Sermons

Lent 2 Philippians 3.17 – 4.1 Luke 13.31-35     ©Suzanne Grimmett Foxes and chickens are a bit of a sensitive topic with me. You will all be aware how much I love having a flock of chickens around the property, but late last year unfortunately a tragedy occurred. “A fox in the henhouse” is a saying about the destruction of the vulnerable and that is certainly what happened. Of course, the expression also refers to allowing someone to achieve power and control in situations where they can exploit and harm. When we hear Jesus refer to Herod as ‘that fox’ we … Read more

Lent 1 Luke 4.1-15 Sunday 9 March 2025    ©Suzanne Grimmett                                                             In 1623 when John Donne, then Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, lay sick with a fever during an outbreak of bubonic plague in the city of London, he wrote in his journal. Across a few months he produced a series of reflections entitled, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions. In the early stages of his illness, when he was unsure of its nature, he wrote this prayer reflecting not on his physical sickness, but on what he saw as his spiritual sickness, pleading; Sharpen my hearing, Lord. I want my warning signals … Read more

Ash Wednesday Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21                                              ©Suzanne Grimmett John Donne, in his Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, written in early 17th century London as the plague bells rang and the population decimated and Donne himself lay on a sick bed, struggling with a terrible illness he had been told was the plague. Given that we are in an emergent occasion of our own this year, I thought he might have something to say to us. He writes, in a modern translation; If I were merely a body—dust and ashes—I might protest to the Lord, who made me of this dust and … Read more

Luke 9:28-38 Marian Free In the name of God who reveals Godself to us in many and varied ways. Amen. I am sure that you, like me, heard this morning’s gospel in a stereotypical way – after all, we are all familiar with the story of Jesus’ transfiguration. We know that Jesus went up the mountain with Peter, John and James, that Jesus spoke with Elijah and Moses, that he was transfigured, that God spoke from the cloud using language much like that that was used at Jesus’ baptism, that Peter offered to build three tents, and that Jesus told … Read more

Genesis 45.3-11, 15  Ps 37.1-11, 40-41  1 Corinthians 15.35-50  Luke 6.27-38  Sunday 23 February 2025 ©Lauren Martin On the surface, this Gospel reading – a portion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain –  may seem simple enough; Love your enemies. Treat others they way you would like to be treated, not the way you have been treated. The Golden Rule, as you may have learnt in Sunday School. But is it really that simple? Look at the world around us today, the tragedy and bloodshed of conflict. The far-reaching effects of political decisions. Those who have been oppressed and treated … Read more

Luke 6.17-26 Sunday 16 February 2025    ©Suzanne Grimmett If we are not feeling uncomfortable after hearing Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, this so called, Sermon on the Plain, then perhaps we’re not paying attention. Yet this is consistently Jesus’ message, which we see if we zoom out and look at the bigger picture of scripture with the insistence throughout the Old Testament on care for the poor. To hear, ‘Blessed are the poor and hungry’ and ‘blessed are those who mourn or are persecuted’ is actually in complete alignment with the words of the prophets and psalmists who sing of … Read more

Luke 5:1-11 Marian Free In the name of God, all-knowing, all-powerful, and ever-present. Amen. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to come face-to-face with the living God? Would you be filled with a deep sense of security and love? Would you be overawed and want to step back in the presence of such power and majesty? Would you be filled with the knowledge of your unworthiness, suddenly conscious of all the ways in which you fail to come up to your own standards, let alone those of God?  Would you be terrified of what God might … Read more

The Presentation of Christ in the Temple Luke 2: 22-40           ©Suzanne Grimmett Candlemas brings to a close the period of forty days after the birth of Jesus; a sacred time when we attend to this inbreaking of divine revelation of God in Christ and the fulfilment of ancient prophecies of salvation and promises of redemption. It is a season where we may be particularly conscious of deep time- of the way our lives are interconnected to ages and ancestors past and reach forward to those who will pick up the trails of our story in the future. This day … Read more

Epiphany 3 1 Corinthians 12.12-31 Luke 4.14-21 Sunday 26 January 2025                                               ©Suzanne Grimmett It would be so easy, in a week where a powerful but gentle sermon by the Bishop of Washington has captured the world’s attention, to look across the Pacific and reflect on today’s readings which are so foundational to Christianity through a US lens. It is often easier, isn’t it, to look beyond ourselves than close to home. But it is Australia Day and I think we need to engage a conversation with Luke’s Gospel that speaks to our own lived experience. We have a Gospel … Read more

Epiphany 3 John 2:1-11                  ©Suzanne Grimmett The wine had run out. This would have been a situation of social shame for the host where guests are gathered for a wedding feast and prepared for long celebrations. There is real comfort, I think, in this story of a God whose first human public act of divine revealing is to alleviate such a domestic moment of dishonour and social discomfort. I mean, really? The God who flung stars into space comes to earth and is still concerned about an embarrassed family with not enough wine? However, because this is John’s Gospel, … Read more

Luke 3:15-22 ©Marian Free In the name of God who consistently bursts through the bounds of our expectations. Amen. “When Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him” (Luke 3:21,22). These are details of Jesus’ Baptism with which we are familiar, but a closer look reveals two unique features which tell us something about Luke’s agenda in writing the gospel. In the first instance we note that it is only Luke who mentions that Jesus was praying. Prayer is an important feature of this gospel. On a number of … Read more

                                        ©Suzanne Grimmett Feast of the Epiphany Isaiah 60.1-6 Psalm 72.1-7, 10-14 Ephesians 3.1-12 Matthew 2.1-12 The great poet, W. H Auden, having delved deeply through his work into art, community, erotic love, politics and psychology, had come to believe that everything- all of this- had been fundamentally altered by a single event in human history.[1] In this, he is the poet for the Epiphany, because it was the revelation of the Christ child that changed everything. The incarnation meant that nothing looked the same again, posing a radical disruption in the world and therefore of human thought and self-understanding. … Read more