God will walk with us in suffering and work redemptively within it, but God is not powerful enough to just remove it.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons on 1 & 2 Peter
In a world dominated by arrogant and exploitative leaders, Jesus models a gentle shepherding leadership that prioritises the reintegration of the broken over the drive for “success” and “efficiency”.
As Woody Allen said, 90% of success is just showing up, and in the resurrection, Jesus really shows up!
For both God and us, time can drag when waiting for change, but patience is salvation when forgiveness is offered as a means of change rather than as a reward for change.
Allowing ourselves to be shaped by the teaching and testimony passed down from the Apostles protects us from falling for the idea that the gospel is a marketable means of gratifying our wishes.
Following Jesus has nothing to do with trying to be good. His love and hope are gifts, rather than demands, and they free us to love and hope freely.
Meeting us on the road of despair, Jesus reveals to us that suffering and defeat are God’s means of bringing new life and hope.
Advent is preparing us for the coming of the Lord, that already and not-yet event for which people have lived and worked and prayed for millennia.
We are a ragtag bunch, but in witnessing to God’s mercy and love, we become the people of God together.
The stories of Moses, Elijah and Jesus on various mountain tops reveals a process of God’s self-revelation as the one who loves us and suffers for us.
Jesus offers himself to the world from a vulnerable place on the margins, and he calls us to trust the Holy Spirit and do likewise.
We have a distinct and privileged identity as God’s chosen people, but it does not turn us away from other people, but leads us to offer ourselves to and for them that all may share in the grace that has made us who we are.
United with Christ in baptism we cross the threshold from death to life, and in Eucharist we continue to touch the scars which nourish our faith and inspire our worship.
Stunning moments of spiritual clarity can be life-changing, but the real measure of our faithfulness is in how we live for the rest of the time.
Violence must be a constant temptation for God, but in absolute love, God has vowed never to resort to it.
There is no hell where the love of God in Christ cannot reach us.
The way to enter the life of God is found in Jesus, in relationship with the incarnate life of God.
Though we are to strive for righteousness and justice now, what we achieve now is a mere shadow of what will be fulfilled in the day of the Lord.
From the desire of a baby for the breast, we can learn a lot about our need of God’s nurture.
Christ has come that we might have fullness of life, and it has cost him dearly.