Sermons at St. John’s

Stewarding Life Part 1: Stewards of the GOSPEL

Bible text: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 and Philippians 4:8-9.
This series on Christian living begins by asking what it means to be a faithful steward of the life God has given. In particular, what does it mean for the church to steward well the mysteries of God? With allusion to an atheist chaplain, the author Marilynne Robinson, and St. Ignatius of Loyola, Paul opens up the Apostle Paul's words to challenge us to consider how a life well-lived can bring joy to ourselves and delight to God.

Stewarding Life Part 2: Stewards of TRADITION

Bible texts: Deuteronomy 6:1-9; 20-25 and 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17
In this second part of the "Stewarding Life" series, Paul considers the role of tradition in our lives, asking two key questions: 1. What good is tradition anyway? and 2. How are we to stewards tradition well?
References:
Jaroslav Pelikan (Church Historian): “Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”
James K. A. Smith - You are What You Love - https://jameskasmith.com/yawyl/
Flannery O'Connor - Mystery and Manners

Stewarding Life Part 3: Stewards of JUSTICE

Bible texts: Amos 5:18-24 and Luke 4:16-21
In this third part of our "Stewarding Life" series, we consider the centrality of justice to our calling as followers of Jesus. With a critique of modern worship trends, Paul looks to Jesus' words in Luke to argue for a cross shaped discipleship, which is concerned with both the vertical -- our right relationship with God -- and the vertical -- our right relationships with each other. But how seriously has the church taken this calling? To what extent does the harsh rebuke of Amos 5 also apply to us?
References:
Michael Rhodes' full list can be found here: https://www.craiggreenfield.com/blog/...
An interesting article on John Calvin and Social Justice: https://www.christianitytoday.com/his...
Listen to Jon Foreman's song "Instead of a Show" here:
Jon Foreman - "Instead Of A Show"  

Stewarding Life Part 5: Stewards of TIME

Bible texts: Ecclesiastes 3:1-10 and Ephesians 5:16-17
The Apostle Paul tells us that we are to make the most of our time. But what does this mean? Listening to the Teacher of Ecclesiastes and the philosopher James Smith, Paul offers three easy steps we might take to become better stewards of the time we have been given:
Step 1: Embrace the seasons;
Step 2: Work out when you are;
Step 3: Time travel with friends!
References:
James K. A. Smith, "How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the past, facing the future, living faithfully now" - http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books...

Stewarding Life Part 6: Stewards of COMMUNITY

Bible Texts: 1 John 4:7-12 and John 13:34-35
In Part 6 of our Stewarding Life series we consider the Apostle John's reminder that the love of God is the measure of Christian community. With the help of a French social worker turned theologian, a German pastor turned prisoner, and a London barrister turned barista, Paul challenges us to consider how we measure up as stewards of community and wonders whether serving coffee might just be the most important job in the church...
References:
“Often it seems that beneath the pleasantries of daily life there are many gapping wounds that carry such names as: abandonment, betrayal, rejection, rupture, and loss. These are all the shadow side of the second love and reveal the darkness that never completely leaves the human heart. The radically good news is that the second love is only a broken reflection of the first love and that the first love is offered to us by a God in whom there are no shadows.” Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus
“…maybe Jesus simply loved John with that same holy love he had for each one of his followers and has for us. Could it be that John simply became so struck by the overpowering reality of Jesus’ love, that he Christened himself ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved,’ just as each one of us might as we enter into a true understanding of this fantastic, unending love of our Saviour for us?” Commentary from Life With God Bible 
“Christian [community] is not an ideal which we must realise; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our fellowship is in Jesus Christ alone, the more serenely shall we think of our fellowship and pray and hope for it.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
Stephen Foster's testimony.
 

Stewarding Life Part 7: Stewards of the HEART

Bible texts: Proverbs 4:23 and John 8:1-11
In Part 7 of our Stewarding Life series, guest speaker Roz Stirling helps us unpack what it means to be stewards of the HEART. Roz has experience in a variety of Christian ministries, but she currently serves as director of Cleopas, a ministry a ministry that offers retreat and reflective space for Christians seeking to discover the deep joy of abiding more deeply in Christ. In her sermon, Roz challenges us to guard our hearts and invites us to allow the Spirit to begin a work of transformation within us.
Resources:
www.cleopas.net
 

Stewarding Life Part 8: Stewards of MONEY

Bible texts: Matthew 6:19-24; 16:24-27 and 1 Timothy 6:9-10, 17-19.
We don't like to talk a lot about money. It makes us uncomfortable. But what is more uncomfortable still is that Jesus talked about it a lot! And so, in this next part in our series, Paul considers how we can avoid the allure of money by loosening our grip on wealth and taking hold of the life offered in Christ. He challenges us to consider proportional giving. But how should we do that? What does proportional giving look like?
Resources:
Elizabeth O'Connor, Letters to Scattered Pilgrims
Kara Swisher, Burn Book

Stewarding Life Part 9: Stewards of the KING

Bible Text: John 12:12-26
On this Palm Sunday, Paul looks to John's account of the triumphal entry to consider the nature of Jesus' kingship. Reading this text in the context of "strong-man" politics, which is often characterised by populism, polarisation, and post-truth, Paul considers how Christ's Kingship is radically different and asks what this might mean for those of us who seek to follow this counter-cultural King...
References:
Moisés Naím, The Revenge of Power: How Autocrats Are Reinventing Politics for the 21st Century
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship 

Stewarding Life Part 10: Stewards of SUFFERING

Bible Text: John 16:16-24
When faced with suffering, we often ask: WHY? But Christ's example confronts us with a different question: HOW? How are we to carry our pain? And is it possible that it might be used to bring compassion and healing to ourselves and others?
Quotations:
Nicholas Woltersdorf, Lament for a Son:
“I could not bring myself to try to figure out what God was up to in Eric’s death. I joined the psalmist in lamenting without explaining. Things have gone awry in God’s world. I do not understand why, nor do I understand why God puts up with it for so long. Rather than Eric’s death evoking in me an interest in theodicy, it had the effect of making God more mysterious. I live with the mystery.”
“Suffering is the shout of ‘No’ by one’s whole existence to that over which one suffers—the shout of ‘No’ by nerves and gut and gland and heart to pain, to death, to injustice, to depression, to hunger, to humiliation, to bondage, to abandonment. And sometimes, when the cry is intense, there emerges a radiance which elsewhere seldom appears: a glow of courage, of love, of insight, of selflessness, of faith. In that radiance we see best what humanity was meant to be. / But what I have learned is something stranger still: Suffering may be among the sufferer’s blessings. I think of a former colleague who, upon recovering from a heart attack, remarked that he would not have missed it for the life of him. / In the valley of suffering, despair and bitterness are brewed. But there also character is made. The valley of suffering is the vale of soul-making."
But now things slip and slide around. How do I tell my blessings? For what do I give thanks and for what do I lament? Am I sometimes to sorrow over my delight and sometimes to delight over my sorrow? And how do I sustain my ‘No’ to my son’s early death while accepting with gratitude the opportunity offered of becoming what otherwise I could never be? How do I receive my suffering as blessing while repulsing the obscene thought that God jiggled the mountain to make me better?"
Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis:
“The Bible is a theodicy, a meditation on the problem of evil.”
Sermon by Frederick Buechner:
“Keep in touch with it because it is at those moments of pain where you are most open to the pain of other people – most open to your own deep places. Keep in touch with those sad times because it is then that you are most aware of your own powerlessness, crushed in a way by what is happening to you, but also most aware of God’s power to pull you through it, to be with you in it. Keeping in touch with your pain, I think, means also to be true to who in your depths you have it in you to be – depths of pain and also in a way depths of joy, because they both come from the same place.”
Film: "Father Stu" (2022):
“We shouldn’t pray for an easy life, but the strength to endure a difficult one. Because the experience of suffering is the fullest expression of God’s love. It is a chance to be closer to Christ.”

Stewarding Life Part 11: Stewards of HOPE

Bible Text: John 20:1-20
What does it mean to be a steward of hope in a world of suffering? Considering the experience of Mary weeping outside the empty tomb, Paul suggests that Christian hope is most clearly perceived through tear-stained eyes.
References:
Gideon Heugh's poem, "The light our ruin lets in", in Rumours of Light: https://gideonheugh.com/books/
Holy Saturday Sermon (2024) by Rev Munther Isaac (Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church Bethlehem):    • Easter Vigil for Gaza  

Stewarding Life Part 12: Stewards of PEACE

Bible Texts: Psalm 85 and Matthew 5:1-10
What does it mean to be a steward of PEACE? And what might this look like in our particular context in Northern Ireland? This week we welcome Tony Davidson to help us consider these questions. Recently retired as minister of First Armagh Presbyterian Church, Tony has long been involved in peace and reconciliation. In this sermon, he challenges us to be peacemakers by unpacking the four components of reconciliation: peace, justice, truth, and mercy.

Stewarding Life Part 13: Stewards of DOUBT

Bible text: John 20:24-30
Thomas is often described as the doubting disciple. But is his doubt a sign of his lack of faith? Could it be that the experience of doubt can actually lead us more deeply into a relationship of love and trust with God? Paul considers how we might steward our doubt towards this end in this next part of our series on Stewarding Life.
References
Marilynne Robinson, Gilead:
“Don’t look for proofs. Don’t bother with them at all. They are never sufficient to the question, and they’re always a little impertinent, I think, because they claim for God a place within our conceptual grasp ... I’m not saying never doubt or question,” he goes on, “The Lord gave you a mind so that you would make honest use of it. I’m saying you must be sure that the doubts and questions are your own…”
 
 

Stewarding Life Part 14: Stewards of ATTENTION

Bible Text: John 21:1-14
In an age of distraction it can be difficult to pay attention to God's presence in our lives. In this penultimate sermon in this series, Paul considers the extraordinary story of the disciples' encounter with the Risen Christ to suggest that we need to pay attention to the ordinary because it is there that God most often shows up.
References:
Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark.

Stewarding Life Part 15: Stewards of VOCATION

Bible Texts: Genesis 1:26-28 and John 21:15-19
In this final part of our series on stewardship, Paul challenges us to consider the meaning of vocation. Is vocation just another word for employment? Is it something that is found or formed? And what does Christ have to say about it all?
References:
Wendell Berry's novel, "Jayber Crow", and his non-fiction essay, "Our Deserted Country".
Frederick Buechner: “Vocation is the place where our deep gladness meets the world's deep need.”

Eat This Book: Finding Nourishment in the Psalms | Psalm 1: The Doorway to Prayer

Bible Texts: Psalm 1 and Matthew 5:1-12
In this new teaching series, we begin with Psalm 1 which makes us sit up and pay attention as we embark on a life of prayer. Paul explores the psalm's rich imagery, challenging us to consider the way we are walking and where we look to find nourishment for the journey.
References:
Eugene Peterson, "Praying with the Psalms" and "Eat This Book".

Christian Aid Sunday

Bible Text: John 4:1-30
Rosamond Bennett is the CEO of Christian Aid Ireland. In this sermon for Christian Aid Sunday, Rosamond share's about her organisation's work in Burundi and unpacks for us the story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4.

Eat This Book: Finding Nourishment in the Psalms | Psalm 124 - There's nowhere to go but up!

Bible texts: Psalm 124
Sea monsters, catastrophic floods and Hollywood disaster movies... What do all these have to do with Psalm 124? In this sermon, Paul considers how this Psalm of Ascent helps us to look up beyond the challenges of our present circumstances to see things as they really are.
References:
Eugene Peterson, "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction".

Cultivating Home: Christ Centred Creation Care

Bible texts: Psalm 104:1-18 and John 14:1-6
On Creation Care Sunday, we are joined by Dr Matt Williams, Wildlife and Wellbeing Officer at Jubilee Farm. Combining the grand sweep of the biblical narrative with a focused look at Christ's words in John 14, Matt explores the idea of home and challenges us to consider how we might be cultivators of home in today's world.
References:
Jubilee Farm - https://www.jubilee.coop/
Knockbreda Community Wildlife Garden - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYgrztQvJgk

Eat This Book: Finding Nourishment in the Psalms | Psalm 114 - Redeeming Memory

Bible Texts: Psalm 114 and Luke 22:14-19
Reflecting on his own past trauma, the theologian Miroslav Volf warns that our very souls are at stake in how we remember.
If that's true, then how do we remember rightly? How do we look to our past in a way that gives life in the present and hope for the future?
In this sermon, Paul looks to Psalm 114 for answers. Considering that this is a psalm of memory, likely sung by Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper, Paul suggests that it is a revealing example of right remembering. That is, remembering in three dimensions: past, present, and future...
References:
Miroslav Wolf, "The End of Memory"
BBC TV Drama: "Broken", starring Sean Bean
Video clip from the end of Paul's sermon:    • Marta Gonzalez former Prima Ballerina...  

Eat This Book: Finding Nourishment in the Psalms | Psalm 100 - Twinkle, Twinkle Discipleship

Bible texts: Psalm 100 and Ephesians 2:1-10
Psalm 100 is simple, but that doesn't mean it is simplistic. In this first of two sermons on this short poem, Paul charts a course between the words MAKE, SERVE and KNOW to draw a new constellation and to help us see how worship is essential to being both a disciple of Jesus and being human.
References:
Makoto Fujimura, Art and Faith: A Theology of Making:
“I would be introduced to Christianity later in my life. The journey started like a trickle of water falling from a faucet; drip by drip, through literature and art, through important relationships, and by creating and making, I felt I was honouring the source of beauty and poetry in the world. It took me a while to connect what I was experiencing to the message of Christianity … I understand now what I did not understand as a child: that every time I created and felt that charge, I was experiencing the Holy Spirit.”
C.S. Lewis, The Power and the Glory:
“They (art and music) are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”

Eat This Book: Finding Nourishment in the Psalms | Psalm 91 | Sanctuary Sunday

Bible Readings: Psalm 91 and Matthew 11:28-30
At the end of Refugee Week, Emma Lutton considers what it means for God to be our sanctuary. Drawing upon the experience of her global partners at CMS Ireland, Emma challenges us to have our hands out to those seeking refuge in our midst, ready to give whatever help we can and prepared to receive whatever it is God wants us to learn.

Senegal Sunday

Clare Orr Diédhiou returns to St John's to share about her work with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Senegal, ably assisted in this sermon by her toddler Adele!

Eat This Book: Finding Nourishment in the Psalms | Psalm 8 - What are we made for?

Bible Texts: Psalm 8 and Philippians 2:1-11
What are we made for?
Paul looks to Psalm 8 to answer this question, taking on insights from the world of astronomy, the thought of Marilynne Robinson and the movie Barbie along the way. Interrogating the aspirations of the transhumanist movement, he suggests that the psalmist has much to teach us about the meaning of being human.
References:
Article about robotic skin
Images from the Euclid and James Webb telescopes.
Marilynne Robinson, "Reading Genesis" (2024)
Barbie (2023)

Eat This Book: Finding Nourishment in the Psalms | Psalm 34 - Taste and See

Guest speaker Billy Abwa encourages us to taste and see the goodness of God and challenges us to cultivate resilient joy in our lives.

Eat This Book: Finding Nourishment in the Psalms | Psalm 71 - Three Score Years and Then

Rev Janice Browne opens up Psalm 71 to challenge us about the ways we can serve God in all stages of life.

The Raising of Lazarus

Rev Dr Tony Davidson returns to St. John's with a sermon on the hope to be found in the tender and amazing story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

Eat This Book: Finding Nourishment in the Psalms | Psalm 119 - By Faith, Not by Sight

Scott Robinson considers some verses from the Bible's longest Psalm to consider what it means to live by faith.

Eat This Book: Finding Nourishment in the Psalms | Psalm 133 - Built Together

Bible texts: Psalm 133 and Ephesians 2:11-22
In this penultimate sermon in our summer series, Paul looks at Psalm 133 in light of the recent unrest in Belfast. Reading the psalm in tandem with the Apostle Paul's radical vision in Ephesians 2, he questions whether our picture of heaven is sometimes too neat and too tidy. What if God's kingdom is messier and more beautiful that we could imagine? In response to these questions, Paul challenges us to consider the ways in which we might need to change if we are to better reflect the wonderful diversity of the Kingdom of God.
References:
Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction
Tom Wright, Surprised By Hope
John Stott, The Radical Disciple
The Walled Off Hotel (https://walledoffhotel.com/)

Eat This Book: Finding Nourishment in the Psalms | Psalm 84 - The Hiraeth of Heaven

Bible Texts: Psalm 84 and John 14:2-3
In this final sermon on our series on the Book of Psalms, Paul reflects on the theme of home in Psalm 84. What sort of home are we longing for? How can our anticipation of home gives us a foretaste of the world yet to come?
References: Marilynne Robinson, "Housekeeping".

Net Gain | Part 2: Erasing the Margins | Luke 5:12-26

Bible Text: Luke 5:12-26
What if following Jesus is less to do with the places to which he leads us, and more to do with the people he joins us to on the way?
Paul considers this question as he unpacks for us Jesus encounter with a man with leprosy, a paralysed man, and another group of marginalised figures we might easily have missed...
References:
Homeboy Industries (homeboyindustries.org) and ex-gang member Jose Osuna: “When you walk through those doors, they don’t look at you like you’re damaged goods. They see the potential, and they love you until you can love yourself.”
Rowan Williams, Being Disciples
Candida Moss, God's Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible

Net Gain | Part 1: Follow me! | Luke 5:1-11

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."
In the first of our new series on discipleship, Paul interrogates the truth of this statement with a look at how Jesus calls his first disciples. What might there be for us to learn from the example of Peter and his friends? What are some of the steps we might take towards becoming the people God wants us to be?
References:
Letter written by Yvon Choiunard, CEO of Patagonia: https://eu.patagonia.com/gb/en/owners...
"Being Disciples" by Rowan Williams

Net Gain | Part 3: The Calling of Levi | Luke 5:12-26

The journalist Derek Thompson argues that workism is making us all miserable. But is the cult of work only a modern phenomenon? In this next part of our series, Paul considers how the calling of Levi speaks into today's overemphasis on work as the source of our identity. (And he gets a little confused about horizontals and verticals along the way...)
Resources:
Derek Thompson, "Workism is Making Americans Miserable"
Simone Stolzof, The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work 

Net Gain | Part 4: Confrontation and Cost | Luke 6:1-11

Guest speaker Rev Elyse Niap-McCroskery is a transferring minister to PCI from the Evangelical Christian Church of Timor. She serves currently at South Kirk Presbyterian, where she is the Assistant Minister. In this next in our Net Gain series, Elyse considers how Jesus confronts the religious authorities and presents to his disciples the cost of following him and serving in his name.

Net Gain | Part 5: Blessings and Woes | Luke 6:27-42

"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God."
Jesus' Beatitudes are well known, even to those unfamiliar with the rest of Luke's Gospel. But has our familiarity with these words made it difficult for us to really hear them? What are we to make of the woes that accompany the blessings? And does the meaning of all this change when we listen to Christ's words with a disciple's ear?
References:
Kenneth Bailie, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes 
Quotation by Rowan Williams: "God gives us human beings who make God credible with their lives."

Net Gain | Part 6: Love and Judgement | Luke 6:27-42

How do non-Christians view the church? The "Talking Jesus Report" gives an insight into these important questions, but the answers make for some uncomfortable listening, especially when heard alongside Jesus' teaching on love and and judgement... How we might avoid hypocrisy and embrace Jesus' radical call to live a life of love? Listen as we unpack this important question.
References:
Talking Jesus Report 2022
Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers, 1992.
Quotation from William George Jordan:
“We know nothing of the trials, sorrows and temptations of those around us, of pillows wet with sobs, of the life-tragedy that may be hidden behind a smile, of the secret cares, struggles, and worries that shorten life and leave their mark in hair prematurely whitened, and a character changed and almost recreated in a few days. Let us not dare to add to the burden of another the pain of our judgment.”

Net Gain | Part 7: A Tree and Its Fruit | Luke 6:43-49

As we celebrate harvest, Paul reflects on Jesus' metaphor of a tree and its fruit. Taking us back to the Orchard Country of Armagh, we explore this image with the help of apple trees... What makes a fruit good, anyway? And how can we produce such fruit in our lives?

Net Gain | Part 8: Gratitude and Grace | Luke 7:36-8:3

A Pharisee invites Jesus to a dinner party... What can go wrong?
Paul imaginatively walks us through this well known story of the sinful woman who washes Jesus' feet with her tears. By helping to see this tale through Middle Eastern eyes, he explores the correlation between gratitude and grace and challenges us to show the same welcome to others that God has shown to us.
References:
The Office and Frasier episodes: "The Dinner Party"
Commentary on Luke by Amy-Jill Levine and Ben Witherington

Net Gain | Part 9: Ears to Hear! | Luke 8:4-21

Has the sermon had its day? Does anyone really listen? Is it time for a new approach?
Taking a fresh look at Jesus' well-known Parable of the Sower, Paul makes a gentle defence of this central element of our Sunday worship, reminding us that God still speaks even if the preacher is second rate!
"If you have ears to hear, then hear!"
References:
Marilynne Robinson, Gilead (2004).
Commentary on Luke, Justo L. Gonzalez (2010).
Sermon: "The Parable of the Sower" by Rev. Len Vander Zee, (Church of the Servant CRC, 2023).
Eugene Peterson: "Preaching is the weekly verbal witness to the invisible, inaudible, but eternal presence of the living God."
John Calvin: "It is certain that if we come to church, we shall not hear only a mortal speaking, but we shall feel that God is speaking to our souls, that He is the teacher."

Net Gain | Part 10: Power and Authority | Luke 8:22-39

What are we to make of this strange and troubling story of the demon possessed man living among the tombs? In today's sermon, Paul suggests that embracing the weirdness is offers us a compelling insight into what the Good News of Jesus means for individuals and for community.
References
Television drama: Dopesick (2021)
Poem: High Tower
 

Net Gain | Part 11: Discipleship in Three Dimensions | Luke 8:40-56

Is there more than one way to read the Bible? In this sermon, Paul reads this well-known story from Luke's Gospel from three different positions, asking what God be saying to us as individuals, as a community, and as the church.
References:
Sermon by Rev. Dr. Sam Wells: "How to Read the Bible in Three Dimensions"
Book by Rowan Williams: Being Disciples

Net Gain | Part 12: The Bread of Life | Luke 9:1-20

The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle to appear in all four gospels. But is that because the miracle itself is important? Or could it be that the miracle is little more than a finger pointing us to a deeper truth?
References:
Quotation from Marilynn Robinson: “Without the great analogy that we are images of God, we hardly know what we are.”
Book by David McWilliams, Money: A Story of Humanity
Poem by George Herbert, Love III