Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Luke 4.14-21 The Kingdom of God is good news for the poor, the captive, the blind and the oppressed In Matthew and Mark, when Jesus comes out of the wilderness and begins his ministry, he announces the Kingdom He preaches: The Kingdom of God is near, repent and believe the Good News Luke is slightly different. He is speaking to people who don’t know their Old Testament, who don’t really understand what the Kingdom of God is. And Luke instead tells us what this Kingdom will look like. Instead, when Jesus comes out of the wilderness, and begins his ministry, he declares “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19 The Kingdom of God is good news for the poor. “to bring good news to the poor… to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” That is a consistent messag...

Luke 3.15-17, 21-22 Today we remember the baptism of Jesus, and it is good to have Leo’s baptism in this service.  You may have noticed that before communion, I will say that ‘All who have received the gift of baptism and who love the Lord Jesus and want to follow him are welcome to receive the bread and the wine here’. On one occasion when I said that in the UK, a man came up to me after the service, I think he claimed to be a Buddhist, and asked me, Why did someone have to have been baptised to receive communion? Wasn’t that being exclusive? I have no idea how I answered him then, although I’m sure I thought of some very clever things to say - half an hour later. But it is interesting that to become a member of any organisation, you usually have to have done or do something: pay a subscription, achieve a qualification, be interviewed, go through some initiation ceremony. But the only thing that Jesus says that you need to do, to become a member of the Church of God, is to allow s...