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Showing posts from May, 2018

Te Pouhere and the Sabbath

Was Sabbath made for humanity, of humanity for Sabbath? It is the question at the heart of our gospel reading (Mark 2:23 – 3:6) It is still one of the big questions we wrestle with as a church and as followers of The Way. How do we understand Jesus answer? Often we read this as a new way of reading Torah. And at our less humble moments, this shows how we are right and Jews are wrong. But what if Jesus approach was not new? This week on Working Preacher [1] both Matt Skinner and Karoline Lewis have suggested that Jesus was tapping into an old rabbinic tradition that understood this commandment as either the an invitation to the Hebrew people to rest with God before they joined in the ongoing work of creation (Exodus 20) or was an offer of one day to a people who had been enslaved, working every day in gruelling conditions (Deuteronomy 20). It was God’s guarantee they would never go back to those days. It was an invitation for them to work with God to ensure no-one else suffered

Nicodemus, Trinity and the Dance

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You can listen to how the sermon came out here. Gate Pa – Year B Trinity Sunday 2018 Readings: Psalm                          Psalm 29                     First Reading:             Isaiah 6:1-8                       Second Reading:        Rom 8:12-17                           Gospel:                        John 3:1-17                              What I want to say: What might the idea of “Trinity” offer us in our daily lives What I want to happen: People to say the creeds with more passion The Sermon        1.       Introduction: Today is Trinity Sunday -           what is that about? Turn to page 461 of prayer book What does this creed say about the Trinity? what might it say to how we live our lives?        ->   plenary – what do you know about the Trinity?        2.       Nicodemus Gospel reading today is not easy one of problems is that it