Hate Speech – Hate Acts

Christianity was not the reason Anders Breivik massacred scores of people in Norway on Friday. It is hard to imagine that the overwhelming majority of well-meaning Christians around the world are anything but appalled and sickened by his actions. Christianity and Christians cannot be blamed for the actions of someone who seems to be terribly disturbed. And yet …

Why celebrate Christmas in July?

My sister asked me on Friday what I was doing this weekend. When I told her that I was celebrating Christmas in July, she suggested that I was crazy. She knows how incredibly busy I am at Christmas time; why would I want to voluntarily celebrate Christmas twice?

But the thing is, it’s actually very hard to celebrate Christmas at Christmas time.

Sermon: Adopted into the family of God

Sermon for Riddells Creek and Mount Macedon

The Fifth Sunday of Pentecost, 17^th of July 2011

Romans 8:12-25

Over the past month we’ve been spending time with the Apostle Paul, listening to the deeply theological letter that he wrote to the Christian community in Rome. In the first part of his letter, Paul argued that righteousness, being in a right relationship with God, comes from faith rather than from anything we do ourselves; it’s not something we need to earn by obeying religious law.