The Holy Spirit, poured out on the church, opens pathways of communication, breaking down barriers to enable us to communicate with one another and with God.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons on Acts
Christ is always stretching the boundaries beyond what we can comprehend, and his ascension stretches his presence to encompass even what seem to us to be his absence.
In baptism we are adopted into a new family that is radically inclusive of those who have been cut off.
Looking for emerging patterns can help us (and Jesus?) recognise the ways that God is opening new pathways of grace and inclusion.
We are not alone or orphaned. The one who creates, loves, reconciles, shows us the way to truth, shows us the way into the future is an abiding presence with us.
When God closes one chapter before opening another, the time in between is a time for prayer and entering into the life of God.
Jesus calls us to look to the new things God is doing and seeks to humbly cooperate with them and bear witness to them.
The Holy Spirit is breathing sacred life into all creation and continually working for the making sacred of all creation.
All our dinners are an anticipation of the vision of a new world, where God’s very self dwells with mortals, all are welcomed, and all pain is taken away.
If we surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit, we lose some of our inhibitions about social conformity and are liberated to break down the boundaries that keep people apart.
We mostly don’t see ourselves as either terrible sinners or as gloriously Christ-like, but in the resurrection we are called to fully imagine both as world-changing truths.
Jesus calls us to a Resurrection Imagination, praying for courage and discernment on how to use your resources until the dream of a world where there are no poor among us is fulfilled.
In baptism we are anointed to reign with Christ over a new creation, but it is a reign of suffering servanthood, not of reckless force.
The Holy Spirit breaks out of the boxes that our limited languages construct, surprising us with new messages of hope and freedom and life.
El Espíritu de Jesús nos une a través de límites previamente hostiles y nos enseña un lenguaje de amor liberador.
(The Spirit of Jesus unites us across previously hostile boundaries and teaches us a language of liberating love.)
Jesus leads us through the confusion of transition times, into a new space with hugely expanded horizons and lives made meaningful in a global way.
The Ascension is not a story about the absence of Christ, but of Christ’s extraordinary presence with us everywhere and always.
True martyrdom involves suffering even unto death. But, no less important, the martyr sees what other people may not be seeing, and opens their eyes to it.
The new humanity formed in the death and resurrection of Jesus speaks a language of love and compassion that transcends linguistic and cultural differences and celebrates unity in diversity.
Whenever we are invested in the status quo, we are at risk of being caught up in seeing the liberation that Jesus brings as a threat to be opposed.