In the Christ-child we encounter God responding to our suffering and leading us into the promised land of new life.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons on Hebrews
Adversity, violence, and suffering can come as a consequence of not just sin, but of radical love, but with love it can strengthen and sharpen us for fullness of life.
Imagination, fed by Jesus, enables us to grow and stretch, to make a way from what is to what could be, for the sake of worlds of hope God is already excited about.
Being God’s people can be awkward. Our actions of love and care stand against the me-first culture, and to seek justice, love, and a better world.
Faithful lament, even enraged and despairing lament, takes us close to the heart of God, though we usually can’t perceive God when we are there.
Christian hope is rooted in suffering that does not remain unanswered. God answers in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ensuring that everything will not only be fine, it will be better.
Lived faith is the way to life in God, but it passes through a baptism of fire.
When God is seeking to communicate with us, we usually need the prayerful support of others to help ensure that we remain open to hearing what God is calling us to.
When we want to know what God is like, our primary source of information is Jesus.
The life that Jesus calls us too will not be found and enjoyed until we give up trying to engineer the life we dreamed we were supposed to be living.
In the violence and suffering that surround the Christmas story, we find the revelation of a God who does not inflict violence and suffering, but suffers violence to bring love and peace.
There are numerous competing claims about what a faithful Christian life looks like, and sometimes the truth about following Jesus may be the least palatable of them all.
Only when the world models itself on the self-sacrificial love and mercy we have seen in Jesus will it be saved from the cycles of apocalyptic violence and chaos.
The Christmas story includes a message of God’s solidarity with and care for children and families who live in fear and who flee to seek refuge. We corrupt the message if we make it about our children and not all children.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Full-blooded Christian discipleship may cost us some precious relationships and a lot of blood sweat and tears, but we will have plenty of new supporters and it all all be well worth it in the end.
Believing and following Jesus is about faith because certainty is impossible and doubts are unavoidable.
God wants love rather than sacrifice, but in a fallen world love that is genuine will often be sacrificial.
True worship, which honours and pleases God, is a seamless combination of ritual praise and a life lived in doing good for others.
Faith is not the absence of doubt, but the courage and trust to be faithful to God in your your actions and life, despite doubts and disappointments.