John Hebenton's Podcast

Sam Held uses Mark 1:40-45 - the story of Jesus healing a leper to explore uncondional love He writes,"The willingness to give freely is a positive characteristic in a person, and we might add, a necessity for a follower of Christ. There is a lot to be said for giving, it is normally a source of pleasure and thankfulness for the receiver, which in turn can make us feel good too. If the gift i...

John briefly explores Candlemas, finishing with the importance of Christ the light - how does light Christ enable us to see ourselves and the world we live in.. Then he uses the article The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think by Johann Hari to refelct on Mark 1:21-28 and what it is that Jesus might be liberating those in the story and those hearing the story...

John uses the reading from Jonah (3:1-5, 10) and the Gospel (Mark 1:14-20) to reflect on our calls and to ask what we might be invited to this year.

John explores the role Mary plays in helping us enter into the mystery of Christmas, and living out God’s faith, hope, peace and hope for all people the rest of the year. Question to reflect on Who is Mary for me? How does she help or hinder my life in Christ?

John asks what gives us joy as we approach Christmas, and then uses the readings from Isaiah and John to explore what gives God joy.

Using Isaiah and Mark John suggests that God did come and is coming ready or not. So what does that mean for us preparing and waiting through this time of Advent? What does that mean for us as people about to celebrate 200 years since Gospel and Anglicanism came to this land?

John explores Advent as a time to hear the invitation to see the world through God’s eyes, to long for all God longs for, and to be part of the coming in to being, and invites people to approach Advent slowly, out of the normal rush, taking care to be part of God’s ongoing work of salvation

John explores three ways Matthew 25:14-30 or the Parable of the Talents can be understood and invites people to reflect on which help them live in the presence of God now.

John explores the gospel reading (Matthew 25:1-13) to suggest that we need to build lives of resilient faith that will continue to keep us in the long haul. He then invites people to think about the practices that sustain their faith, and wonders how they relate to the events around this time - Parihaka Day, and Remeberance Day.

Readings: Psalm: Psalm 90:1-6, 3-17; First Reading: Deuteronomy 34:1-12; Second Reading: 1 Thess 2:1-8; Gospel: Matthew 22: 34-46. In this sermon I talk about how the yoke of Jesus changes how we understand the Torah – from rules to obey to earn God’s love and forgiveness, to the way we respond to God and love God with all our heart and mind and soul. Love is described as trust, loyalty, enduring...

John uses the Exodus reading (Exodus 33:12-23) to ask, "what does the back of God look like?" Moses was most concerned about how to be a distinctive people. How does our seeing the back of God help us be distinctive? And using the gospel reading,(Matthew 22: 15-22) how to we as people who are shaped by the back of God live in such a way that all creation and all that is in it is honoured...

This sermon builds on last weeks sermon. This gospel reading needs to be read both in context of the gospel, where it comes in the story and what comes before and after it, and in the context of the time. When read in this way I wonder that the chief priests and elders, the Jerusalem leadership heard as Jesus told this parable, until Jesus makes it very clear what he thinks of them. And I wonder w...

John explores the question posed to Jesus by the Jerusalem leadership about his authority using material from Rob Bell’s “Velvet Elvis”. In doing so he suggests that not only was Jesus acting as a revisionist Rabbi (You have heard it said, but I say to you….) but in giving the early church the power to bind and loose, gave the early church and its successors the authority and the responsibility to...

In this sermon John explores the notion of missional community – being a community that by the way we live for each other and the people of our local community, especially the least, we shout of God’s presence in the world. He then uses Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks by August Turak to think about what are the targets we aim for and how they limit us and prevent us being such a missional c...

John uses the three readings to explore the big question – who are we? From there he asks 3 questions – what seismic shifts are we invited into ourselves? What is our vocation in this place? What is my role in that vocation?

John explores three different ways of reading the gosple for this day (Matthew 15: (10-20) 21-28). The first is that Jesus is just rude. The second that here we see both Jesus and the early Christian community struggling with the universal implications for what Jesus was teaching and living out. To read it in this way people need to keep in mind some information about how the New Testament came to...

Feeding of the 5000 men plus women and children is more than a nice story. It is an embodied parable about the kingdom of heaven – a kingdom or empire where all have more than enough to eat – good news indeed for the poor and hungry who have come to Jesus for hope and consolation after the death of John. John uses this to reflect on the Lord’s prayer, and on peace. He then invites people to reflec...

The Kingdom of Heaven is presented as being like a weed, like a woman hiding yeast in flour, like a tenant farmer finding treasure and somehow buying it, like a merchant selling all his stock to purchase a pearl of great price, like a fishing net dragging ALL in. It is not what is expected, not where it is supposed to be, not doing what it is supposed to be doing. it is just not what we are lookin...

John suggests that in the story of the sower we are offered picture of a recklessly generous God who seeks to sow life wherever. While we can read the soil types as different people, it is also us. We are a mix of soils. And that reckless God keeps on scattering that seed of life within us. In this way we are blessed to be a blessing. How then do we nurture our good soil and help that seed grow, t...

John uses the story of Rebekah and the servant of Abraham to introduce being open to a different life. He then uses Richard Rohr's "The Art of Letting Go, the wisdom of Saint Francis" to explore making room for God and opening ourselves to a greater vision for life.

In this sermon John explores this is very hard but important reading. In it He suggests that we are given a glimpse of the angst within the Godhead around the Jesus event, and an image of the faith, love, trust and hope we are invited into as followers of the way. Briefly look at others who have lived out that life. Finally he explores how this reading offers us real hope and faith in a world wher...

Graham Cameron, (Piri Rakau and a member of St. Georges) talks about what happened here in Tauranga Moana 150 years ago, and in particular the Battle of Te Ranga. He uses Paul's letter to the churches in Rome to offer some theological reflection on what that story means for us today both as Anglicans (on this Sunday we celebrate our constitition, Te Pouhere), and as people living the Way of C...

Pentecost invites us to let go of our past and to embrace God’s future. John uses Dianne Butler-Bass’s work to explore some of what that future might include as we prepare for our AGM, and to help people feel excited about the future rather than apprehensive.

The Very Rev. Richard Giles, Visiting Fellow of St John’s College, Durham and author of Re-Pitching the Tent: Re-Ordering the Church Building for Worship and Mission , Creating Uncommon Worship: Transforming the Liturgy of the Eucharist and Time and Seasons: Creating Transformative Worship throughout the Year preached on 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11. He begins with “it’s not fair!” I was too slow turni...

When we think of missionary in this context we often, maybe usually think of English men and women bringing the gospel to Maori. But like Paul who had inside knowledge (He grew up in the Greek world and Luke reports he had some knowledge of Greek philosophical thinking) European missionaries in this country had inside help – Maori who either took the gospel home with them when released from slaver...