Readings

Exodus 32: 1-14

Maurice Andrew puts the impatience of the Hebrew people into our context by saying:

This is like New Zealanders as they often act in both politics and in ethnic and social relationships, wanting to get on with things, making quick decisions.  We think that not mucking about is realistic, when all along we have not admitted what the true foundations and goals are.  Quick decisions favouring immediate goals cause time-consuming problems. ^[1]

One time when our granddaughter had been staying with us she remarked that she needed to get back to work to continue her battle with Parks and Reserves.  In answer to my follow up question she said they wanted to install new play equipment before she fixed the drains, and if she doesn’t the new play equipment will sink into the ground with the next big rain event.  The reality is that these tasks are better done in order, to be done well. Fast track is not always the best track.

We also need to avoid creating gods of our past treasures at the expense of new innovative design that may better serve a new and different future.

The story of the golden calf is of course grounded in earlier episodes where difficulty causes the people to see security in past slavery and fear the freedom they are journeying towards.  The golden calf is not their god but a tangible image they can enslave themselves to.

As well as mental images of God to suite our personal situations within Christianity our secular world also encourages us to enslave ourselves to ideologies such as ‘the free market’ or ‘competition’ or even Andrew’s ‘not mucking about’ and all such ideologies bring some form of judgement.

Matthew 22: 1-14

In following their agenda of searching for the authentic words of Jesus, the Jesus Seminar say Matthew has deviated from the original parable found in Luke 14:16-24 and Thomas 64: 1-12 and created an allegory of salvation history from a Christian perspective.

The king (God) prepares a feast for his son (Jesus) and invites his subjects (Israel) to the banquet.  They treat the invitations lightly or kill the king’s servants (the prophets).  The king destroys them and their city (Jerusalem) and invites others (foreigners) to the feast.^[2]

In this understanding the Romans are the unwitting agents of God who destroy Jerusalem, an event Matthew has witnessed, and he then goes on to add the guest who is not properly dressed which is in line with his theme that the Christian community contains a mixture of good and bad.

This is the Gospel of Christ.

Sermon

Many Christians grow into the church with quite a conservative evangelical, almost fundamentalist, faith. As their faith matured they became much more questioning and, for want of a better name, liberal.

Continue reading Sunday 11th October 2026- Rev Hugh Perry →

Bible Reading 1 (Exodus 20:1-4,7-10,12-21)

‘10 Ways’

Moses was always listening for God’s messages, so that he could teach about God’s loving ways. Moses was leading the people of Israel away from Egypt, where they had been made slaves by the pharaoh, toward a new country and freedom. It was a long journey. It was a hot journey. They were thirsty and tired. Soon they forgot God’s loving ways; they quarreled with one another and they complained about Moses. It was a hard time for the people; it was a hard time for Moses. When Moses and the people arrived at a mountain called Sinai, God asked Moses to come up the mountain. Moses went up the mountain; it seemed as if he went right up into the clouds. There God gave Moses some important things for the people to remember. When Moses came back down, he told the people what God had said. “Remember how I brought you out of Egypt, out of slavery,” God said. “Remember also the promises I made to your ancestors; I promised that you would be a great nation and that people will be blessed by you. Life should be changed for people who are my followers, and other people should notice that you are different. Here are some ways that you shall live. 

Continue reading Sunday 4th October 2026: Rev Stephanie Wells →

The Readings

Exodus 16: 2-15

Maurice Andrew says ‘that creation does not liberate oppressed people, but liberated people must be able to live from creation’ ^[1]  That was very much the reality of the early migrants to this country, both Polynesian and European.  The early hunter gardener Polynesian migrants would have needed to develop new skills for new species and environment and many of the plants they brought wouldn’t grow in the more temperate climate.

Early European migrants came with farm animals and exotic plants from a similar climate and there were established communities of hunter gardeners to trade with.  But the land they came to was covered in forest so they still had to forage for much of their food until their form of agriculture became established.

In any migration both big and small there is bound to be a time when the past is viewed with envy and the decision to move is seen as the greatest disaster ever made.  Faced with challenge people prefer slavery to freedom because slavery also has security and freedom is always freedom into an unknown wilderness.

Matthew 20: 1-16

Hiring day labourers was a normal occurrence in Jesus’ time although usually carried out by the manager rather than the householder.  Those offering themselves for hire would likely have been people uprooted from peasant farms by wealthy landlords foreclosing on debt or forced from their farms because they could not support their household.  During harvest and planting work at minimal wages on a daily basis was readily available but in-between times it was not.

Therefore, life was unpredictable and marked by unemployment, malnutrition, starvation, disease, minimal wages, removal from households, and begging.  Their situation was more precarious than slaves since an employer had no long-term investment in them.^[2]

Sermon

Like all of Jesus’ parables today’s reading is about the kingdom of God.  It is not necessarily about industrial relations, or any form of class struggle but it certainly has element of that along with our ability to divide into in groups and out groups.

Continue reading Sunday 20th September – Rev Hugh Perry →

Readings

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 

We need to remember that Jacob had been renamed Israel at the wrestling incident because both names are used in this reading that begins in the household enterprise of ‘Jacob, Jacob and Sons.’^[1]

The family dysfunction that is being passed on from generation to generation now takes a deadly turn with the suggestion to kill Joseph.  This is mediated by one of the brothers when the chance to profit by Joseph’s demise presents itself and his life is saved by selling him into slavery.  Of interest is that it is the descendants of the other branch of Abraham’s family, the Ishmaelites, that save Joseph and save the divine promise.    Maurice Andrew notes that the promise is put in danger by family conflict but Joseph has the ability to channel the conflict into survival for them all because he understands God acting through the events.^[2]

Matthew 14:22-33

We now close this chapter of teaching through parables and the feeding episode with a crossing episode and one section is joined to another by a crossing episode.  Jesus is shown to have control of the sea and the storm which is a divine creative action.  In Canaanite mythology God creates the world by pushing back the waters of chaos and there are hints of this in the Genesis creation accounts as well as Proverbs.

We should also remember that God saved the people by pushing back the waters of the sea when they were escaping from Egypt, a new creation of a new people, and this chapter of Matthew contained the wilderness feeding so Matthew is continuing the new people of God through a new Moses theme.

Warren Carter points out that there is an instruction here to rely on Jesus in tough times and the rough sea symbolises the power of evil and chaos that rebel against God. ^[3]  This is an episode in which acts like  God in front of the disciples and they affirm his divinity.

Sermon

I have never imagined myself ‘walking on water’ but I have certainly waded through it.  Recently I stepped in a very soft base in a very cold lake and was forced to quote Bluebottle and call out.  ’I’ve fallen the water’

Continue reading Sunday 9th August 2026- Rev Hugh Perry →

TEXTS:
Romans 4: 13-25
Genesis 12: 1-9
Genesis 17: 1-7,15-16

Sermon: “Faith 2”
In both readings from the book of Genesis we hear of God’s amazing promise to Abram to make him the father of many children. As a sign of this Abram has his name changed in the later chapter to Abraham which means ‘ancestor of a multitude’.
God is also definite that this promise includes Abraham’s wife, Sarai, as well, who is to be known as Sarah from now on; ‘the mother of nations’. This is a repeat of the promise that God had made to Abram when he first left the city of Ur to come to this strange land of Canaan. Despite all Abraham’s mistakes, all the years between the first and this
one God is faithfully holding onto the original promise made.
What an amazing God, and so worthy of worship and yet in the very verse following the last passage it says this; “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed”.

Continue reading Sunday 2nd August 2026: Rev Stephanie Wells →

A question! What was Jesus’ main message?
Even today I suspect many would respond with ideas about heaven, salvation,
forgiveness, eternal life. And over the centuries Christianity certainly developed rich and
meaningful theologies around those themes. The early Church in struggling to make sense
of Jesus’ shocking execution, searched for language expansive and big enough to explain
what his life meant…

Full Reflection: Reflection 26 July 2026

Genesis 18: 1-15

The chapter begins by saying that Yahweh appeared to Abraham.  However, Abraham lacks the reader’s insight but his first reaction to the arrival of strangers is to offer hospitality, and as a result he finds himself entertaining God.  This finding God in hospitality to strangers is also in Luke’s Emmaus Road incident. Last week we were told that Abraham was seventy-five when he began his journey and age again features in this section.

Like Abraham and Sarah, it is important for us not to get tangled up in the biological plausibility

We must but accept the message that there is a reality beyond ourselves that calls us to achievements we easily allow our past to label as impossible.  Allowing God to speak to us through the Bible requires us to focus on the meaning contained in the story rather than question the happenstance of the narrative.

Matthew 9: 35-10: 8

The closing verses of chapter nine sum up the essence of Jesus’ ministry of teaching, preaching and healing and anticipates the sending out of the twelve by establishing a great need to expand Jesus’ mission.

The community of the twelve, is not like the hereditary priesthood of the time, but is given authority by God’s action in Jesus.  The number twelve reflects Israel’s twelve tribes that formed a tribal confederacy marked by tribal self-governance, egalitarian structure, and resistance to oppressive Canaanite city-states.

Therefore, the suggestion is that this new community will reflect those ideals and be an alternative community of different social patterns, shared resources, and resistance to oppressive structures.  Indeed, they were to proclaim ‘The good news, the kingdom of heaven has come near’ (Matt. 10:7). ^[1]

The twelve are sent out as apostles which is a Greek military term for an ambassador who, in the days before text messages, had the authority to act on behalf of the general who sent them.  We finish at verse 8 but if we continued to verse 23 we would discover that the disciples are to make themselves vulnerable.

They are not even able to take a staff to defend themselves and must rely entirely on the hospitality of those who will receive them.

Sermon

‘I don’t know if things happened this way but I know this story is true’.

In one of his books Marcus Borg quotes an indigenous American storyteller who began their creation myth by making that statement.

Continue reading Sunday 14th June 2026- Rev Hugh Perry →

Readings

Acts 1:6-14

This passage is a sort of ‘story so far’ that picks up in more detail the action from the close of Luke’s Gospel.  Luke’s Gospel finishes by saying:

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them.

While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven.  And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God. (Luke 24:50-53)

Luke’s Gospel is a journey from the countryside of Galilee to Jerusalem, the centre of the Jewish world.  In that closing Luke has given a preview of what is to come and returned the disciples to Jerusalem.

There they will be commissioned as Apostles by the Holy Spirit at the Pentecost festival and sent out on the Acts journey which the Risen Christ makes through his apostles from Jerusalem to the centre of their world—Rome.

Barclay notes that throughout his ministry Jesus laboured under the disadvantage that his message was that the kingdom of God was at hand, but his Jewish audience always saw that in terms of them being the favoured people who would be given world domination by God.

Jesus sees the kingdom of God as society here on earth functioning the way God intended and. no matter how haphazard history appears to be, it is working out some divine purpose.  Therefore, we should not speculate when it might come to an end but play our part in living the divine purpose into reality.

Continue reading May 17 2026- Rev Hugh Perry →

Readings

Acts 2:14a, 22-32

Following Easter we read from the book of Acts which not only tells of the rise of the early church but also the first reaction to the resurrection by the followers of Jesus.  To fit the Christian year we skip the details of the Pentecost episode and begin with Peter’s Sermon immediately after the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

The major thrust of the sermon argues that Jesus fulfils prophesy in Hebrew Scripture which is a feature of the Christian testaments.  William Barclay suggests that ‘to believe in the possibility of prophecy is to believe that God is in control and that God is working out the divine purpose’.^[1]

What would certainly seem to be true is that the gospel writers looked to find meaning in the life of Jesus through their sacred text and expressed that meaning to their readers through proof texts and allusion.  As the Emmaus Road episode illustrates that may also reflect the way the followers of Jesus found meaning in what they had experienced of Jesus. Their heart burned within them as they shared the scripture along the way.

Hear what the spirit is saying to the Church.

Thanks be to God.

John 20:19-31

This is a private transfer of the Holy Spirit which makes a wonderful counterclaim to those Christians who demand proof of our commitment to Christ through a public ‘Pentecostal’ experience of the Holy Spirit.

This episode connects with the first chapter of John’s Gospel where John the Baptist says he saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus.  As John baptises with water, the reader is told, Jesus will baptise with the Holy Spirit.  Now in the locked room the spirit sequence is completed.  The Holy Spirit came from God into Jesus at his baptism; the risen Christ is therefore able to pass that Spirit on to the disciples.

Thomas’ doubt in no way inhibits his apostolic mission because there is strong archaeological and mythic evidence that Thomas established a church in India long before the European church was established and even predating the writing of the Gospels.

This is the Gospel of Christ.

Praise to Christ the word.

Sermon

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.[2]

Continue reading April 12 2026- Rev Hugh Perry →

Readings

Exodus 17:1-7

Writing of this Exodus reading Maurice Andrew suggests that :

Creation does not of itself liberate an oppressed people, but a liberated people must also be able to live from creation, as we see when, after only three days in the wilderness, they find no water.  After liberation, people become migratory and their wandering is characterised not by the will to go forward for life, but by the desire to return to security.  In the difficult period between liberation and the gaining of land, which the wilderness wandering represents, the limitations of the people are witheringly exposed. ^[1]   We could call this episode ‘the whinging in the wilderness’ and there is a lot of it about.

John 4: 5-42

We often get long readings from John’s Gospel because in John’s Gospel Jesus makes long complicated theological speeches and the teaching is in those speeches rather than in the description of events.  In this episode we get the vision of the inclusive Christ who will accept a drink from a woman who is of a race considered unclean. Jesus also teaches this woman and sends her out on mission and she in turn brings people to Christ.

Sermon

The Exodus journey certainly had its issues with Moses’ leadership right from the very beginning.  When the escaping slaves saw the Egyptians advancing on them, they cried out:

‘Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?’ (Exodus 14:11)

You will remember that the Egyptians were fearful and resentful of the growing population of Israelites. The Egyptians blamed the Israelites for everything that went wrong.  Not just unemployment and the rising cost of housing but inflation plagues as well.  They were pleased to get rid of them.  They might have even called them illegal immigrants.

Continue reading March 8th 2026: Rev Hugh Perry →

Readings: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 and Matthew 4:1-11
Growing Up in God.

Let us pray.

God of the wilderness, As we enter the season of Lent, we gather to seek your guidance as we look anew at biblical stories, and think about our responsibilities as stewards of your creation. Amen.

In the 1500s a reformed theology emerged from the Roman Catholic tradition- a movement of change. Perceived doctrinal errors were abandoned and the written word became available to all people.

And in ancient times these were collected and written down for us in the Genesis scripture – then poetic stories of creation from ancient storytellers who embraced and lived with mystery, not fact. Creation as we now know it evolved over billions of years- not the symbolic 6 days. But the biblical creation poetic story touches us in a deep, unique spiritual way,
E.g. – “Adam & Eve heard ‘the sound of the Lord walking in the garden at the cool of the day” – Storytelling is an unrivalled way of conveying a message, a truth. God was there in the beginning of time.

Today’s readings speak to our human longing to understand, to grow, to be in a relationship with God. And they invite us into a different way of understanding what it means to be faithful, mature, and truly human.

Continue reading February 22nd 2026: Tricia Crumpton →

Readings

Isaiah 58:1-9a,

Isaiah’s words are more detailed and have more of a challenge to them than a similar reading from Micah. But Micah wanted us to walk humbly with God, but Isaiah also wants some action, a rethink of our expectations and lives changed.

Maurice Andrew suggests that people want to be given credit for their fasting, but the trouble is they serve their own interest on a fast day, oppressing their workers.  Balanced budgets and increased productivity are not satisfactory in themselves unless bread is shared with the hungry and the oppressed are allowed to go free. ^[1] 

Matthew 5:13-20

Today’s Gospel follows on from Beatitudes which were directed to the disciples.  Those same disciples are now instructed to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world.

Warren Carter points out that ‘as salt of the earth the community of disciples, not the ruling elite or the synagogue, are to live this flavouring, purifying way of life that is committed to the world’s wellbeing and loyal to God’s purpose’.^[2]  The disciples are to live in the world in the midst of the poor in spirit, the mourning, the powerless, and the hungry and thirsty, dominated and exploited by the ruling elite.

To shine as a light, to be salt, and to be a city on a hill is to be living out the attitudes espoused in the Beatitudes.^[3]

Sermon

This is the Sunday nearest Waitangi Day. A time when we celebrate the beginning of our nation with a treaty which, despite what followed, was a genuine effort to humanise colonialism.  Early colonisers who rightly felt cheated by the New Zealand company forced the confiscation of Māori land with unfortunate results. But over recent years we have made huge steps to honour the treaty, restoring mana and lost wealth.  We have tried to bring Māori culture into mainstream Aotearoa and celebrate the uniqueness of who we are becoming.

But in the last two years we have seen a backlash against such progress from people who ought to know better.  Continue reading February 8th 2026: Rev Hugh Perry →

TEXTS:

Matthew 5: 1-12 [NRSV]

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them saying:

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’

‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.’

‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.’

‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.’

‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.’

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.’

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’

‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’

‘Following God’s rules’

Jesus tells us here that these people should consider themselves blessed; the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, peacemakers, and those who are persecuted. Sometimes we think his words mean that if we are meek we will be blessed, that if we are persecuted we will be blessed, and we put up with situations we shouldn’t because of it. Continue reading Sunday 1 February- Rev Stephanie Wells →

Readings

Isaiah 42: 1-9

In our reading from Isaiah we get a fair amount of the scripture that outlines Jesus’ mission beginning in verse one where the divine voice declares ‘I have put my spirit upon him,’ which of course we will read about shortly in Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism.

This Isaiah passage could easily be read as Jesus’ mission plan and I am sure it would be acceptable to both the Synod and the Presbytery.  However we must always keep in mind Dr. Andrews’ caution, mentioned regularly in The Old Testament in Aotearoa New Zealand, that Hebrew Scripture was written for its own particular time and place.  Nevertheless that doesn’t stop the Gospel writers using texts like this to frame their story of the life and meaning of Jesus.  Indeed, as other scripture indicates that was the tradition of the genre in which they wrote.

Matthew 3: 13-17

Chapter 3 of Matthew’s Gospel introduces John the Baptist using much of Mark’s original text.  John is cast as a returning Elijah with his description alluding to 2^nd Kings verse 8 where Elijah is described as ‘A hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist.’  According to scripture Elijah did not die but was carried up to heaven in a whirlwind, and, as the expectation of a messiah grew so did the idea that Elijah would return to announce the arrival of God’s Messiah.  Therefore Mark, with the other Gospel writers copying, has the Elijah figure of John the Baptist arriving on stage, by the Jordon, where Elijah had left.

We begin our reading where Jesus arrives to be baptised.  Warren Carter, in his commentary, notes that the heavens opening to reveal divine knowledge is a traditional motive in both Jewish and Roman literature and he draws attention to the importance of liberation through water in the exodus account.^[1]  Bill Loader makes the point that ‘In all the gospels the baptism has a mythical quality as portraying a point where the heavenly world and earthly reality meet’.^[2]  But unlike Mark, where only Jesus hears the divine voice, that heavenly proclamation is addressed to everyone in Matthew.

In framing the Gospel within traditional motives the gospel writers want us to understand is that everything that happens in Jesus’ ministry is part of their religious tradition where new things grow from past tradition.

Sermon 

The last verse of Shirley Murray’s hymn links our two readings together and maps out our calling for this year.

Prophets are our travel agents,

gospel-makers lay this road:

to the place of peace and promise

faith will take us to our God.

So far the new lectionary year has led us through Advent and Christmas. It now begins again the mission journey of Jesus.  In line with the concluding verse of Shirley Murray’s hymn the travel agent prophet who books the beginning of our faith journey this morning is Isaiah.

But, with the exception of a few diversions to view significant events it will be Matthew that lays the road this year for our retracing of the discipleship journey.

Continue reading Rev Hugh Perry, Sunday 11 January →