BeaMidbar

Sermons and Reflections by Bethany Austin

Tag: Mark

Baptism and the Flood
February 18, 2024

Baptism and the Flood

This year, the RNLI celebrates its bicentenary. Since its formation, the charity has saved over 144,000 lives at sea. In 2022, they saved 389. Still, millennia after the the composition of today’s Bible readings, and after our recent eras of massive growth in maritime technology, and health and safety, the sea is a mighty adversary to be feared. An agent of chaos which cares not as it indiscriminately claims the lives of sailors, refugees, and holidaymakers.

Original Darkness
November 7, 2021

Original Darkness

Last week, I went to my cousin’s child’s baptism. Our family descended en masse to their local Methodist church, to watch as our first family member of a new generation was welcomed into a much larger family.

Gift
October 3, 2021

Gift

It seems that the golden thread linking today’s readings is God’s grace in creation. From the Hebrew Bible, we hear of Adam and Eve’s creation as a gift for the human, from the Epistle, we hear of humanity’s creation as little lower than angels, from the gospel we hear again of the creation in Genesis and of the grace of Kingdom that is received only through our created nature as children.

God will never leave you alone
July 4, 2021

God will never leave you alone

Two big things happened to me this week. I moved back to the North West, and I wasn’t ordained deacon.
On Wednesday, I loaded all of my belongings into a van, drove them to Liverpool, and unloaded them again into my new house.