Urban Vineyard

Jonathan unpacks one of Jesus' shorter and perhaps lesser-known parables from Mark 13:34 – the parable of the doorkeeper and the faithful household. This was a parable Jesus gave within the flow of an apocalyptic discourse with his disciples to encourage them to endure the end-of-the-world, both in the literal sense (the end of all things) and in the personal sense (the little apocalypses lif...

In this sermon, Jonathan unpacks one of the darkest and most disturbing parables Jesus ever told – the so called "parable of the wicked tenants." Of course, the title of that parable is not one which Jesus or the early church chose. It's a later translators gloss which shapes our reading in a mostly unhelpful way. A better title would be the "parable of the madly hopef...

In this final sermon in our Opening to God series Makerita reminds us that we pray and intercede not from a place of striving but from the security of the victory that God has already won.

Lloyd teaches on the great Biblical themes of Pentecost and in doing so, invites us to thicken our theology of the Holy Spirit and the Church.

Jesus taught us to pray that God would bring his kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven." We might be tempted to think it is up to us, and our busy missionary activity, to bring the kingdom of God to earth but this would be a reversal of what Jesus taught. In this fifth sermon in our series on the Lord's Prayer, Makerita introduces us to the heart of contemplative prayer as a continua...

In this sermon, James highlights the way prayer is about learning to hear what God wants and to add our agreement to it. This does not mean we can't ask God for the things we are seeking but rather, that a clearer perspective on who God is reframes our desires and reorders our asking.

In this third sermon in our series on prayer as opening to God, Jonathan explores the nature of prayer as relinquishment. Reflecting on the life of Jacob, and St Ignatius of Loyola, he draws connections between their lives as stories of being brought low, forced to relinquish, and discovering the blessing of God in the darkness. This is expressed perfectly in Jesus' prayer of relinquishment i...

The basis of prayer is a response to what God has already done. His is the first word and ours is the second. Prayer is the aftermath of the event of God. It naturally follows, therefore, that the first words from us is an acknowledgement of who he is. In this talk, John begins our journey through the Lord's Prayer by reflecting on the call to "hallow" His name.

"Love got up" That is the message John Peachy brought us this Easter Sunday. The cross and resurrection is the unbroken signpost which points fully and finally to the perfect love of God.

In this first sermon in our new series, Jonathan introduces the idea of prayer as 'opening' to the God who is already speaking. Following David Benner and Eugene Peterson, he looks at the promise of prayer as a means for us to unite our lives to God, not as a means of religious achievement, but as a way of becoming human.

Are humans merely flesh and blood or is there a vital part of us that can't be measured by microscope and test-tube? People all over the world and right across the great span of human history have unanimously claimed that we are more than the sum of our physical parts; we are also spiritual. However, beyond that claim any agreement breaks down and quickly splinters into a million different &#...

Jonathan continues our series on finding our way in the wilderness, leaving behind broken signposts, and finding our way with Jesus. In this sermon, Jonathan looks at the longing for truth and the problem with our inability to secure it. Using the Gospel of John, he shows that Jesus' ministry was centred on revealing truth and casting out lies. Jesus both embodies truth as its source and pure...

In this second sermon in our Lenten series on broken signposts, John Peachy offers us wisdom on the topic of freedom. Freedom is a universal longing, but as the story of the Bible and the story of human history goes, we don't often know what to do with it. Framed in the negative ("freedom from" rather than "freedom for") we tend to default to pleasure seeking. This, ironic...

Lent is an invitation to 40 days in the wilderness with Jesus. The wilderness is a place of simplicity and stripping away. In the wilderness we carry only what is essential to our survival and we journey beyond what is familiar and comfortable. The wilderness is also a place of disorientation and reorientation – where the easy pathways are obscured and where we must learn to navigate by d...

What would Jesus want to say to us in 2026? Following Matthew 4:17-5:11, we see that he would firstly want to remind us that in him, the kingdom of heaven has drawn near. Second, he would want to stroll into our lives to call us by name and interrupt everything we thought we knew about how this world works. Finally, he would want to speak a blessing over us; not in the hollow terms of the kingdoms...

Following on from Jim's sermon last week on Mark's account of Jesus calming the storm, Pete takes us through Luke and Matthew's account of the same event showing how Jesus is present to us whether the storm is raging or whether the storm has been stilled and that he wants to bring his blessing not just to us as individuals but to all the other 'boats' in the same sea.

Jim shares an encouraging message from Mark 4:35-41 to remind us of three things: 1) Jesus Loves taking us into the unknown, 2) we might think Jesus doesn't care 3) but Jesus wants to see what we are made of.

In this second sermon of the year, the magnificent John Peachy offers us a heartfelt, insightful, and grace-filled reminder that the God we serve is one who loves us 'without flaw' (perfectly, completely, utterly) even within our flaws. Sharing from his own story, John reminds us that while our awareness of flaws lead us into the lie that we are abandoned, rejected, forgotten, and unlove...

"Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Lloyd opens our first gathering of the year by reflecting on the wisdom and challenge found in psalm 90 and inviting us to examine and adjust our lives, habits and practices in light of God's grace.

The third Sunday of advent is a time for reflecting on the joy of the gospel. In this sermon, James makes the point that joy cannot be established by any earthly power or agency; no human circumstances can secure our joy; it can only be brought by Jesus who draws people in to be freed from evil, transformed, renewed and shaped to be like him. In Jesus' earthly ministry we the seeds o...

In this second talk in our advent series, Lloyd returns to that question of what it looks like to hope in the dark. Reading from Isaiah 11:1-10 he shows that people of faith have always hoped when things looked at their worst. How can fruit grow from a stump? How can he bring renewal into this world, and into our own hearts when all seem as hard and cold as stone? The same way he always does –&amp...

"You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers. The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near" (Romans 13:11-12).What does it mean to discern the dawn of God's new creation? It means to recognise the time; "the night is nearly over; the day has drawn near." As we enter into...

In this final sermon in our series, Jonathan returns to some themes from earlier messages, looking at how fear leads to malfunctions in our giving but that God's commitment to forming Christ in us, both individually and collectively, will ultimately bring us through these malfunctions and into the freedom for which we so keenly yearn.

In this third sermon in our new teaching series, Lloyd opens up various parts of the Bible to show how we can discover our identity as steward's (rather than owners) of God's abundant resources. He makes the case that as we live into our identity as stewards, we discover freedom from being "possessed by our possessions." Lloyd encourages us to consider our role as stewards of t...