PODCAST · religion
MustardSeed Talks 2018
by David Gore
Weekly conversation from the MustardSeed Ultimo Uniting Church congregation in Sydney, Australia.
Episodes
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Growing up (David Gore • Luke 2:41-52)
Growing up has never been easy. Every culture develops its own forms of ritual and celebration to test and form the character of its young people making the transition to adulthood. In Jesus’ day, the Bar Mitzvah (lit. Son of the Law) marked the Jewish boy’s transition to full participation in…
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True Sacrifice (David Gore • Hebrews 10:5-10)
Sacrifice can cut in more than one direction. It can mean the taking of another’s life that serves as an offering designed to preserve one’s own life. Alternatively, it can mean the willing giving of one’s own life in order to bring life to others. Jesus, by his life, death and resurrection,...
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The Purifier (David Gore • Malachi 3:1-4)
Malachi prophesied at a time when things were tough in Israel and the people expressed a longing for God to arrive in the form of his anointed one. Malachi assures the people that God would be coming and soon. In fact, Malachi is at pains to tell the people they are not really ready for God’s...
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Judgement and Righteousness (David Gore • Jeremiah 33:14-16)
There are many prophecies in the scriptures. There is quite a range of styles from a bit vague all the way through to quit specific - and everything in between. Prophetic language can come across as somewhat poetic. It seems to leave open a scope of possible meanings to the interpreter. Perhaps…
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New Living Way (David Gore • Heb 10:19-25)
When the writer to the Hebrews uses terms like ‘Holy Place’ and ’sprinkled’, he is drawing on the rich tradition of the temple priesthood as it functioned in Israel for many generations. The tradition is being drawn on, but also modified. Formerly, there was a physical location known as the Holy...
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Real Salvation (David Gore • Hebrews 9:24-28)
The writer to the Hebrews wants to make clear that the way Jesus has engaged the sacrificial system, the system that had always managed the community’s sin, was such that he changed things forever. Rather than offering the blood of an animal, Jesus allows himself to become the blood sacrifice of...
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Love God and Others (David Gore • Mark 12:28-34)
Many people have heard of the ‘Golden Rule’. The idea that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Ideas like this are found in a number of different religious traditions expressed in slightly different ways. In Mark’s account, Jesus prefaces his version of the Golden Rule with...
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A Radical Salvation (David Gore • Job 42:1-17)
Anyone who lives beyond their adolescence becomes increasingly aware of the reality that life’s circumstances can be fickle. One minute all can be well. The next, the bottom can be falling out! The story of Job recounts such a scenario. It includes a series of conversations between Job and his...
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A child like this (David Gore • Mark 9:30-37)
After Peter’s bold declaration in Mark 8, Jesus begins to drill down into the pivotal nature of his teaching and his life. As we progress through Mark 9, Jesus takes advantage of some uninterrupted time to attempt to clarify for his disciples just what his Messiahship is really all about. But his...
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A different way (David Gore • James 2:1-17)
When James (in his letter) addresses the human tendency toward favouritism, he is acknowledging that we almost cannot help but notice some people more than others. It is interesting to consider what it is that draws us to the particular people we tend to notice. James wants to say it is not our...
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Doers or only Hearers? (David Gore • James 1:17-27)
The words in James’ letter can come across as fairly harsh and directive in nature. The letter has been said to not display an over abundance of grace. The overall thrust of what James is saying wants to challenge the notion that we can believe in something without it having any tangible impact…
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Bread of Heaven (David Gore • John 6:51-58)
Jesus as the bread from heaven offers a different kind of nourishment to us. Jesus is not like the previous manna that came from heaven. That nourishment lasted only a day or so. Jesus’ nourishment is eternal. But how do we ingest this nourishment? (how does one consume a metaphor?!) In addition…
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Flesh eating controversy (David Gore • John 6:35, 41-51)
Few things in ancient Israel or current day Australia could evoke a similar level of repulsion as the thought of cannibalism. The practice is outlawed today in our culture, just as it was in ancient Israel. This begs the question, why would Jesus use an idea that seems so much like cannibalism to...
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Self(ish) Deception (David Gore • 2 Samuel 11:1-15)
Every person has probably done something that, given the opportunity, they would do differently. But taking action, that lays the cost of the consequences on someone else, is the more disastrous when done by a person who carries considerable responsibility. The subsequent cover up can be more...
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Eternal Shalom (David Gore • Ephesians 2:11-22)
The notion of Jews and Gentiles standing together as one people might seem less of an impossible dream for us these days. In the time when Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesian church, the idea of Gentiles and Jews identifying as one with each other was pretty much unthinkable. Paul indicates it…
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Hope (David Gore • Psalm 130)
Hope is an essential ingredient for a fulfilling life. Hope calls us on to better things in such a way as to enable us to be fully present in our current circumstances. Hope means there is always something more to look forward to. Hope subverts regret - in that it does not allow our past actions…
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Unity (David Gore • Psalm 133)
Churches (and other groups) sometimes feel the need to speak about unity when they are facing the threat of factional elements. Yet true unity is not about the avoidance of factions. It is about the way we regard and prefer one another. Unity does not put a limit on diversity. It is a commitment…
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The MustardSeed (David Gore • Mark 4:26-34)
Sometimes a thing that appears quite insignificant can give rise to history shaping consequences. If you do not know how to value the death and resurrection of Jesus, it might appear as a quizzical fascination of history. Something modern minds would readily dismiss as mythical nonsense, but for...
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Law: Intent and interpretation (David Gore • Mark 2:23-3:6)
The apostle Paul speaks of the law functioning like a tutor for the people, teaching people about the ways of God in preparation for the fulness of the revelation that was to come in Christ (Gal 3:24). When Jesus enters the narrative, he appears to play a tad ‘fast and loose’ with the law. His...
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Pentecost (David Gore • Acts 2:1-21)
Almost 2 months since the fateful morning Jesus was crucified, a small group of disciples is hiding. They are keeping out of sight of the authorities - who they felt sure would be after them - just as the authorities had crucified their leader. Nothing could have prepared them for what was to...
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In but not Of (David Gore • John 17:6-19)
As followers of Christ living in the wake of two millennia of Christian influence in our culture, it can be difficult to appreciate the radical nature of the shift in understanding of God that Jesus brought about. Jesus exposed the secret hidden in the archaic sacrificial mechanism... victims of...
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Abiding in Love (David Gore • John 15:9-16)
The idea that keeping Jesus’ commandments equals abiding in his love is not immediately straightforward to us. Keeping commandments sounds like obedience. That sounds more like earning favour than being loved. Earning favour is a familiar motif for many of us in various aspects of our lives… and…
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The Good Shepherd (David Gore • John 10:11-18)
For the urban dweller, the notion of a good shepherd might easily be a quaint and/or romantic image that engenders a vague sense of comfort. After all, a good shepherd has to be better than a bad one, right?! When Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd, he is not saying simply that he is...
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Knowing and Making Known (David Gore • Luke 24:36-48)
What is it that we are making known when we share the gospel? Is it simply a ‘narrative outline’? A story we tell like so many other stories we tell every day? Is it a testimony of our experience? A witness to the impact of living into this gospel story? And what part do our ‘troubles and doubts’...
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Witness to Resurrection (David Gore • 1 Corinthians 15:1-11)
The other apostles walked around Palestine with Jesus before he was crucified. Paul only met Jesus after Jesus was risen. Paul’s first question to Jesus was, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Paul learns about Jesus as the risen Lord, and this shapes the way he learns. 2000 years later, our experience - while...
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Should I stay or should I go? • Kent Crawford
In Sydney, in the 21st century, it is a challenge not to simply read the accounts of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances through a lens of suspended disbelief. We want to believe. But sometimes the evidence to support belief in our day seems very thin on the ground. I am not convinced it was any...
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Palm Sunday (David Gore • Mark 11:1-11)
The time is at hand. Expectations are running high. A critical mass of the population believe Jesus might actually be Messiah. How does Jesus signal the coming of his Messianic reign? He selects a... colt! A mini ride. No shades of triumphalism here. This is a clear message to the people that…
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A New Covenant (David Gore • Jeremiah 31:31-34)
The words of Jeremiah’s prophecy in chapter 31:31-34 are truly prescient. When we consider the social, cultural and circumstantial environment that Jeremiah found himself in, what Jeremiah is saying here is extraordinary. These words foreshadow a time when there will be an unprecedented immediacy...
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Made Alive (David Gore • Ephesians 2:1-10)
The notion of being alive and yet dead sounds pretty strange at first. Some might think of the image of the zombie… the undead… alive but not alive. If we think about it for a moment, there are probably plenty of times in our own experience when we can identify closely with the concept of being…
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Prayers of the people (Ray Murray • 11 Mar 2018)
Ray offers his gift of thoughtful and well articulated prayer to lead the people at MustardSeed. Let us pray...
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Wisdom & Folly (David Gore • 1 Cor 1:18-25)
It has been said that with age comes wisdom. But the wisdom of age seems to be simply the wisdom of THIS age. What can we know of a wisdom that does more than help us navigate our way through this life? Is there a wisdom that sheds light on that which is truly worthwhile? A wisdom that reveals...
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Beyond Normal (David Gore • Mark 8:31-38)
The confrontation between Jesus and Peter in Mark chapter 8 serves to highlight just how far outside established expectations was the nature of Jesus’ way of being Messiah. But Jesus in no way backs off. He makes it even clearer. Jesus’ way challenges our usual way of self-preservation. Saving…
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Ray Murray's prayer for the people
Ray's prayer moved a number of people - they asked to hear it again...
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God's Grace Shaped Love (Joy Steele-Perkins)
When Jesus was sent by the Spirit into the wilderness it was, for him, a time of clarifying who he was and how he would pursue his sense of call in the world. A number of easier options were offered to Jesus by his tempter. Options that appeared to get him where he wanted to go - only with less...
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Staying True (David Gore • Mark 1:29-39)
It is so easy to get caught up with the flow of events and activities that everyone around us is focused on and excited about. All the more so if we are central to their excitement. It is remarkable that Jesus consistently resisted that pull. Very quickly, after healing a few people and…
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Teaching with Authority (David Gore • Mark 1:21-28)
Even in today’s anti-establishment culture, people warm to authority. Human beings make sense in life by referencing the other people/things we encounter. As a result, we need frames of reference. An authority offers a stable frame of reference. When those around Jesus, heard in his teaching an...
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The call to Discipleship (David Gore • John 1:43-53)
Discipleship is a central theme in the gospels. It is an ancient idea that is not well understood these days. We naturally (though not necessarily consciously) look to others as our models for the way to do life. Discipleship is the process whereby we do this in a deliberate and focused manner....
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John the Baptiser (Ian Avery • Mark 1:4-11)
John the Baptist is a remarkable character in the gospel stories. His purpose is to prepare the way for the Messiah. A Messiah he does not yet know! John calls people back to God in the best way he knows how. At the same time, John has an abiding confidence that there is one coming who will do...
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Crown of Beauty (David Gore • Isaiah 61:10-62:3)
It might be, that when you consider the people of God, your first thought is not ‘glorious’. This was certainly the case in Isaiah’s day. Israel was at the end of a long period of struggle and dysfunction. But Isaiah had a capacity to see beyond his day. He knew the reality innate to the true...
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Welcome to MustardSeed Talks 2018
Thanks for listening in. We trust you will find our weekly conversations helpful. The back catalogue can be found in a separate podcast simply called MustardSeed Talks. Enjoy!
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Weekly conversation from the MustardSeed Ultimo Uniting Church congregation in Sydney, Australia.
HOSTED BY
David Gore
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does MustardSeed Talks 2018 have?
MustardSeed Talks 2018 currently has 40 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is MustardSeed Talks 2018 about?
Weekly conversation from the MustardSeed Ultimo Uniting Church congregation in Sydney, Australia.
How often does MustardSeed Talks 2018 release new episodes?
MustardSeed Talks 2018 has 40 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to MustardSeed Talks 2018 on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts MustardSeed Talks 2018?
MustardSeed Talks 2018 is created and hosted by David Gore.
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