SF Sunday Podcast

SF Sunday Podcast

by Saint Francis Church

Week 01 || The Slow Apprenticeship - Come and Learn || Matt 13:-25-30 & Rom 7:15-25

This is The Slow Apprenticeship — a four-week series for the Sundays of July, recorded with our parish in Hamilton. Over these four weeks we sit with the kingdom parables of Matthew 13, paired with the unfolding story of Jacob in Genesis. We're listening for what it means to apprentice to Jesus over a lifetime — slowly, patiently, in a culture that has lost the patience for slow things. Our anchor for the series is a sentence from the French Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: "Above all, trust in the slow work of God." That trust is what we're learning to walk in. The kingdom begins not with performance but with a quiet yes to Jesus. We open the series in Matthew 11, where Jesus offers the most counter-cultural invitation of his ministry: come and learn from me. Three Greek words — yoke, easy, rest — unpack what apprenticeship to Jesus actually looks like, when we're done trying to impress him.

Don't Admire Him - Follow Him || Matthew 11: 25-30

Most of us picture St Francis as a garden statue with a bird on his shoulder, admired but never followed. The real Francis gave everything away and got off his horse to kiss a leper. On St Francis Sunday, Tony explores Matthew 11:25–30 and asks what it would take for our church to stop admiring Jesus and actually follow him. 1. Where are you more an admirer of Jesus than a follower right now — and what would one step of following look like this week? 2. Which yoke are you carrying that isn’t Jesus’ — hurry, proving yourself, keeping everyone happy? What would his “gentle and humble” pace change? 3. Francis found Christ in the man he’d been riding past. Who might you be moving too fast to notice — and what would it take to get off the horse?

"Is the Lord among us or not?" Exodus 17: 1-14 || Matthew 21:23-32

"Is the Lord among us or not?" — asked in a dry place, on a route God had chosen. Scripture doesn't tidy the question away; it names the place after the argument. Tony on bringing the honest question rather than the polite one, and on a God who answers not by proving his power but by going all the way down.

Envy || Mathew 20:1-16

Rev. Peter asks, Why is it so easy to compare ourselves with others—and why does envy steal our joy? Through Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard, we discover a different way to live: receiving God’s generosity with gratitude rather than measuring ourselves against others. Join us as we explore contentment, compassion, self-worth, and becoming the person God created us to be.

A Different Kind of Community || Acts 2:42–47

What kind of thing is a church? A venue, a club, a service provider, a building with a roof to keep watertight? Every one of those is partly true — and none of them is what Luke describes at the end of Acts 2. In this one-off message, Tony looks at the snapshot Luke gives us of the church three days old: a community that was devoted rather than interested, that shared rather than simply gathered, and that lived it every day with the door left open. Along the way: why idealism about community is so destructive, why being known is harder than being generous, and why growth in Acts is something the Lord does rather than something the church engineers. With Bonhoeffer, Dallas Willard, Thomas Merton, C. S. Lewis and A. W. Tozer for company. “The church at Pentecost was not a better version of the community around it. It was a different kind.”

WEEK 05 || REST AND IDENTITY IN JESUS - Sent into Monday — Rest That Takes Up a Cross || Exodus 3:1–15 | Romans 12:9–21 | Matthew 16:21–28

The series lands on holy ground — which turns out to be Moses' workplace. The God who sees, hears and comes down also sends, and Jesus completes the maths of the free feast: people who've received everything can afford to give anything. Rest that takes up a cross, a Monday manual from Romans 12, and a commissioning into ordinary life.

WEEK 04 || REST AND IDENTITY IN JESUS - Working from Rest || Matt 16:13–20 & Isaiah 51:1–6

The series lands here: Peter’s confession comes before his commission. Isaiah says remember the rock you were hewn from; Paul says offer yourselves in view of mercy already received. Identity precedes activity — so mature disciples work from rest, not for approval. The final week of Rest and Identity in Christ, from St Francis, Hillcrest.

WEEK 03 || REST AND IDENTITY IN JESUS - What Rest Is For || Matt 15:21–28 & Isaiah 56:1, 6–8

Rest isn’t for hoarding — it’s for hospitality. This week Isaiah ties sabbath to welcoming the outsider, Paul declares mercy wide enough for everyone, and a Canaanite mother discovers the table is bigger than the disciples thought. What God gives us in rest, he means to flow through us. Week three, from St Francis.

WEEK 02 || REST AND IDENTITY IN JESUS - Who We Rest In || Matt 14:22–33 & 1 Kings 19:9–18

Rest isn’t a technique — it’s a Person. This week an exhausted Elijah meets God in sheer silence, and a sinking Peter is caught by the hand of Jesus in the storm. Who we rest in matters more than how we rest— and surrender means fixing our gaze on Christ in the storm, not waiting for the storm to stop. Week two of Rest and Identity in Christ, from St Francis, Hillcrest.

WEEK 01 || REST AND IDENTITY IN JESUS - RECEIVE || Matt 14:13-21 & Isaiah 55:1-5

We live tired, and we work to prove ourselves. Scripture turns that upside down: rest comes first, because identity comes first. Across four weeks at St Francis we explore rest as gift, presence, mercy and calling — and meet the Jesus who names us before we achieve anything, then sends us out to work from his rest. Why do we rest? Not because we’ve earned it — because God gives it. This week Isaiah throws open a feast that money can’t buy, and Jesus, grieving and interrupted, feeds five thousand from almost nothing. Rest begins with receiving, not achieving. Week one of Rest and Identity in Christ, from St Francis.

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