Below are previous messages from our Sunday Services.
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Nehemiah 9
Nehemiah 8
Nehemiah 7
Nehemiah 6
Tēnā koutou katoa
Over the years I have used a number of objects in church in an effort to try and give a sense of the celebration of Pentecost. Orange, red, and yellow balloons. A birthday cake for the church. An oscillating fan. These crepe paper strands on the end of pews signifying flames (pictured in the banner above). A ping pong ball suspended in the air through the blast of a hair dryer! Trying, inadequately, to point towards something beyond words.
In the Acts of the Apostles we hear how the disciples have gathered – they have been told to wait and they do. And they have this experience that has been described as, like the sound of a rush of wind, and, like tongues of fire amongst them. They have the experience of the power of the Holy Spirit flooding their beings. Those disheartened are renewed – prodded into life and enabled by the Holy Spirit which transforms them again and makes them bold. Jesus’ promise to them has been dramatically fulfilled.
The Holy Spirit is the presence of God for all of us, not just for those early disciples. The Holy Spirit is our help, our guidance, our counsel, and our comfort. The way of the Spirit is mysterious and blows where it wills. It is experienced in a variety of ways.
In the scriptures the description of the Holy Spirit is diverse. Sometimes the Spirit is a mighty force that overwhelms the person/s. Sometimes the Spirit appears as an ecstatic kind of speech. And at other times the Spirit is described as the breath of God that gently works in the world. Sometimes it is the still small voice.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his prison meditations* spoke of a certain experience that he had of the Holy Spirit:
“I vividly recall that night (of torture)…and how I prayed to God that he might send death to deliver me because of the helplessness and the pain I felt I could no longer endure, and the violence and hatred to which I was no longer equal. How I wrestled with God that night and finally in my great need crept to him, weeping. Not until morning did a great peace come to me, a blissful awareness of light, strength, and warmth, bringing with it the conviction that I must see this thing through and at the same time the blessed assurance that I should see it through. Solace in Woe. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. This is the kind of creative dialogue (the Spiri)t conducts with (humankind). These are the secret blessings (the Spirit) dispenses which enable a person to live and endure…”
The resurrection brought hope and new life to the disciples. They were lifted out of the experience and grief of Good Friday and given a sense of a new and profound understanding and experience of the divine. Yet it was Pentecost that energised them, set them on fire. They were empowered and amazing things were made possible.
At times, life in the church can be challenging and we have our disappointments. We seek to live in the ways of Jesus but sometimes we stumble. Our celebration of Pentecost holds out to us the promise of new possibilities. Of being energised and empowered as the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit stimulates and enables us. Let us hold on to that promise, be open to the work of the Holy Spirit, and seek to serve our God in this time and place.
Rose
Right Rev Rose Luxford
Moderator Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand
* Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison. New York: Macmillian
Resurrection Hope
I have been in ministry for 26 years now, and every Easter, I find myself experiencing the same dynamic. I cannot begin to write my Easter Day sermon until I have led/attended the Good Friday service. I need to first go through the Good Friday experience. It is a process of following the story, and not engaging with the resurrection account until after the crucifixion. Without reflecting on the events of Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion, we cannot fully appreciate the joy and significance of the resurrection.
Easter is at the heart of our faith. And the narrative it brings to us – that life is stronger than death, that hope is stronger than despair, that the light is stronger than the darkness – makes us an Easter people. People of the resurrection. That large narrative provides a framework in which we live out our lives.
When we have those times of ‘walking through the valley of death’, we carry with us a sense of that overarching hope. When we are racked with grief, we have the inherent hope that healing and wholeness will come. And through the cross of Jesus Christ, we have the assurance of coming into deep relationship with God our Creator. There is a reuniting, a reintegration of that which has been torn asunder.
The word salvation comes from the Latin root of salus or salvus, which can be translated as health. To be whole, to be integrated. Reintegrating, reuniting from what we were estranged from, equipping us for the kind of life our Creator intended us to have.
Resurrection is mystery and promise, reality and hope.
The dimension of hope was fundamental to the thinking of the New Testament writers. The suffering of Christ and the suffering Christians were undergoing were the birth pangs of a new age. In Christ, God had begun to move with power. Christian faith was faith in one who had raised Christ from the dead and therefore they could persevere with hope and confidence, joy and expectation.
And that continues to speak to us today. The resurrection event of Easter is not just something we remember as a past event, it is a continuing reality which gives us hope today. We live in a world that is in real need of a sense of hope. Individuals, communities, countries alike. There are many who are feeling disconnected, isolated, overwhelmed with the pressures around them and the polarization of society. The Easter narrative has something important to offer in this space. A word of hope into situations of despair. A promise of reintegration after brokenness. A sense of ‘gathering in’ as opposed to separating out. Relationship with the Risen Christ who connects with us on this journey of life and holds out the promise of fullness of life. In Christ all things are made new.
This Easter may we all experience afresh the life-giving joy of being people of the resurrection, and may that be something we in turn live out in our communities.
Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!
Rose
Right Rev Rose Luxford
Moderator Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand
Two Trees Part 20: Life or Death. Recap & Reflection.
Darkness – Light
Curse – Blessing
Separation – Salavtion
Despair – Salvation
Fear – Trust
Click the image for a link to our You Tube page to hear this message.
Peace Sunday Moderator Message
Pastor Peter Morrow, July 23
Sunday, 30 October 2022
Part 18: Reading the Bible can be heavy going because it is more than Books, Songs, Chapters and verse. Seeing the ‘Big Picture’, and our place in it, has always been the challenge. From Abraham, Moses, and the early church leaders to you and I, knowing our place in the Story can be a daunting prospect – but no one is ever too old, too insignificant or unworthy of being part of God’s Story.
Sunday, 16 October 2022
Part 17: The New Testament in particular, has much to say about the body and its relevance cannot be underestimated. We all have a frame we walk around in and are conscious of, and hopefully, want to look after it! How does our bodies make up the Triune spirit of God?
Sunday, 9 October 2022
Part 16: We exercise a desire to pursue God and we do so not for self-glory but His delight. So, what does that pursuit look like? and, what does it mean to be a human being?
Sunday, 25 September 2022
Part 15: As we reflect on the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II we look at her faith in the ‘King of Kings’. She was an earthly monarch who knew the heavenly one, how can we know Him in prayer?
Sunday, 4 September 2022
Part 14: Conflict is never easy, and reconciliation can be even harder. How do we deal with conflict in our personal and spiritual lives? What does emotional maturity look like, and how can it be developed to help us move through the restoration process?
Sunday, 28 August 2022
Part 13: This episode of the Salt Shaker Series looks at the 4P’s of the church and how the local church is revitalized.
Sunday, 21 August 2022
Part 12: Guest speaker Kevin March contributes to our Salt Shaker Series in part 12; the focus of this message is ‘Salt’, its historical uses, how we use it today and its application to the church.
Sunday, 14 August 2022
Part 11: The focus of this episode is ‘Hospitality’. The local church is to be a haven of hospitality. Across Scripture hospitality occupies a central place in God’s plan and purpose. So what does that look like?
Sunday, 7 August 2022
Part 10: In this episode of the Salt Shaker Series we take a closer look at Ephesians 2. Examining how to be alive in Christ and when being a good person falls short of God’s holy nature and character.
Recommended readings: Genesis 12: 1-5, Ephesians 2 (NIV)
Sunday, 31 July 2022
Part Nine: Our Salt Shaker Series continues as we explore prayer and its ability to transform everything.
Sunday, 24 July 2022
Part Eight: Our Salt Shaker series continues exploring the ministry that needs to occur within the local church.
Sunday, 3 July 2022
Part Seven: We our Salt Shaker series continues with a focus on continuity and change: preserving that which is good – within the church and in our lives.
Sunday, 26 June 2022
Part Six: In this message we look at what happens when church is hard. What do we do when the preconceived ideas of what is ‘acceptable’ in church (and what isn’t) is a far reach from what Scripture teaches?
Sunday, 19 June 2022
Part Five: The Saltshaker series (on the Church) continues, this time considering the analogies of ‘lighthouse’ and ‘safe harbour’.
Sunday, 5 June 2022
On Pentecost Sunday we explore the person, work and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Sunday, 29 May 2022
Part Four: Our fourth installment in the ‘Salt Shaker Series’ looks at Jesus’ parable of the Vine (John 15: 1-17) and its application to the Church.
Sunday, 15 May 2022
Part Three: Our third installment in the ‘Salt Shaker Series’ looks at the definitions and metaphors surrounding church life.
Sunday, 1 May 2022
Part Two: This is our second installment of our ‘Salt Shaker Series’: The Teaching Series on the Church. This weeks message focuses on Martin Luther’s hallmarks of the true Church.
Sunday, 24 April 2022
New Series: Salt Shaker Part One
The Church: Misconceptions & Misunderstandings.