Sermons From Clayton Wesley

It is Easter Day 2020 and once more we are invited to look at one of the strangest gospel stories of all; Jesus resurrection. Today’s sermon, in the midst of our strange lives at the moment, invites us to sit with the strangeness of the story and let it reveal its self to us.

It is Palm Sunday and we have the extraordinary story of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. This brave move offers a direct challenge to the world view of Rome and a glimpse of the world that Jesus believes God is bringing into existence. 

How should we understand the story of Lazarus? And why does Jesus say those who believe will not die?

The story of the man born blind whom Jesus heals with a mud pack (John chapter 9) is a story about how we can see and not see all at the same time. 

In the story of the woman at the well, what did Jesus mean when he said, God is spirit?

What better reading first Sunday of Lent than one of the origin stories from the book of Genesis. And a look at the question, what was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

How can the gospel story we call the Transfiguration have meaning for us today?

The last part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus taels about things that don't seem to have much relevance to us 2000 years later but perhaps we can see behind some of cultural specifics to things that are true for all times

Part two of the Beatitudes and so thoughts on being salt of the earth and light of the world 

The Beatitudes are not a list of things you must get right but an insight into Jesus' radically different view of the world of of people

Australia Day. It's complicated. Except that, according to Matthew 25, its really not

At our place on Sunday we had a service made up entirely of music. Classical, roots, Jazz and more. So, it was only right that the sermon should be music too. This is Water Into Wine by Bruce Cockburn. It is an interpretation in music of Jesus' first miracle in the Gospel of John where he turned water into wine at a wedding. 

Why was Jesus baptised? There are all kinds of ways into this question. Here is one

Luke's Gospel tells the Christmas story with Mary and shepherds, Matthew's Gospel tells it with Joseph and wise visitors. John's Gospel begins the Christmas story with the word logos... 

Matthew is telling us about a whole different kind of power in his ending to the Christmas story 

The three wise men.Were they men? Probably. Were there three? who knows? Were they wise? Let's see.

Joseph is a bit player in the Jesus story except at the very beginning. It is his decision to listen to his dream and rethink how to experience what looked for all the world like disaster that changed everything.

Mary's song and John the Baptist's question from prison are both readings for this week. An Advent of hope and doubt. An Advent of possibility.

John the Baptist calls us to repent. Why? Because the world is changing. How? by letting go and clearing stuff out. A good idea just before Christmas!

This week is the first week of Advent, the beginning of the church year. So why, in what should be a time of expectant waiting, do we have a reading about he end of the world? (sorry there was no sermon up for November 24, I had a Sunday off!)