Sermons based on readings from the Gospel of Luke
Luke 24:13-35 Everyday life goes on. It is the nature of our lives, of our experience of reality. Things tend to continue as the always have. There are moments that stand out from that norm. There can be highs, like the birth of children, some great or unexpected success, or some amazing transformation in circumstances. …
A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter (23/04/23): Meeting the Risen Christ Read More »
Luke 2:1-20 On the first Christmas night, the events take place in two different locations. God enters the world as a helpless baby in one place. And God’s glory becomes visible somewhere else. Despite the way in which we arrange the figurines in our crib scenes, or picture this night in our mind’s eye, the …
A Sermon for Christmas Day (25/12/22): A Birth in One Place, Angels in Another Read More »
Luke 23:33-43 As Jesus hangs dying on the cross, three groups speak. They speak with increasing intimacy, each from a perspective closer to Jesus than the last. Their words reveal, implicitly, what is taking place here. The first group to speak are the leaders the members of the priestly class, senior scribes, and prominent members …
Luke 21:5-19 Jesus makes a series of predictionsWhen we hear Jesus speak we not unnaturally expect him to say something remarkable, to say something no one else could say, that his words offer us an insight that no one else could give. And for the most part he does. But here Jesus makes a series …
A Sermon for the Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (13/11/22):Predictable Predictions Read More »
Luke 20:27-38 At the end of his debate with the Sadducees, Jesus makes a very clear declaration about God and God’s relationship with his children:Now he is God not of the dead but of the living for to him all of them are alive The Sadducees have a question for Jesus about living arrangements in …
Luke 19:1-10 A little while ago, as he was approaching Jericho on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus had said:“…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” [Luke 18:25]When they heard this the crowd were horrified, and had …
A Sermon for the Thirty First Sunday in Ordinary Time (30/10/22): Zacchaeus Read More »
Luke 18:9-14 Jesus tells a story, as he often does. It is a story about two individuals who are members of two groups that are quite prominent in the Gospels. One is a Pharisee. The other is a tax collector. The Pharisees are prominent in the story of Jesus’ ministry, because they become increasingly critical …
Luke 18:1-8 Someone once said: “Until you have stood for years knocking at a locked door, your knuckles bleeding, you do not know what prayer is.” That is a powerful way of putting something that perhaps lies outside the experience of most of us. Few of have experienced such enduring need that we have been …
A Sermon for the Twinty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (16/10/22): Persistence in Prayer Read More »
Luke 17:5-10 I once had a ministerial colleague (from a different denomination) who when confronted with one of those places in the gospels where Jesus is being especially demanding of his followers responded: “Oh, you don’t want to take Jesus too seriously when he says things like that, after all he was a bit of …
Luke 16:19-31 There was a rich man . . . . And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus Jesus starts his story in the real world, the world as it actually is. His picture may be a caricature, a mild exaggeration for dramatic effect. But it is certainly something that his listeners …