As we gather with the saints of all times to worship the crucified victim, we are immersed in a culture that is so at odds with the values of this world that those who truly embrace it just appear odd for now, but strangely and alluringly familiar too.
We are invited to work towards visions of God’s reign, knowing we will never be entirely successful, but sustained by imagining the possibilities.
There are many stories in the Bible that can appear to portray God as involved in terrorist acts, but Jesus invites us to read them in new ways.
The Ten Commandments are not about creating a system of law and punishment. They are a window into the stories and the lifestyle of the culture of God.
We pray for our neighbours to be blessed, but could we actually be being called to give a blessing?
God’s grace is so extravagant that it will offend us as long as we are measuring our worth in comparison to others.
What would happen if violence were met with bread, with blankets, with hospitals, with forgiveness of debts?
Christ is present to us in love, unity and reconciliation, and thus these are essential to our worship.
Whether we have been the oppressor or the oppressed or both, we all have a role in God’s work against violence and exploitation; we can all participate in God’s passion for justice.
Faith is a gift created in us as Jesus shows us that the pathway of courageous love and self-sacrifice is not impossible to walk.
While faith is a gift, blessings come to those who are prepared to wrestle with their faith.
There is nothing we can do to earn God’s presence or God’s blessing or God’s love, but when we let down our defences, when we give up striving, when we are vulnerable, then who knows what might happen?
God does not judge people’s capacity to respond and focus love and care only on the productive, but gives gifts with wanton freedom and extravagance and calls us to do the same.
Trying to establish our own righteousness burdens us with divisiveness and hostility, but Jesus offers us rest and freedom.
God and religion misunderstood can be the cause of hostility, division and violence, but the God made known to us in Jesus is a God of grace who generously gives us life, freedom and reconciliation.
Jesus calls us to give up the illusion that we own God’s blessing, invite others in, and be despised for doing so, giving up our privileges to build a world that all can share.
Understanding God as a relational trinity can guide us into the deep loving relationships with God and one another for which we were created.
We are to witness to this incredible, unbelievable, but very real truth: that in God’s reality, love crosses every divide, even the chasm of death.
We are a ragtag bunch, but in witnessing to God’s mercy and love, we become the people of God together.
Jesus is the door through which we pass to receive life – life in his name – a life of authenticity, a life of freedom, a life of purpose.