As has been my tradition, every sermon that I preach will be posted here. This sermon, Called to be Holy, was given at The Salvation Army Devonport on Sunday 15 June, 2014. The Reading was Matthew 28:16-20.
Have you ever felt that you were too small to really make a difference? Thinking, “this town is too big for me to make a difference” or “how can I make a difference in this world that is so large” or “why would anyone listen to me?”
One of my best friends is absolutely incredible. She’s lived an incredible life – which is another talk in itself – and has been through all sorts of things in that time as well. In 2009, Daena committed to completing one random act of kindness each day, until her 25th birthday. She opened it up so that others could submit their acts of kindness as well, in the hope of getting 1000 acts of kindness by her birthday. Since then, she’s committed to completing a random act of kindness every day, and has done so – apart from a recent 3 month hiatus due to significant family issues – up until this date. On her blog, she says that she is “just an ordinary person looking to make a difference to the world, one small act of kindness at a time.”
I’m reminded of a story from the bible, where 5000 men, with women and children on top of that, were gathered, listening to Jesus teaching. With the crowd being hungry, Jesus poses the question to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” Philip answered saying that “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” Then Andrew pipes up, “There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves, and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Continue reading “Called to be Holy”→
As has been my tradition, every sermon that I preach will be posted here. This sermon, The Best Gift of all time, was given at The Salvation Army Devonport on Sunday 8 June, 2014, Pentecost Sunday. The Reading was Acts 2:1-21.
What was the best gift that you’ve ever been given? Think back over all your birthdays, Christmas, random gifts just for being gorgeous, what was the best gift that you’ve ever received?
When I think back, there’s three gifts that really stand out for me. I’ve brought two of them here today, so I’ll talk first about the one I don’t have. Back when I was about 10, for my birthday I was given a SNES by my parents. This was my first gaming console, and started me on a wonderful journey of gaming that progressed through the Gameboy, N64 and eventually onto PC gaming. I don’t really want to admit how much money I’ve spent on gaming products, but that first system, that SNES, that holds a special place because it was, for me, my first introduction to the world of gaming.
The picture of how I had my room painted.
The second gift was this painting, which is currently normally hangs in our lounge room. This was my 21st birthday present from my parents. I was repainting my room, and I wanted it to reflect my love of the violin. So we colourmatched my violin, and I painted two black F-holes on the wall, and we chose this painting to hang between them. I look at this painting, and I remember back to my 21st, I think of my parents, and the support they’ve given me over the years.
Finally, we come to this, my violin. The label says that it is a 1796 Josef Klotz, however it’s actually a copy, made around 1900 by an unknown German luthier. When I started to take the violin seriously, I needed a better quality violin than the one that I had, which was a 1995 Chinese copy of a Stradivarius. My dad knew of this woman, who had lent him this violin when I first started. She offered to lend me the violin while I was taking my exams.
My violin
All through high school, and then into University, I played this instrument. I learnt it, and through playing its tone which had sat dormant for many years, developed and became my tone. But while it was my tone, I knew that it wasn’t my instrument, and that one day I would need to give it back. My thought was that once I finished my university degree, that I would need to give it back. I played my graduation recital, and invited the owner of the violin to come to dinner afterwards. At dinner, she announced that the violin was now mine, that it was her gift to me. So while those other two gifts were incredible, if push came to shove, I would have to say that this was the best gift I ever received. Continue reading “The Best Gift of all time”→
As has been my tradition, every sermon that I preach will be posted here. This sermon, The Budget, Two Parables and some Teaching from Jesus, was given at The Salvation Army Devonport on Sunday 18 May, 2014. The Reading was Luke 18:1-30.
On Tuesday night, I sat myself down at my computer, loaded up the live stream of ABC24 and watched Treasurer Joe Hockey’s first budget speech. Due to the numerous leaks and strategic misinformation that was around, I was prepared for a lot of what would be presented. But that still didn’t make it any easier. In a word, ouch.
There’s a lot of pain in that budget, and in some ways the only upside that I can see is that we will be getting a lot more people through our doors, just that they’ll all be for our Doorways service. But as I thought about how this budget would affect our nation, I turned to the teachings of Jesus. And I wrote a whole sermon out, and then last night I threw it away and started again. When I returned to the passage, and widened my view, I saw that Jesus’ teaching throughout this chapter, and even the passage following, Jesus’ parables and teaching is just as relevant for us today as it was to those he was with back then. Continue reading “The Budget, Two Parables and some Teaching from Jesus”→
I was putting together my lead for this Sunday’s meeting, and a thought came into my head that the song, “In Christ Alone” might be a song worth considering. If you don’t know it, here’s a version by Owl City (of Fireflies fame)
Now, this song has come under a bit of scrutiny in the past because of its lyrics. Last year, the Presbyterian Church of the USA wanted to include this song in their new hymnal, but decided not to because they were unable to change one of the lines of the song in verse 2. The original verse reads
’Til on that cross as Jesus died
the wrath of God was satisfied
Where as the altered version they wanted to use read
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
the love of God was magnified
And to be honest – the change isn’t a bad one. I think it fits doctrinally, biblically and personally I’m more than happy to focus in on the Love of God (which is very evident in the New Testament) as opposed to the Wrath of God (which is very evident in the Old Testament). However, the original lyrics also work, they are sound, and they also have powerful meaning. When the Getty’s decided not to allow the change, they were well within their right to do so, and for me this issue isn’t a deal breaker.
However, I’m uncertain as to whether to use this song or not. My doctrinal issue with the song comes in the last verse.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man
can ever pluck me from His hand
Now the issue here comes with the ninth Doctrine of The Salvation Army:
We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.
Commonly known as the doctrine of backsliding, this means that as Salvationists, we believe that in order for you to remain in a state of salvation – that is saved by Jesus Christ – you need to continue to have obedient faith in Christ – that is, faith that follows the teachings of Jesus Christ. The flipside of this is that if you stop having obedient faith in Christ, then you lose your state of salvation. There’s no “once saved, always saved” here in the Army. Once saved, you need to keep being faithful to God.
And that’s where the issue lies. For Salvationists, if you stop having faith, then you are effectively plucked from his hand, to use the imagery from the song. Where the song states that there is nothing on the earth or below it that can remove our state of salvation, our Doctrines state that there is in fact a situation where we can lose our salvation.
That being said, there is a different way of reading those lyrics. You could argue that in fact, the line is stating that because my faith is so strong, because I have my continued obedient faith, that there is now nothing that can remove my state of salvation. But it’s a bit ambiguous.
And my problem is that I love the song – the melody is fantastic, the rest of the lyrics are so incredibly powerful, and such a grand statement. But can I, as an officer who is to proclaim The Salvation Army doctrines as the defining articles of our faith, use a song that has one single line that speaks against one of our doctrines?
This is the beauty of our Songbook. When we choose songs from there, we are guaranteed that the lyrics are doctrinally sound to The Salvation Army Doctrines. There have been people – far smarter than myself – who have gone through and analysed, and worked out whether the song can be used or not. I’m certainly looking forward to the release of the new songbook, hoping that it might have a few more recent worship songs which will make planning a meeting easier. When we move away from the songbook – as many corps are doing in order to stay relevant – we need to give at least a bit of a thought as to whether the songs we choose meet the standards set by our doctrines. If not, we have an obligation not to use them in our meetings, because as officers we are to proclaim the Gospel and uphold our doctrines.
So until I am suitably convinced otherwise, unfortunately, I cannot use this hymn, as much as I love singing it. Now I best get back to choosing that final song for Sunday’s service.
What do you think? Does one line mean that we shouldn’t sing this song? Is there a strong argument that means that it can be used in a Salvation Army context? or am I just overthinking things?
“More than anything, this truly is the living word.”
How many of you believe everything that you see on TV? What about everything that you read in the newspaper? What about everything that you read online? Because if it’s on the internet, that makes it true doesn’t it? How many of you believe what is written in the Bible?
As has been my tradition, every sermon that I preach will be posted here. This sermon, Being a Light to the Community, was given at our Installation service at Devonport Salvation Army on Sunday 12 January, 2014. The Bible reading wasMatthew 5:13-16.
I don’t know what you’re thinking about me right at the moment, but one thing that I can tell you is that I’m a bit of an odd person, and I like odd things. My wife won’t disagree here. I like Star Trek and Lord of the Rings, and I play musical instruments with strings, not brass. Before I went to the Training College, I spent 18 months in the Media and Communications department at the Uniting Church Synod office, where I did, amongst other things, a lot of looking at and editing photos. One thing that I learned to appreciate was the different types of light. Continue reading “Being a Light to the Community”→
General and Commissioner Cox, Commissioners Tidd, members of the cabinet, Representatives from the University of Divinity, Training Principal Major Geoff Webb, Training College officers and staff, cadets, officers, soldiers and friends of The Salvation Army.
In January 2012, 26 new cadets entered the Salvation Army Training College in Royal Pde, Parkville. We came from many, varied backgrounds: a primary school principal, a music store owner, multiple it workers, a podiatrist, customer service rep, a child support worker, various positions from what my mother-in-law calls the bang-bang army; and more. We came from many different countries – from Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Sudan – though while we were in college Dit’s homeland became South Sudan. We lost one last year, when Paul was commissioned as a Proclaimer of the Resurrection, to return to start his ministry in Taiwan, and one this year who, in her words, “the training college don’t want to let go of as they’d be lost without her.” We gained 2 Envoys who have heard God’s call to this next step in their ministry, and so we stand before you as 26 cadets, soon to be among the newest Salvation Army officers in this worldwide Army. Continue reading “Graduation Representative Speech”→
It was another day of study and reviews. Slowly but surely, most of the cadets are finishing off their last assignments, and getting on with a bit of packing.
We also had another doctrine rehearsal. As part of the commissioning and ordination, we declare the eleven doctrines of the Salvation Army, from memory. In order to aid or memorisation, we have rehearsals, so that we can memorise them, and get our timing together so we all say them together at the same time. I’ll go through the doctrines at a later date, but I just wanted to say a little bit about memorisation.
It’s important, I think, to memorise the doctrines, because these are the central elements of our faith that we hold to be true. In eleven relatively short statements, we declare what we believe, and why we believe them. Memorising them helps us make them central to our Christian practice, to shape everything we do in our ministry.
What have you had to memorise? What’s helped you in memorising it?
Another study day today, more Greek, and some house work. Nothing overly exciting, except that I took Liesl out for lunch as she’s finished all her assignments.
Ben Clapton 