tax free income they might have to move into smaller premises. It made me wonder which of their other palaces they would choose and whether they would really feel poor and hard done by as a result.
David Kerr - Sunday 9 August 2009
A few days after the destruction of the World Trade Centre, a friend of Dr. Stuart Rees was on a commercial jet from Los Angeles to Calgary. Just before take off, the pilot announced that the doors were closed, saying: ‘We are all alone. We could be a family. Please turn to the people next to you and introduce yourselves. If during the flight anyone stands up to threaten you, I want all to act together against that person. Terrorism will not be defeated by armies or by the latest computer technology but by caring for one another. Now sit back, relax and enjoy the flight.”
Bob Smith - Sunday 2 Aug 2009
There’s a wonderful line from an old gospel song that says, “Above all else the world needs Jesus, when shadows fall and hopes grow dim.” I’m sure many of us have known times like that. Chronic pain and sickness is certainly one of them - the sort that is there day after day after day. Chronic conditions are very debilitating because eventually people realise they just have to live with the problem and hope of release fades away. Even the Old Testament book of Proverbs recognised that sense of hopelessness in its final chapter where it says, “Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.”
Graham Agnew - Sunday 26 Jul 2009
In my work, as a minister, this question comes up all the time: Why do bad things happen to good people? And tucked away in the Psalms there’s a little verse that really encapsulates what many of us think and feel when faced with this difficult question. It’s Psalm 22 and the writer is really up against it - facing all kinds of problems. At one point (verse 8) somebody asks: “If the Lord likes you, why doesn’t he help you?” Has that question ever crossed your mind?
David Reay - Sunday 19 Jul 2009
The story has been told of a woman who had “got religion” and was telling others of the difference it made in her life. She told her church study group, “I’m so glad I discovered God. I have an uncle I hated so much that I vowed I would never even go to his funeral. But now, why I would gladly go to his funeral.” Such is the difficulty of forgiving one another. It isn’t as straightforward as it seems, and if it does seem simple or easy, chances are we have not actually started the process of forgiving.
Chris Witts - Sunday 12 Jul 2009
One of the sad facts of life is that as you get older, the more funerals you attend. That’s how it is for me. I’ve lost count of the numbers of funerals I’ve attended say in the past five years. I have to come to know many people in my years of ministry, and some of them have reached old age, and then they die. Some of them have died suddenly, while others have been through illness and pain. And I miss seeing them around as I used to.
Bob Smith - Sunday 5 Jul 2009
There is no doubt that an arrogant sense of superiority is one of the more unpleasant features of human nature. We probably don’t see as much of it in our more egalitarian society as in some others, or even in our past. But it still shows itself. There is a compulsiveness in human nature that makes each of susceptible to the need to demonstrate our superiority over others, even if only in things like the title of our job or how well our kids are doing at sport.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 28 Jun 2009
There are two assumptions to avoid when prayer seems to go unanswered. The first, to which children are especially vulnerable, is that God isn’t there, or doesn’t care. One thing about prayer is for sure: a request can never be a command. When we ask anyone for anything, they’re always free to either give us what we want, or not. If God’s bound to grant every request, he becomes a god we control or manipulate -- in other words, not God at all.
Richard Quadrio - Sunday 21 Jun 2009
I was recently listening to talk back radio and I was a bit surprised to hear the topic for discussion. Normally the discussion is filled with politics or whatever is the hot item on the news. No the topic for discussion that day was rather unusual. It was a subject that is not normally discussed in polite company. Sure it affects almost everyone- in fact it does affect everyone. But it is topic we somehow tend to ignore or deliberately don’t talk about. The subject of the topic, that day was death!
Bob Smith - Sunday 14 Jun 2009
If you were to ask me what is the most common and universal expression of spirituality I would have no hesitation in saying prayer. Prayer is the one thing common to all races and all religions. Even in secular western countries like ours, where relatively few people attend worship services, statistics show that the overwhelming majority of people say that they pray. But having said that there are enormous variations in the way people think of it and practice it.
David Kerr - Sunday 7 June 2009
When I wake up of a morning now, I wonder what catastrophic events may have happened overnight, in the space of 7 or 8 small hours. How do you feel when you wake in the morning? Some folk I speak to say their sleeping patterns have changed and they’ve had restless nights. They’re concerned for friends or family travelling overseas. Others are anxious about their financial security with the markets in turmoil. I’ve heard of a number of people who’ve cancelled overseas travel and will miss weddings, reunions and other important events they were looking forward to, due to the uncertainty and tension in the world.
Stuart Robinson - Sunday 31 May 2009
In our household there are five children. It won’t surprise you to hear that there are a wide variety of opinions on any given topic. We were all sitting on the sofas the other day, consuming large amounts of peanut butter sandwiches and raspberry cordial (the usual ‘healthy’ after-school fare!). The subject to hand was peace rallies - the kids had just witnessed one. And the experience had terrified them.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 24 May 2009
Many years ago I was en route from Africa to Australia with four young children in tow, in response to a telegram saying that if I wanted to see my dad before he died I should come at once. On the way we prayed that he wouldn’t die (he was only sixty-eight), that he wouldn’t suffer intolerable pain, and that he’d be filled with the peace that comes from trusting Jesus’ death was for him. The contradictions in those prayers didn’t strike me until much later.
Richard Quadrio - Sunday 17 May 2009
They say there are two certainties in life – death and taxes. Very few of us successfully avoid taxes. A great industry exists to help us minimize and reduce tax. It helps but very few of us avoid the inevitable. Sure there are some / the very rich/ who seem to pay so little, but fortunately most of us pay our tax and benefit from the services a government supplies. But what about death?
Stuart Robinson - Sunday 10 May 2009
I read recently of the teacher who gave her class of second graders a lesson on “the magnet, and what it does”. The next day, in a written test, she included this question: “My full name has six letters. The first one is M. I pick up things. What am I?” When the papers were collected, the teacher was astonished to find that half the class had answer the question with the “Mother”!
David Reay - Sunday 3 May 2009
Whenever people gather together to engage in casual conversation, invariably mention will be made about how busy life might be. This applies to stay at home mothers, to retired men, to corporate executives, to tertiary students, and even to children. It seems everyone is busy and they usually complain about it. The question we pose now is whether being busy is something to boast about or whether there ought to be limits to our busyness.
Graeme Best - Sunday 26 Apr 2009
An atheist – that is a person who believes there is no God – was sitting under a tree one day smugly thinking: “God, I know you don’t exist but if you do exist you must be really stupid. Look at this huge oak tree. It’s got tiny acorns on it. And look at that large pumpkin carried by such a small pumpkin plant. Now, if I had been you, I’d have created the huge oak tree to carry the big pumpkins and the pumpkin plant to carry the little acorns. That would make a lot more sense.”
Margaret Hall - Sunday 19 April 2009
The last words spoken by someone who’s dying can remind us of the kind of person they were. Take, for example, the words of Oscar Wilde, who took exception to the wallpaper in the room where he lay dying, and said, “One of us has to go.” The words Jesus spoke as he was dying reveal a great deal about him too.
John edmondstone - Sunday 12 April 2009
There has been a question in the minds of men and women since time began. “If a man die shall he live again?” Today is Easter Sunday, the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. In the early Church Christians greeted each other with the words, “Christ is risen! And back would come the reply, “He is risen indeed!” That certainty answers the question in the human heart, ‘if a man die shall he live again?’ The answer is a resounding yes if he or she has put their trust in all that Jesus Christ went through on a cruel cross in our place. Our theme this morning is the Easter Gospel, “Christ is risen, He is risen indeed!”
David Reay - Friday 10 April 2009
One day many years ago, I stood in Canterbury Cathedral at the very spot where Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury was alleged to have been murdered. King Henry was enraged that Becket was causing some difficulties in the ongoing tension between the church and the state. Some of Henry’s followers decided to do the king a favour by doing away with Becket. At last, royal power was to be asserted and the church would have its wings clipped.
Richard Quadrio - Sunday 5 April 2009
Today is the day Christians celebrate as Palm Sunday, the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem in triumph to the cheers and hope of the crowd who shouted hosanna. You know, in a strange way, the event of Palm Sunday still has relevance for today. Enjoy the hymn, but stay with us as we explore the relevance of Palm Sunday in our troubled world today.
David Reay - Sunday 29 March 2009
What do we do when we can’t stop worrying? We can sing that song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. But it won’t make a lot of difference. And if someone tells us not to worry because everything will work out OK, that won’t make a lot of difference either. Christians are good both at worrying, and telling other Christians not to worry. So is there a better way of controlling worry?
David Kerr - Sunday 22 March 2009
Hansel and Gretel ventured in to the forest, heaving a trail of breadcrumbs – right idea, wrong marker. How often have you parked your car and not taken sufficient notice of the location and return to conduct a search that severely tested your ability to remain civilized an dignified? It becomes a little more serious, when you’re in a foreign city, and can’t speak the language, and only have a rough visitor’s map as your sole source of help.
Bob Smith - Sunday 15 March 2009
My first exposure to people suffering depression came as a young minister serving in a large housing commission community. I had never realised how many people, particularly women, suffer from this terribly debilitating condition that Winston Churchill described as ‘the black dog.’ I tried to be compassionate and supportive, but I used to wish they’d get a grip on themselves and start to think positively, especially those who professed faith in God.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 8 March 2009
There used to be a program on TV called Front Up. Its formula was the old and simple one of an interviewer and a cameraman fronting up to people on the street. In one episode a couple of teenage girls were asked if they had a golden rule to live by. They’d been good friends for years and obviously had much in common; so it was interesting to hear how different their answers were. One said, "Just live life to the full. You could die tomorrow, so you gotta live your life."
Graham Agnew - Sunday 1 March 2009
When you say: “Ah, peace at last,” where are you and what are you doing? Maybe those rowdy relatives have just gone home or you’ve managed to finally get the kids into bed. Perhaps you’ve just flopped back into an easy chair overlooking the beach somewhere or maybe you’ve been successful in resolving a huge argument. That’s the world’s view of inner peace but Jesus introduced a new dimension to the meaning of this elusive quality.
Bob Smith - Sunday 22 February 2009
In all situations of human disaster, but especially ones as overwhelming as that Boxing Day Tsunami and the devastating bushfires in Australia, after the initial numbness wears off, one question inevitably arises - where was God in all this? For people who are traumatised by grief or shock, their whole belief system in the presence of an almighty and loving heavenly father is severely shaken.
Graeme Best - Sunday 15 February 2009
Shohoiya Yokawai was a Japanese soldier on the island of Guam during World War 2. When the American forces landed he fled into the jungle and hid in a cave. For 28 years he lived in that cave, driven by his fear of capture. Even after he learnt the war was over, he only came out of the cave at night to look for small animals and mangoes on which he survived.
Leo Douma - Sunday 8 February 2009
A man may deeply love his wife, who is also his best friend. There is no one he would rather spend time with. But he discovers that there are times when there are things that get in the way, there are times he avoids his wife. Like when he is too occupied with the demands of his work. Or when he hasn’t done that job she asked him to do. You can love some one but there are times when stuff inside you gets in the way. It’s like that in our relationship with God too.
John Edmondstone - Sunday 1 February 2009
I’ve heard it put this way: "My great grandfather rode a horse but was afraid of a train. My grandfather rode a train but was afraid of a car. My father rode in a car but was afraid of an aeroplane. I ride in an aeroplane but am afraid of a horse." That’s making a full circle. The rate of change is so great today that we begin to ask, "Is there nothing constant, abiding?"
Bob Smith - Sunday 25 January 2009
If I had ten dollars for every paragraph of theology I’ve read, I’d be quite a wealthy person. However if you were to ask me to quote from memory some of the great statements I’d read, I would be hard pressed to come up with more than a handful. To some extent this is understandable; after all theology means the study of God and it is obvious that the human mind could never grasp the immensity of God, just as the human mind cannot grasp the immensity of the universe.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 18 January 2009
I remember learning once in my Chinese cooking phase that there are three ingredients which define Chinese food: garlic, ginger and spring onions. Without them it can’t be what it’s meant to be and a fresh supply of them is a must. In the painful realities of living in a broken world there are three things we need if we’re to keep going and come through as we’re meant to. We find them again and again in the Bible.
Chris Witts - Sunday 11 January 2009
You might know the feeling. Driving along in the 100k zone only to discover your speedo has crept up to 110k. And then the police radar camera records your car breaking the speed limit. I own up to the experience, only to feel annoyed at myself for not being more careful. At that moment, I broke the law and felt guilty at having done so.
David Kerr - Sunday 4 January 2009
Good morning. Let me introduce myself. My name is Benjamin. You can call me Ben though ... most of my friends do. I remember when I didn’t have any friends. I was a leper. My days were numbered. I lived in the time when Jesus walked the earth. Things were pretty rough for lepers then.
Chris Witts - Sunday 28 December 2008
Fear can be good or bad, rational or irrational, depending on what’s happening at the time. It can help you keep alive when confronted with a dangerous situation; for example, a speed sign designed to slow down a driver in wet and slippery conditions. It can be a deterrent to getting into trouble. But mostly, fear is a limiting factor in people’s lives which stops them from being the individual God meant them to be.
John Edmondstone - Christmas Day 2008
In our current climate of fear and trouble, the months leading up to Christmas have been difficult for many people. Christmas was almost lost this year, because of the worry about economic problems, but now it is here, at last. As Christians, we need to be concerned about what is most important at Christmas – to adore the infant Christ. It is a home time for us, as it is for others, but the real focus is the story of that miraculous birth. Some however, have forgotten the meaning of Christmas.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 21 December 2008
In the run-up to Christmas many people have a great deal to do - extra shopping, putting up decorations, fussing over food, wrapping presents. A lot of trouble’s taken, a lot of energy expended. And all for what, exactly? At Christmas in Australia we celebrate a variety of things - the winding-up of the year, the beginning of the long holidays, families coming together. All reasons to celebrate, but they pale into total insignificance beside the original reason, spelt out in a dramatic announcement the night Jesus of Nazareth was born.
Graeme Best - Sunday 14 December 2008
It’s just two weeks until Christmas and I’m sure most of you have your Christmas
decorations up. Perhaps you?ve had them up for weeks. And of course, that will include the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree is one of the most popular and cherished of our Christmas customs. We have them in our homes. We see them in shops and in the city. All beautifully decorated. Many of them with lights. In fact, there would be many hundreds of millions of decorated Christmas trees throughout the world this very day. It?s a funny Christmas tradition isn?t it, if you think about it?
Bob Smith - Sunday 7 December 2008
There is a recent book that has been creating quite a stir in America. It is entitled Luxury Fever: Why Money Fails to Satisfy in an Era of Excess. The author is Robert Franks and he claims that what we sometimes call ‘retail therapy’ doesn’t work. Two decades of rapidly increasing affluence and the ‘shop till you drop’ mentality has not made people any happier. Whereas in the past lavish spending was associated only with the very rich, over the past twenty years it has become a way of life for of us. Things that we once considered luxuries now are expectations and we feel deprived and dissatisfied if we don’t have them.
David Reay - Sunday 30 November 2008
One day in 1944, a fire broke out in a circus being held in the New England region of the USA. Many were killed. In time, bodies were identified by relatives or friends. Except for one body. That of a small girl, aged about 8. She had died of smoke inhalation so her body was not burned. When no one came forward to report her as missing, authorities circulated her photo throughout the entire country. No one ever identified her. No one recognised her as a friend or family member. She was buried in an anonymous grave, unknown to any other human being. She became known as “Little Miss Nobody”.
Chris Witts - Sunday 23 November 2008
In my bookcase at home is a small book first published in 1954 which I hadn’t looked at for a long time. It is called Happiness is a Habit, written by Gordon Powell, who was a well known Presbyterian minister at St Stephen’s church here in Sydney. His lunchtime talks were listened to by thousands of people and he had the ability to connect with the ordinary person. In this book he quotes Abraham Lincoln who said “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Margaret Hall - Sunday 16 November 2008
Children of all cultures like chanting rhymes. Some of them aren’t very nice, like the one we used to chant when we found ourselves higher up than someone else - up a tree perhaps, or on top of the monkey bars: "I’m the king of the castle, and you’re the dirty rascal." It wasn’t nice. But it does express, if in a rather primitive way, how human beings like to feel - superior to others. We do like to be important - to be kings and queens in our own little worlds. That desire for power and importance can bring out the worst in us.
Chris Witts - Sunday 9 November 2008
I don’t often remember quotations, but there is one I can recall, and it has to do with forgiving people. You might know it, too. The quote says “to err is human… to forgive is divine”. This opens up a topic that touches the heart and soul of each person alive. The matter of forgiving others. Anyone can make a mistake, but can everyone forgive another human being? I don’t think so. How many people do you know who say “I’ll never forgive what that person did to me “. Something very unfortunate has happened, and the memory of the incident stays alive and active in their mind. People remember an unkind word, a stinging criticism, or an ugly act of violence affecting them and they say to themselves “I will remember what you did till the day I die”.
Leo Douma - Sunday 2 November 2008
I want you to imagine you are from another planet, and that you have come to learn about human life. The only input is that you just observe what goes on. You watch how some people work endlessly and others just hang around. There are those who are very health conscious and others are gluttons. You notice how some people are very rich and others desperately poor. You notice how some are extremely clever and others quite simple.
Bob Smith - Sunday 26 October 2008
If you were to ask me what is the most common and universal expression of spirituality I would have no hesitation in saying prayer. Prayer is the one thing common to all races and religions. Even in secular societies like ours, where relatively few people attend worship services, statistics show that the overwhelming majority of people say that they pray.
Graeme Best - Sunday 19 October 2008
Decisions. Choices. Life is full of them. Someone once wrote, “My life is the total of all my decisions and their corresponding actions. The sum total of my choices.” Now of course, our lives can be very much affected by the decisions of others .. like if another driver decides to run a red light and runs into our car .. but it is true, that much of our life is the sum total of our decisions. We make choices. Every day. Many times a day. The problem is of course, unfortunately, sometimes we make bad choices, bad decisions.
Richard Quadrio - Sunday 12 October 2008
Most of us live with fear from time to time. I remember the first week when our daughter began high school. The phone rang in my office. It was the school. “Mr Quadrio”, a voice said “This is the school calling, your daughter has had an accident. It takes a split second to process the news and be gripped by fear. What could have happened – is she all right? Fortunately – she had a nasty cut – but she was OK. Fear however is something many of us have to learn to live with.
Graeme Best - Sunday 5 October 2008
The news headline read .. “Thanks for the second chance”. It was referring to a well-known footballer who had served two years suspension for drug taking who was then offered a chance to play top grade football with another club. And so he said .. thankyou. Thankyou for the second chance. We all love second chances in life. Third and fourth chances as well because we all make mistakes. And continue to do so. But sometimes those mistakes .. sometimes the decisions we make in life .. leave us being cast aside by others.
Graham Agnew - Sunday 28 September 2008
Are you old enough to remember when they used to have Arbour Day at school? It was the day when we planted trees and generally remembered their importance in our world. Today it’s called World Environment Day. I’m no Arborist (or tree expert) but I do know that the rings of a tree shown in a cross section tell that tree’s life story – year by year.
Richard Quadrio - Sunday 21 September 2008
One of the most amazing things about the teaching of Jesus was his delight in seeing deep truths in the everyday things of life. To teach about the love of God, he told a story about a wayward son. To explain the need to share our faith, he told a story about the plight of four seeds. To encourage people to care, he told an expected tale about a needy man neglected by the religious and cared for by of all people a Samaritan. So to look at life and see parallels or parables for our faith has a long tradition. After enjoying the recent Olympic Games, I thought it would be interesting to consider some of the life lessons that sport presents us with.
Margaret Wesley - Sunday 14 September 2008
Do you ever get that feeling of deja vous when you listen to the news? Somehow, it seems that you have heard it all before: conflict in the Middle East; brutal dictators in Africa; drug-traffickers on trial in South-East Asia; a government somewhere failing to respond adequately to a natural disaster. Same as yesterday. Same as last year. Same as a decade ago. Why is it that some of the most troubling problems in our world just don’t seem ever to improve, regardless or how many people of wisdom and experience and good will devote themselves to seeking solutions?
Bob Smith - Sunday 7 September 2008
My initiation into fatherhood took place early on the morning of 19th March, 1971. As I arrived breathlessly at the Maternity wing of the Blacktown Hospital, excitedly announcing myself as the new father, I was confronted by a rather officious woman in a nursing sister’s uniform who, seemingly annoyed by my arrival, told me to ‘sit over there until we are ready for you.’ It set a pattern that has dogged me for years.
Chris Witts - 31 August 2008
We all feel a bit miserable or a bit down in the mouth from time to time. There’s not much you can do about it. But depression is another matter entirely. And studies have shown that depression of some degree is very common among Australian adults, even if figures vary from report to report. But there is some good news. Even God’s great people become depressed as the Bible shows. So if you feel depressed today, you are in good company!
John Edmondstone - Sunday 24 August 2008
A couple of weeks ago the Olympic Games commenced in Beijing, China. Such activity is solidly rooted in history. I’m sure you can recognize the music playing in the background. Listen for a moment – it’s Chariots of Fire, the theme of a marvellous film made in the 1980s about Eric Liddell, known as the Flying Scotsman – a challenging life. I want this morning to tie that in with a passage from the New Testament in Hebrews 12 which challenges us to “run with patience the race that is set before us”.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 17 August 2008
Philip Yancey in his book Reaching for the Invisible God tells how, when Princess Diana died in a car crash, he was invited to appear on a television show to explain how God could possibly allow such a terrible accident. Without thinking he replied, “Could it have had something to do with a drunk driver going at 90 miles an hour in a narrow tunnel? How, exactly, was God involved?” A young woman wrote to Dr James Dobson with this anguished question: “Four years ago I was dating a man and became pregnant. I was devastated! I asked God, ‘Why have you allowed this to happen to me?’” Perhaps you and I have asked similar questions
David Reay - Sunday 10 August 2008
We all have our fears. For some, fear actually determines the shape of their life. And it may be one fear, or a complex of fears. Fear can in fact be the difference between sheer existence and real living. We can suffer from arachnophobia, icthophobia, hydrophobia, gynophobia. But we meet some people today who suffered from giantophobia, or more accurately, Goliathophobia. We hear the familiar story of David and Goliath.
Bob Smith - Sunday 3 August 2008
Only once can I remember having openly expressed doubt about the reality of Jesus’ presence in my life. It was around thirty years ago and I was at my wits end as I contemplated the seeming inevitability that I was about to lose my marriage and my family. One drizzly winter’s night, I walked along Thirroul beach, trying to make sense of it all. After a while I took shelter under a rocky overhang, sat on the sand and suddenly I did something I’d once thought I never would. I blurted out to God, “Are you really there?”
John Edmondstone - Sunday, 27 July 2008
Have you ever stopped to examine why we use certain words? Let me illustrate: Grandparents say, “I hope the children will pop in, I’d love to see the kids;” “I hope it’s fine tomorrow so we can go on our picnic;” “Oh what a terrible accident, I hope no one is hurt.” ..... An appeal for financial support for work with young people was headed “Hope for the Future”. I want to share with you some thoughts on this short but important word, “HOPE”.
Margaret Hall - Sunday, 20 July 2008
Few of us would deny that the world we live in seems to be seriously out-of-whack. The natural order on which we depend appears to go feral, producing catastrophes which in a flash destroy the lives of many thousands of people. Then there’s the pain and suffering produced by the human will to hurt others, or by human carelessness. Joseph’s life has much to teach us ...
Bob Smith - Sunday 13 July 2008
One of the oldest and most enduring images of the Christian life is that of a journey; a journey through this brief and transient life to our true destiny in the eternal Kingdom of God. This journey has two aspects both of which run simultaneously. One is our outward journey of service – what we accomplish. The other is our inward journey of growth – what we are.
Stuart Robinson - Sunday 6 July 2008
In keeping with some of the city restaurants, taverns, clubs and churches, I’d like to run with the Christmas in July theme. Three simple words, uttered by a terrifyingly imposing angel to a small group of shepherds brilliantly summarise the purpose of Christmas and the substance of Christianity: “Do not be afraid” says the angel, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ, the Lord”.
David Reay - Sunday 29 Jun 2008
Familiarity can breed contempt, even where the Bible is concerned. We know some stories in the Bible fairly well and yet we may still miss the meaning of them. One such story is that of Jonah and the so-called whale.
Richard Quadrio - Sunday 22 Jun 2008
It’s funny what you remember from childhood. I remember that day I went shopping with my gran – I think I was only about three years of age. I got distracted and found myself wandering out the back of a shop and out into the lane behind. Then I remember looking for my gran and I could not find her.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 15 June 2008
How did Job respond to the loss of his wealth, his home, his children and his health? As he sat among the ashes, with his wife urging him to curse God, he said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the Lord’s name be blessed.” Job’s story raises the question we’ve all asked at one time or another: How can a good God allow such bad things to happen? More especially, why does he allow good people to suffer?
Bob Smith - Sunday 8 June 2008
Most people agree that happiness is the great goal to which we all aspire; “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” as the American Declaration of Independence put it. We all agree on the goal. The problem is how to achieve it.
Graham Agnew - Sunday 1 June 2008
In my early years I was involved in churches where the emphasis was more on legalism and guilt than on love and grace. I can now see that many of us were somewhat hindered and restricted in our enjoyment of the Christian life because of our strict adherence to a long list of rules.
Graeme Best - Sunday 25 May 2008
a story was circulated some time ago about the golfer Arnold Palmer and his visit with a certain Middle Eastern Head of State. This ruler was so impressed with Arnold Palmer that he wanted to give him a gift. Arnold Palmer tried to refuse at first, but the ruler insisted and asked what gift Mr. Palmer might enjoy. Finally, Arnold Palmer suggested that he might give him a golf club. The ruler seemed happy with that answer. Two days later Arnold Palmer received the deed to a 200 acre golf club.
Chris Witts - Sunday 18 May 2008
The question in the newspaper advertisement caught my eye. “What if you live longer than you expect?”. It was quite an intriguing question, and I discovered it was promoting superannuation. Then it quoted veteran entertainer George Burns who lived to be 100. George once said “If you live to the age of 100, you’ve got it made. Because very few people die past the age of 100!”
Margaret Hall - Sunday 11 May 2008
The word ‘contentment’ literally means a state of being held together. Cats give the impression they’ve got things together, in contrast to the way we often feel, as we’re pulled in different directions by competing demands or upset by the turns life takes. There always seems to be something more we’d like to have, or something else we’d like put right. Is contentment really possible?
Chris Dixon - Sunday 4 May 2008
The Sydney Olympics gave us an opportunity to revel in meeting one of our most basic human needs, and that is the need for community and friendship. Sadly, we don’t always manage to find a meaningful sense of community, and many people in our society feel alienated and lonely. We’ve all experienced loneliness at some time in our lives and this morning I want to encourage you with a marvellous story Jesus told about overcoming loneliness and alienation. It’s found in John 4: 1-42.
David Kerr - Sunday 27 Apr 2008
Many suggest that Australia’s proud fighting qualities in World War I helped to define us as a nation and Anzac Day is subsequently embedded in our culture as a memorial and testimony to these celebrated times and the many other defining moments of war that now colour our history. But is it right to continually revisit yesterday and retell stories from the world’s dark past?
Leo Douma - Sunday 20 Apr 2008
How would it be if God were to carry on like we often do? “Unless you come up with the appropriate number of good deeds and do the right thing by me, I don’t want to know you” If God acted that way, what hope would we have? I ask you to consider this, so you can get a sense of the struggle of the weary and burdened that Jesus speak to in Matthew 11 – where he says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened”.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 13 Apr 2008
What am I for? Where am I heading? Who am I about – myself, or the One who’s really at the centre of the universe? And whatever’s happening in my life, whatever the consequences of the choices I’ve made, am I allowing those things to draw me closer to God, or to take me away from him?
Richard Quadrio - Sunday 6 Apr 2008
Many 2CH listeners grew up in a slightly more polite world. Somehow basic manners seem to be one of the victim of our age. Once upon a time please and thank you formed the backbone of civil society, And the only word you needed more than please and thank you – was sorry.
Margaret Wesley - Sunday 30 Mar 2008
This morning I plan to talk about something that makes us all feel uncomfortable. It makes us hang our heads and drop our eyes to the ground. It dries up our mouths and stops us from thinking clearly. It can make adults act like school children - and it can make young women starve themselves to death.
David Reay - Sunday 23 Mar 2008
It would be the greatest news in the world if we discovered a cure for death. After all, the other cures for other ailments only delay death: they don’t avoid it. The reason why Christians figure that Easter Eggs, Easter Shows, Easter Bunnies aren’t the centre of Easter, is that they believe a cure for death has been discovered. Jesus, God in human form, rose from death. He conquered the last enemy.
Graham Agnew - Good Friday 21 Mar 2008
It was Commander James Lovell who intoned a simple heart-stopping message across the void of space on April 11, 1970: “Houston, we have a problem!” These words have become synonymous with moments of crisis ever since. And so the world watched and waited over the next 3 days as the crew of Apollo 13 contemplated the grim reality that they might never return to earth, while NASA experts on the ground worked feverishly around the clock to try and solve the unprecedented problems they were now facing.
Chris Witt - Sunday 16 Mar 2008
I find myself reflecting on grief, one of the big issues of life, and I realise that most people will, during their lifetime, attend at least one funeral of someone they know. And as they do, they will experience sadness, grief and sorrow, thinking about the reality that their friend, relative or work colleague, has died. It’s not an easy topic to talk about, and if we’re honest we prefer to put it out of our minds and dwell on more pleasant subjects. But grief and grieving are facts of life.
Graham Agnew - Sunday 9 Mar 2008
I came across a billboard recently advertising a major bank. In the slogan they described themselves as “The Light at the Beginning of the Tunnel”. It rather appealed to me ... a clever variation of the old saying about light at the end of the tunnel.
John Edmonstone - 2 Mar 2008
‘I just can’t cope any more’. Do you ever feel like that? Many people do. They feel they are cracking under the strain and are afraid of the future. The pressure of modern life is one cause of illness. What is the answer? Well, doctors can do much at the physical level. But if the cause is emotional and spiritual there can be no answer to the problem unless we seek it at these levels.
Bob Smith - Sunday 24 Feb 2008
When Mother Teresa, thought by many to be the epitome of true Christian faith, received the Nobel Peace Prize for her work amongst the poorest of the poor, she reminded the assembly that the approaching Christmas season should remind the world that “Christ is everywhere - in our hearts, in the poor we meet, in the smile we give and in the smile that we receive.” Yet three months earlier, in a letter to her spiritual director, she wrote: “Jesus has a very special love for you. But as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see. I listen and do not hear.”
Graeme Best - Sunday 17 Feb 2008
I was recently speaking with a person who distances themselves with all things Christian and she enquired with regards to an incident concerning a mutual friend. This friend had been rather harshly dealt with by his church where a lack of compassion seemed to have been displayed, and her immediate response was, “Well that’s not very Christian, is it?”
Margaret Hall - Sunday 10 Feb 2008
There’s an episode of the nineties’ television sitcom Seinfeld where George is complaining that nothing good ever happens to him. He says, “God wouldn’t let it happen.” His friend Jerry says, “I thought you didn’t believe in God.”
“I do for the bad things,” says George. If we’re honest we can all relate to that.
David Reay - Sunday 3 Feb 2008
The world has many ways of wounding us. As a result, we can give up and retreat from the world and become isolated and insulated. We can resort to destructive addictions. We can cynically dismiss any idea of God or faith coming into the equation at all. Let’s see how the Christian faith allows us to keep on when things seem to fall apart. How it doesn’t so much solve the problems but give us a perspective from which to face and conquer them.
Bob Smith - Sunday 27 Jan 2008
The real successes in the life of faith are not those who are blessed with outstanding abilities, but those who recognise what God has given them, stop wishing for something else, and go on to use what they’ve been given to do what they’ve been called to do.
Richard Quadrio - Sunday 20 Jan 2008
We make hundreds of choices all the time – and in the end the consequence are very little – will be have the chicken pizza or the beef, will I visit a friend or not. Some decisions however are much more important. Like the decision to marry or not to marry. But the most important decision – yes the most important decision any or us will ever make – is whether we believe in God or not.
Armen Nalbandian - Sunday 13 Jan 2008
“Buy me, Buy me!” is what most advertising is all about. After all, I should know, I studied marketing at University and worked in marketing. The core purpose of advertising is to attract our attention. The way marketers have gone about doing this is amazing. They have spent vast amounts of money on research to discover human psychology, physiology and sociology to unravel the secrets of grabbing our attention through the use of technology and human dynamics. They have managed to push out what is important in life and replace it with the urgent and not-so-important things in life.
Graeme Best - Sunday 6 Jan 2008
I read lots of suggestions people could adopt to make "a new you" in the new year. Exercise more, lose weight, improve your eating habits, have a face lift, get out and about more, help someone in the community, be more confident, dress more smartly and so on. But this morning I want to suggest that of far greater significance than our outward appearance to others, is our inside.
Bob Smith - Sunday 30 December, 2007
It’s easy to look out on the world and conclude that life is a jungle, an empty struggle. Yet, as Nellie Forbush sang in "South Pacific", "I’m stuck like a dope with a thing called hope..." I believe that what I see at this moment in time is not all there is. I also believe that God is, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.
Graeme Best - Tuesday 25 December 2007
Moving stories tell of the spirit of Christmas - of brief pausesand goodwill in the terrible fighting in World Wars 1 & 2. But if we think peace in that sense is what the angels meant when they sang "Peace on earth", we’ve got it wrong, because it has never come. But Jesus did come to bring peace with God, and everything else we long for flows from that.
Margaret Hall - Sunday, 23 December 2007
At Christmas time in Australia we celebrate a variety of things - the winding up of the year, the beginning of the long holidays, families coming together. All reasons to celebrate, but they pale into insignificance beside the original reason, spelt out in a dramatic announcement the night Jesus was born ...
Chris Dixon - Sunday, 16 December 2007
C S Lewis, the Oxford don who wrote the famous children’s story "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", also wrote a fine essay called "The Weight of Glory". It refers to the contrast St Paul drew between our "light and momentary" troubles, and the magnificently solid glory, making up for all suffering, that we’ll one day know.
Armen Nalbandian - Sunday, 9 December 2007
Bill Cosby used to have a TV show called "Kids say the Darndest Things" - often very funny. But when we grow up and continue to have childish, ignorant ideas about God and the Bible it’s not funny but tragic. Most of all we need to find out what God has to say about himself.
Leo Douma - Sunday 2 December 2007
Suppose I have tickets for something like the NRL Grand Final - are you enough of a fanatic to sell your car, your house and everything you own for those tickets? You’d be insane to do that! But Jesus told a story about a man willing to sell all he had ... for a pearl. And Jesus congratulates him!
Graeme Best - Sunday, 25 November 2007
A road rage incident reminds us how much anger is around. We live in an angry world, and it’s such a visible, destructive emotion. And it’s a natural one, part of our being made in the image of God. But our anger is rarely righteous like God’s. Let’s consider anger, and how we can control it, for our own good and for the glory of God.
Margaret Hall - 18 November 2007
Old films like Casablanca - still popular after 60 years - used cardboard cut-outs for backdrops. That was OK - Hollywood’s all about pretending. But in real life it’s important to know if something is genuine or not. If someone could prove to me that my relationship with God was not real, I’d be devastated ...
Bob Smith - Sunday, 11 November 2007
We still live in the shadow of two great wars and today we remember what they cost. Remembrance Day focuses on a human quality that touches all of our hearts: the quality of sacrifice. In this comfortable and self-indulgent age it is difficult to grasp that thousands of young Australians left all that was dear to them for wounds, mutilation and death ...
Chris Witts - Sunday, 4 November 2007
The call to forgive often hits us where it hurts. CS Lewis used to say, "Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely thing until they have something to forgive." Only with God’s help can we deal with problems like this and, finding resources outside ourselves, learn to forgive others.
Richard Quadrio - Sunday, 28 October 2007
You’re probably a bit like me - you love radio. There’s something reassuring about radio in the background. TV in the background is not the same. It dominates and distracts. But what we listen to is vitally important, and to listen to God’s advice really is wisdom - transforming wisdom.
Margaret hall - Sunday, 21 October 2007
Jesus knew how difficult it was to hang on to the belief that God will act to right all wrongs. He told a story about an unjust judge who grudgingly gave in to a persistent widow and contrasted that selfish man with God, the great Giver. But God’s idea of acting quickly may not be the same as ours. Unlike us, He sees the big picture.
Bob Smith - Sunday, 14 October, 2007
Too often real anticipation that God will touch your heart in some special way and bring healing turns gradually to dust and lost hopes. One of the great stories of the Bible is about a man like that. After 38 years, all hope lost - until he met Jesus ...
Graeme Best - Sunday, 7 October 2007
Last week concerning anxiety I said that prayer is the most important resource we have, giving access to God himself. This morning, some more strategies to deal with anxiety, and the vital relationship that is the key.
Graeme Best - Sunday, 30 September 2007
Anxiety has been described as the key emotional problem suffered by people with an affluent lifestyle. The more money we have, the more things we have, the more we have to worry about. Yet anxiety - over-anxiety, that makes our tempers short and our days long - can be a sin. And that means there’s hope for change.
Margaret Hall - Sunday, 23 September, 2007
Almost every story ever told reflects the reality that the world is a stage for the battle between good and evil. The struggle we experience daily to do what we know is good reflects the great cosmic struggle between love and hate, kindness and cruelty, truth and lies. We fall short of our own standard of goodness, and despair at the evil all around us. Where does it all come from?
Bob Smith - Sunday, 26 September 2007
Seasonal Affective Disorder - SAD for short - is something I suffer from. Overcast skies make me moderately depressed, and sunlight lightens my mood. This reminds me of Jesus’ great statement about bringing abundant life, and it was demonstrated in his very first miracle.
Chris Witts - Sunday, 9 September 2007
Young, old, male, female, married or single, we all need friends - at least one friend with whom we can get along and are able to share life’s journey. But a good friend is sometimes hard to find. Loneliness - the isolation we feel when we have no meaningful relationships with people - can be endemic ...
Leo Douma - Sunday, 2 September 2007
Just about everybody accepts that Jesus actually existed. The real question is, "How did he see himself?" People say, a decent bloke, a good teacher, good stuff about morals ... So why in the world was he crucified?
John Edmondstone - Sunday, 26 August 2007
I was thinking about the past recently. I’m sure you have those moments when you think back over the past, its sadness and its joys - and my regrets for my mistakes. Then the period when I became a Christian, which did not mean I stopped making mistakes ... but that decision changed my life’s direction. I want to tell you about it.
Leo Douma - Sunday, 19 August 2007
Loneliness is felt and feared by many. The book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible has wise words about the value of friendship and points towards the deepest friendship and best cure for loneliness of all.
Margaret Hall - Sunday, 12 August 2007
An amusing poster I have shows a panda nonchalently munching bamboo and saying,"Who says worrying doesn’t do any good? The things I worry about never happen!" But worrying can be chronic. Like Jesus’ friend Martha, we can be worried and upset, wondering if God really cares ...
Bob Smith - Sunday, 5 August 2007
Charles Spurgeon used to say, "Defend the Bible! I would as soon defend a lion!" What he meant was that you don’t have to defend a lion, you just turn it loose and it looks after itself. In the same way we can let the Bible loose and watch what it does. If you are sceptical, read it - with an open mind, seeking truth. It will lead you to Jesus Christ, who brings us to God and brings God to us.
Leo Douma - Sunday, 29 July 2007
Buying a house is full of pitfalls. Most of all, if the foundations are not good you have a dud of a house. Jesus told a parable about two blokes who build their houses in a Galilean river valley. ... Well, the flood came, and one was a dud.
So often in life we lose the plot. We have a yearning to find not only a house but a home, a true home, where meaning is given to life’s struggles and to the pain, and where an answer is given to death.
Christine Dixon - Sunday, 22 July 2007
We struggle to make sense of random acts of violence like the murder of Brendan Keilar, the solicitor gunned down in Melbourne while trying to help someone in trouble. We can also struggle with ’dark nights of the soul’ another kind of storm that besets us in our human frailty ...
Chris Witts - Sunday, 15 July 2007
A look at loneliness... the nagging pain of feeling detached or disconnected from others, filling our lives with one thing and another, but failing to establish meaningful relationships. But we are never really alone. People may let us down and friends disappoint us; families sometimes split up. But Jesus, who understands our loneliness, has promised never to forsake us and God our Heavenly Father is with us all the time.
Bob Smith - Sunday, 8 July 2007
Once when I was a chaplain on an army camp, amid the dust of a drought the men asked me half jokingly to ask the Boss for rain. When the dust turned to mud, they said, "Hey, padre, stop praying!" My father-in-law used to say, "Be careful what you pray for because you might get it." We may pray for forgiveness, and be required to forgive others, or we may have to set to work ourselves to meet a need ...
Graeme Best - Sunday, 1 July 2007
A Japanese soldier on Guam spent 28 years after the end of WW2 as a prisoner - held by his own fear of capture. Some of us can be prisoners of fear too. There is healthy, normal fear and devastatingly harmful fear, uncontrolled and destructive. But our God says again and again, "Do not be afraid ...."
Margaret Hall - Sunday, 24 June 2007
In the painful realities of living n a broken world, there are three things we need. We find them again and again in the Bible - first, the faith that through Christ we can be made acceptable to God; second, the hope of an eternal future with Him; and third, the love that we were created to enjoy. These three things keep us spiritually alive.
Graham Agnew - Sunday 17 June, 2007
"Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People?" That’s the title of a book written some years ago by Rabbi Kushner - an age-old question with no clear answer, more relevant today than ever. But there are three affirmations that Christians can make that will get us through the toughest times.
Leo Douma - Sunday, 10 June 2007
This deepest of all questions finds its answer in Psalm 63. "In a dry and weary land", David, a thirsty fugitive in the desert, longs even more for God than for water. Many have a yearning inside for God, but they don’’t recognise the real reason for their emptiness. They throw themselves into unhelpful relationships or work or buying sprees - anything to fill the void.
Richard Quadrio - Sunday, 3 June 2007
There can be such an emphasis on health and safety these days that all the fun kids once enjoyed has gone, lest there be some spice of danger. But some risk and danger is unavoidable in life. A counter-cultural way to see it is to see each day as a gift from God, wonderful but never intended to be permanent.
Graeme Best - Sunday, 27 May 2007
General George Patton once received a letter from one of his soldiers. It thanked him for his leadership efforts and for his care and concern for this particular soldier. He replied, saying, "In all my 35 years of trying to do my best for my men, you are the first ever to write a letter of thanks!" There is a Bible incident that highlights the problem we often have in saying ’thank you’.
Margaret Hall - Sunday, 20 May, 2007
Words have power, for good, for evil. We ourselves can be crushed by cruel, false or thoughtless words, and our own words can wound others. Is there a way out of our persistent misuse of God’s good gift of speech?
John Edmondstone - Sunday, 13 May, 2007
Happy Mother’s day! But for many, Mother’s Day brings sadness or mixed feelings. Against the background of troubling statistics about the breakdown of marriages, domestic violence, child abuse and youth suicides, we look at the role of the family and of mothers in particular - and at some of the Bible’s wonderful stories and wisdom.
Bob Smith - Sunday, 6 May 2007
I was moved by an essay by novelist Emily Maguire in which she asserted her atheism but expressed a longing to believe in an afterlife, if only she could. Our human nature demands that there be a meaning to life; whatever our heads may say, our hearts can never accept that our personality simply ceases to exist when our hearts stop beating. C S Lewis grappled with this ....
Chris Witts - Sunday, 29 April 2007
When we can accept the fact that failure is a part of the process of life, we can learn to take it in our stride and to be at peace. God has called us to abundant life in Him. And this means taking risks. In fact we learn more from our failures than from our successes.
Debbie Gould - Sunday, 22 April 2007
Recently I watched a wonderful ’Easter Experience’ which aimed to introduce shoolchildren to the story of Jesus. Children of course often grasp the need to believe in Jesus much more readily than adults do and Jesus himself pointed out that only those who receive the kingdom of God like little children can enter it. So what did he mean?
Stuart P Robinson - Sunday, 15 April 2007
An ambassador I know is most enthusiastic about the country he represents; Christians have the job of being ambassadors for the Lord Jesus. Paul the apostle was radically transformed when he met the risen Christ, and became a faithful, persuasive ambassador, with the message that in Christ, a person becomes a new creation. Just as the painter Sir Edward Landseer once transformed an ugly splotch on a wall into masterpiece, so Christ rescues and remakes us.
Bob Smith - Easter Sunday, 8th April, 2007
In 1930 Soviet leader Nicholai Bukharin gave a powerful address to a vast crowd in Kiev, exalting atheism and mocking Christianity. At the end of his long harangue came the opportunity for questions. None dared speak until one solitary man came to the lectern and shouted out the ancient Easter greeting of the Russian orthodox Church: CHRIST IS RISEN! En masse the crowd rose to its feet and and roared: HE IS RISEN INDEED!
David Reay - Friday, 6 April 2007
One day years ago I stood in Canterbury Cathedral, where Archbishop Thomas Becket was alleged to have been murdered. But his death made the church stronger, not weaker. It is what we call a paradox. Victory can look a bit like defeat; defeat can look a bit like victory. Christianity is full of paradoxes. The greatest and central paradox of Christianity is Good Friday. Life in the midst of death; love in the midst of hatred.
David Kerr (Repeat broadcast) - Sunday ,1 April 2007
You may have something in common with a host of famous people - Beethoven or Churchill, John Cleese or Michelangelo, Garry MacDonald, Charles Dickens; Abraham Lincoln ... If you have suffered with depression, you’ll know what they’ve gone through because they all experienced this dark and debilitating condition.
Margaret Hall - Sunday 25 March, 2007
Through the ages humankind has tried many ways to please whatever invisible and powerful being they feel is there - from little offerings of food to horrific child sacrifices. But the Bible’s unfolding revelation of the Creator God shows that these kinds of sacrifices could never bridge the gulf between very flawed ceatures and a flawless Creator. So what does God require of us?
John Edmondstone - Sunday 18 March, 2007
Jesus lived his life in italics. Worth thinking about - why do we use italics? For emphasis. No-one else like him has ever existed. He is uniquely prominent and dominant in history.
Bob Smith - Sunday, 11 March 2007
The railway engineer tested his bridge across a Rocky Mountain canyon by putting great stress on it - to prove it would not break. Jesus’ temptations in the desert were primarily tests (same word) to prove he would not fail. Such tests often hit us after a high, when we feel elated and invulnerable. That’s when we, unlike Jesus, are most likely to fall.
Stuart Robinson - Sunday, 4 March 2007
Asked to write an essay on what was wrong with the world, writer and philosopher G K Chesterton famously wrote two words: "I am." He was admitting that sin is the problem and he was a sinner, needing rescue. The Bible gives the withering diagnosis that in and of ourselves, we are dead towards God, spiritually dead. But He in his grace and kindness offers life, abundant life, through Christ.
Chris Witts - Sunday 25 February 2007
Regrets - they’re part and parcel of life. We’ve all got a few at least. Regrets about things we’ve done in life, or failed to do. There are lots of "if only’s", too. But hope comes from a loving God who says, "I can help you deal with your regrets."
Lesley Ramsay - Sunday, 18 February 2007
If God had a beauty contest, what would it be like? Is God interested in what I look like or what I wear? Does he care if my face is disfigured, or not? How does God see me? How do I measure up in his eyes? Good questions! The Bible has answers ...
Margaret Hall - Sunday, 11 February 2007
An amusing poster I have shows a bamboo-munching panda with the caption: "Who says worrying doesn’t do any good? The things I worry about never happen!" But worrying can be chronic. Like Jesus’ friend Martha, we can often be worried and upset, wondering if God really cares ...
Lesley Ramsay - Sunday 4th February, 2007
A brilliant doctor succumbs to drug addiction; a young girl runs away from home and ends up in a brothel at the Cross - wasted lives, failing to live up to their potential, achieving little. But these are not the only ways lives can be wasted. What would the Bible say a wasted life looked like?
David Reay - Sunday, 28th January 2007
Singing the song ’Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ won’t help. Good advice rarely works. Christians are good both at worrying and telling other Christians not to worry. So is there a better way of controlling worry? Yes there is, and it comes from the mind and heart of God, not from pop psychology or feel-good sentiments.
Christine Dixon - Sunday 21 January, 2007
Bible heroes are known for their great faith. The famous preacher C H Spurgeon illustrated faith with the example of a child three floors up in a burning building being urged to jump to safety. "The essence of faith", he said, "lies in trusting fully the strong man below, and jumping - into his waiting arms".
Bob Smith - Sunday 14 Jan 2007
I had a painful flashback memory of a time when I was seven and yielded to peer pressure. I took away from a poor kid in my class a toy I had given him, when he had none. I can still see the pain in his eyes. It illustrates for me a deep spiritual reality, that lasting, even eternal, consequences can follow from the way we treat people in this life. Jesus’ strange parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus also tells of this truth as it depicts consequences in the after-life.
Chris Witts - Sunday, 7 January 2007
Why is encouragement so important? Think about school days. I wonder how many students have gone on to greater pursuits because of an encouraging teacher? Don’t waste time criticising others - look for their good points ... The Bible is full of encouragement.
David Reay - Sunday 31st December, 2006
The story of the disciple Peter is appropriate for New Year’s Eve - he is the one who let his Master down badly and to whom Jesus gave a fresh start and high leadership responsibilities. As we begin the year 2007, it is good to reflect again on Peter’s career with its message of forgiveness and a fresh start available to all who follow Christ.
Bob Smith - Monday, 25 Dec, 2006
God with us - that’s what Christmas means. The almighty and incomprehensible Creator became knowable in Jesus. But I wonder if you feel that God is with you, this year? We tend to judge reality by our circumstances and our feelings. For me a really bad Christmas was about six weeks after my first marriage broke up...
Margaret Hall - Sunday, 24 Dec, 2006
Two teenage girls with much in common, when interviewed for Front Up displayed very different aims in life. Their foundations were totally different, like Jesus’ word-picture of houses built on rock and on sand. Our life foundations are tested by storms - storms of sickness, of temptation or of persecution - like that which led to the murder of Archbishop Janani Luwum of Uganda at the hands of Idi Amin.
John Edmondstone - Sunday, 17 Dec, 2006
Christmas is almost upon us. We need to focus first on what is central and distinctive about Christmas, but some have forgotten its meaning. In the words of a poem, " Let us stop and look for Christmas ...Christmas lost ... " We have one clue in what Jesus said on trial before Pilate."For this reason I was born ... to bear witness the the truth."
Chris Witts - Sunday, 10 Dec, 2006
Dealing with disappointments is part of life for all of us. No exceptions. Many people allow disappointments to ruin their life, but with God disappointments are never final. Dealing with the let-downs of life can open new hope, especially as we invite God to be part of our journey.
Margaret Hall - Sunday, 03 Dec, 2006
The miracles recorded in the Bible are for some a stumbling-block , a barrier to belief, especially to the scientifically-minded. But if we believe in a Creator God, it’s no great leap to believe he can intervene in his own creation and in the ’natural laws’ he put in place.
And Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about the miracle of new birth ....
Stuart P. Robinson - Sunday, 26 Nov, 2006
When a light plane crashed in USA last August, six people were killed, but Kimberly Dear, 21, from Melbourne, survived. Her sky-diving instructor Robert Cook, 22, died as he used his body to protect her from the impact. This serves to illustrate what Jesus has done for us. He "has rescued us from the dominion of darkness". In him, we are redeemed and restored.
Margaret Hall - Sunday, 01 Oct, 2006
We all know how people can react to the same thing in different ways. Two soldiers can experience the same horrors of war. One refuses to believe in a God who allows such things to happen. The other sees God as the only comfort and light in the darkness. Same God, different reactions.
Two wealthy men - one respectable and upright, the other an outcast tax collector - met Jesus. Opposite reactions to his challenge ....
Chris Witts - Sunday, 17 Sep, 2006
"Now you be kind to one another," is how a well-known radio presenter signs off his broadcasts. That made me think - does it matter if I am a kind sort of person? It certainly does. There is a saying, "I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to a fellow-creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."