Our responses to different situations tell a lot about us. Some people are good in a crisis, they respond rapidly in the midst of stressful situations where others might freeze. Some people respond slowly, and I have just as much respect - if not more! - for people who have the presence of mind to wait patiently until they have the right thing to say or do. How we respond to God is another situation again. When God lays something on us that requires a change of heart how do we respond?

Change of any kind is always unsettling but being unsettled isn’t always unwelcome. Sometimes responding to God requires us to change our minds and sometimes that change turns out to be what we were looking for the whole time.

~ Tim Foulkes

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A one hit wonder.

That’s what we call an artist whose star flamed brightly for a brief moment and then lapsed into obscurity. One such artist is Joan Osborne. Back in 1995 she had a massive hit song (#1 in Australia, #4 in America) titled ‘One of Us’. It’s got a crunchy little distorted guitar riff and some pretty ordinary rhymes, but not the usual lyrics for a hit pop song. Osbourne sings:

What if God was one of us

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Trying to make his way home?

That’s not a bad question, even for Lutherans who believe that God was one of us. But, how much humanness will we allow God to have? Will we allow God to be ‘a slob like one of us’? Or, would we rather keep him at arm’s length, safe in heaven?

This is one hit that makes me wonder.

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If you are unable to access spotify, 2026 sermon recordings can be found here

Fishermen are generally considered masters of the tall story. The ‘one that got away’ is always the biggest fish they might have caught. Perhaps Jesus’ rubbing shoulders with too many fishermen meant their tale tales rubbed off on him as he told the story of a king who wished to settle his accounts. One of the king’s slaves owed him 10,000 talents. Now, just one talent was worth more than 15 years’ wages of a labourer! My maths was never any good, but by my calculations that slave would have to work for 150,000 years to pay off the debt! Now what kind of God king would be kind crazy enough to allow someone to get into that kind of debt in the first place? And, what kind of God king would be kind crazy enough to cancel that sort of debt?

Ha! Good one, Jesus.

Please note there is currently no audio recording of this week's sermon available. However, click here for a link to listen to all our previous sermons from this year over on our spotify podcast "Sermons @ St J's". If you are unable to access spotify, 2026 sermon recordings can be found here