Faith Speaks — Reverend Neil Taylor — Sermon Podcast

Read Luke 3.7-18 Third Sunday of Advent (Year C) John the Baptist helps us perceive and make use of the riches of the faith, helping us live faithfully here and now, even as we look forward to God’s redemption. John encourages us to be who we are called to be, where we are, in the meantime.

Read Luke 3.6 Second Sunday of Advent (Year C) Advent suggests that God seems to want us to wait. God seems to expect expectation. God seems to know that the proximity of desire is not the same as experiencing the fullness of life in the moment.

Read Luke 21.25-38 First Sunday of Advent (Year C) From Pharaoh in the first chapter of Exodus to today’s tyrants and autocrats, fear is how we turn those who are different from us into an enemy. Fear causes us to horde. Fear causes us to assume we will never have enough and to see those around us as competitors. Fear drives wedges of distrust into our communities that fracture solidarity and comp...

Read John 18.28-19.16 The Feast of Christ the King | Pentecost +26B Pilate wavers back and forth between Jesus and his accusers, like a drunken sailor trying to walk from the pub back to his ship. And that’s just the point, Pilate wavers! He knows what is right, but he also knows what is easy. He also knows what is politically expedient, and he’s torn between the two. Ultimately he takes the easy...

Mark 13.1-11 Pentecost +25B In time—in God’s time—what is said by Jesus will happen. Of course, we would like to know when that is; however, that is not our calling. We are called to live now, allowing the promises of God about the future to infuse our every present moment. Because when we live looking for the activity of God, here and now, we will begin to see it.

Read Ephesians 6:19-24 All Saints Sunday | November 7, 2021 The question that needs asking is will you love the legacy? Laying hold of the future; laying hold of a refreshed and reengaged assignment? A refreshed and reengaged calling? A refreshed and reengaged mission because my Bible says: “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). The legacy is the same; it is unchanging; t...

Read Deuteronomy 6.1-9; Mark 12.28-34 Pentecost +23B For his first-century listeners, Jesus probably could have stopped with, "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart". Because all that follows (soul, mind and strength) are implied in the biblical understanding of "heart". But for us as twenty-first-century listeners, we have shrunk the definition of heart to emotions. So when we he...

Read Mark 10.46-52 Pentecost +22B As believers in Jesus, we love this story. It is such a lovely warm story that shows the loving care of Jesus toward a man in desperate need. Here’s an interesting fact. This is the only person healed by Jesus recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, who is actually named — Bartimaeus. It’s as though by the time Mark wrote this gospel, this man had becom...

Read Mark 10.32-52 Pentecost +21B That’s the big question in our gospel text today, Who will you serve? I don’t know if you got a prickly feeling when you heard those words, or you just glossed over them, not noticing how much the words in the question run against your grain. Either way, I’ll ask the question again: who will you serve? As a culture and as a species, we tend to prize freedom. We te...

Read Mark 10.17-31 Pentecost +20B "Lack" takes on many forms in our life. This story asks us to ponder how we might complete the sentence, "I lack ....................." All of us have at least one thing we lack, and that needs to be figured out, but the issue of lack takes on a particular meaning in this story; it is that which prevents you from a full expression of faith. What is the one thing a...

Read Genesis 2.18-24; Mark 10.2-16 Pentecost +19B This passage is often listed among the “hard sayings” of Jesus, but “painful,” “distressing,” or “agonising” would be more like it because each time this passage is read and heard in a congregation, many of us cringe. We cringe feeling assaulted by it directly, or we start worrying that others are being assaulted.

Provocateur — The Parables of Jesus Bridesmaids Read Matthew 25.1-13 We all have stories. Stories help us make sense of who we are and the world we live in. They shape our culture. They shape our relationships. They shape our decisions. They shape us. Jesus is the most famous storyteller who ever lived. Throughout His ministry, he taught with thought-provoking ‘parables’ — stories coloured with pr...

Provocateur — The Parables of Jesus Dives & Lazarus Read Luke 16.19-31 We all have stories. Stories help us make sense of who we are and the world we live in. They shape our culture. They shape our relationships. They shape our decisions. They shape us. Jesus is the most famous storyteller who ever lived. Throughout His ministry, he taught with thought-provoking ‘parables’ — stories coloured with...

Provocateur — The Parables of Jesus Brothers Read Luke 11.11-32 We all have stories. Stories help us make sense of who we are and the world we live in. They shape our culture. They shape our relationships. They shape our decisions. They shape us. Jesus is the most famous storyteller who ever lived. Throughout His ministry, he taught with thought-provoking ‘parables’ — stories coloured with provoca...

Provocateur — The Parables of Jesus A Certain Rich Man Read Luke 12.13-21 We all have stories. Stories help us make sense of who we are and the world we live in. They shape our culture. They shape our relationships. They shape our decisions. They shape us. Jesus is the most famous storyteller who ever lived. Throughout His ministry, he taught with thought-provoking ‘parables’ — stories coloured wi...

Provocateur — The Parables of Jesus Midnight Read Luke 11.5-13 We all have stories. Stories help us make sense of who we are and the world we live in. They shape our culture. They shape our relationships. They shape our decisions. They shape us. Jesus is the most famous storyteller who ever lived. Throughout His ministry, he taught with thought-provoking ‘parables’ — stories coloured with provocat...

Provocateur — The Parables of Jesus The Good Samaritan Read Luke 10.30-37 We all have stories. Stories help us make sense of who we are and the world we live in. They shape our culture. They shape our relationships. They shape our decisions. They shape us. Jesus is the most famous storyteller who ever lived. Throughout His ministry, he taught with thought-provoking ‘parables’ — stories coloured wi...

Read Mark 9.38-41 Pentecost +18B I think this week’s reading from Mark’s Gospel contains a heart-breaking line of Scripture: “...and we tried to stop him because he was not following us” (v. 38). Just pause and think about that for a moment. The disciples come across someone who, as they report to Jesus, was “casting out demons in your name.” That is, they came across someone who was easing intens...

Read Mark 9.30-37 Pentecost +17B Greatness, we assume, implies power. It means accomplishment, fame, wealth, and other things that allow you to do something, such as influencing people to go your way. But that’s not what Jesus says, and to drive his point home, he scoops up a young child into his arms and tells them: “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me” (v. 37)

Read Mark 8.27-38 Pentecost +16B Self-denial and cross-bearing are not about being less happy. Self-denial and cross-bearing are about discovering real and abundant life. This culture can hardly imagine the kind of life that comes through sacrificial love in service to another.

Pentecost +15B Read Mark 7.24-37 The Stranger's Blessing Jesus begins this tradition vs. moral argument with the Pharisees early on in His ministry when He defended His disciples as they picked heads of grain on the Sabbath. It's interesting to note that the traditions the Pharisees value serve more to make them look good than to worship God. We Christians still argue about tradition, like what sh...

Pentecost +14B Read Mark 7.1-23 Rules & Regulations Jesus begins this tradition vs. moral argument with the Pharisees early on in His ministry when He defended His disciples as they picked heads of grain on the Sabbath. It's interesting to note that the traditions the Pharisees value serve more to make them look good than to worship God. We Christians still argue about tradition, like what should...

Pentecost +13B Read John 6.59-69 “Words of Eternal Life” Jesus identified Himself as the bread of life, the living water, and the way. He did not present Himself as a source of salvation but as the only way to salvation. Without Him, without the bread of life, there is no hope for salvation. By identifying Himself as the source of forgiveness, Jesus makes the path to repentance and a relationship...

Pentecost +12B Read John 6.51-58 A "Living" Bread Jesus identified Himself as the bread of life, the living water, and the way. He did not present Himself as a source of salvation but as the only way to salvation. Without Him, without the bread of life, there is no hope for salvation. By identifying Himself as the source of forgiveness, Jesus makes the path to repentance and a relationship with Go...

Pentecost +11B Read John 6.35-41-51 Ordinary Time Jesus identified Himself as the bread of life, the living water, and the way. He did not present Himself as a source of salvation but as the only way to salvation. Without Him, without the bread of life, there is no hope for salvation. By identifying Himself as the source of forgiveness, Jesus makes the path to repentance and a relationship with Go...