John Hebenton's Podcast

John explores Luke 16:1-13, the story of the Wasteful Steward. He wonders whether he really was dishonest, or lazy. He goes on to use this story to talk about the living wage concept and the upcoming local body elections.

John Hebenton talks about his time in the Solomon Islands, Australia and South Africa, offering some thoughts along the way.

Explores Lukes story of Mary and Martha, partly as it addresses the challenge of offering hospitality for house churches, and partly as Jesus opening up all roles to all people.

Today’s Gospel reading, despite its familiarity, never fails to challenge my thinking and to kick start my efforts to live out my faith in my life! Today we hear Jesus tell a story in which three men see a man in the ditch – but only one stops to help him. It is a story about being a neighbour and it emphasises Jesus’ priority of loving God and loving one’s neighbour. Having told the story, Jesus...

In this sermon I explore the sending out of the seventy in Luke, using the rise of the Mendicant Orders in the Western Church. I do so in the hope that we will all hold lightly to money and grow in faith

Uses the story of Elisha healing Naaman to look at how our God will not conform to our expectations and hopes and keeps doing the unexpected

In this sermon I talk about who we are passing our mantle on to and what are we passing on? In response I hope those who hear this will reflect on the important people in their lives and how they helped shaped them today; how they seek to help shape and support younger people today; and what they need to let go of to pass on the mantle of Christ

Wendy Showan explores the story of the Sinful Woman in Luke 7, and compares her actions to Simon the Pharisee, and us.

I explore why we would want to celebrate Te Pouhere, the constitution of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. I examine the central place of Te Tiriti o Waitangi tin that constitution, and use Paul to look at how the early church sturggled with similar issues. My hope in doing this is that people will be better informed about Te Pouhere and think about how we might live it o...

Readings:Hebrew Scripture: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 Psalm:Psalm: 8Epistle:Romans 5:1-5Gospel: John 16:12-15 What I want to say:I suggest that a good understanding of the Trinity is important to help us understand who we are and what is ours to do. I explore Social Trinitarianism and suggest things we might need to let go of . As it was time for our AGM I talk about things we might need to let go of a...

I suggest that the miracle of Pentecost is not that the Spirit God came down in power and allowed the early followers to win converts through signs and wonders. I think the miracle of Pentecost is:people were to able worship God in own languagethe early followers stopped looking for the day when God would return and restore the Kingdom of Israel and they would be in winners circle, but with humili...

We read a lot about prayer in today’s readings. In Acts 16:16-34 Paul and Silas are on their way to pray when Paul stops to expel the spirit from a slave girl who was making a great deal of money from her fortune telling ‘gifts’. Not surprisingly, the slave girl’s owners were incensed as they saw their earnings disappearing! They seized Paul and Silas and brought them before the authorities. They...

An exploration of the story in John 5 where Jesus heals the man at the pool by the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. We continued to explore why we struggle to love one another, and how who we love and how we love keeps being made smaller by culture and religion. In light of that we looked at how Jesus overcomes all of that to see, know, and speak to the man, healing him of both his disease (physical sympt...

An exploration of the New Commandment given by Jesus as recorded by John, noting that loving one another is not easy – as New Testament (Acts, Pauls writing) show or as history church shows. Our failure to live out this “simple commandment” has led directly to us standing at dawn remembering those went to war on “our behalf”. Then explore the examples of Henare Wiremu Taratoa and Heni Te Kiri Kara...

Readings:First Reading: Acts 9:36-43 Psalm:23Epistle:Rev 7:9-17 Gospel: John 10:22-30I want people to continue to embrace a bigger understanding of what it means to be the people of GodPeople to spend more time knowing “his” voice, and listening

Jesus physical resurrection is a sure sign that God is in the business of redeeming this world, and is not just interested in what happens later. That means we have to be interested in God’s work of redeeming, recreating, resurrecting this world, bringing it from death to life. Finally God is compassionate, and invites us as far as we are able to go, for now, but keeps on inviting us to go further

Explores the good news of Easter using three questions:owhat is one important thing about you, and what comes to mind when you think of Easter?oWhat image of God am I given in the Easter storyoWho am I in the Easter story?