All around us people are talking about issues of identity, lifestyle and values. Our media is full of discussion about these issues. Our schools are teaching about them. Laws are being made about them. The Bible has things to say on all these topics but its voice often isn’t heard as loudly as that of the society around us and its campaigners. As followers of Jesus, we are called to love and live as he taught us. We are called to be faithful to his radical way of being and doing. It is important that our views on identity, lifestyle and sexuality are informed by our faith in Jesus as saviour and Lord and grounded in what the Bible teaches us.
This sermon series is part of what we are doing to help us explore some of these issues. Our hope is that it will equip us to understand better what the Bible teaches us about who we are and how we can live more faithfully as followers of Jesus in the modern world; and give us confidence in what our faith has to say on some big, contested issues so we can understand why the gospel is good news for all.
9th October God’s world
readings: Psalm 65; Colossians 1.15-23
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges we face today. As we celebrate Harvest, we give thanks for God’s world and recall that he has asked us to care for it. Remembering that it it is God’s world of which we are stewards will help us make the changes we need to play our part in addressing climate change.
16th October Who am I?
readings: Psalm 139.1-18; John 1.1-14
Our culture tells us we have the right to choose everything about ourselves and that our identity is rooted in on our feelings. The Bible tells us that we are created by God to be his children and this is the basis of our identity. Therefore we do not begin to understand or construct our identity with a blank sheet but with what God has said about us and how he has made us.
23rd October Called to holiness
readings: 2 Peter 1.3-11; Matthew 6.25-34
We are told that our success in life is measured by what we have. The Bible tells us that it is who we are that is important and invites us to let the Holy Spirit gradually change us so that we become more like Jesus. What might it look like for us to live lives marked by holiness?
30th October Together not alone
readings: Romans 12.3-8; Luke 8.42b-48
Loneliness is one of the great problems of our day, made worse by the pandemic. The stories of Jesus healing people in the Bible often involve him restoring them to their community as well restoring them to health. Jesus invites us to live as part of community which will enable us to thrive more than if we are on our own.
6th November Living Simply
readings: Deuteronomy 24.17-22; Acts 4.32-37
Our care of God’s world, our identity in Christ, our freedom from striving for success in worldly terms and our greater awareness of community will all help us to live more simply so others may simply live. Living simply will look different for each of us; what might it look like for you?
13th November Remembrance Sunday
20th November Faith and Science
readings: Proverbs 8.1-6, 22-31; Romans 11.33-36
We live in a society that tries to set science and faith against one another, yet many prominent scientists are Christians. How might we show that faith and science are not incompatible and that the truths of the Bible continue to stand in the face of scientific breakthroughs?