Jesus calls us to resist the satanic desire to credit violence and disaster with meaning, and instead to acknowledge meaning and truth only in God’s suffering love and mercy.
Seeking and Sharing the Fullness of Life
Seeking and Sharing the Fullness of Life
Sermons on Commitment
Being a follower of Jesus means honouring his authority by following his teachings and his example (something that has become surprisingly rare).
We can’t take it for granted that Jesus will be where we want to go, for his ways often go contrary to ours and our business is to follow him.
If we are to call Christ a King and still remain faithful to him, we must begin with the subversion of the very concept of kingship that Jesus points to when he is questioned by Pilate.
God calls us to live exuberantly, generously reflecting the good things God has done and becoming model citizens in the reign of God.
On our own we are powerless to deal with many of the things that confront us, but when we recognise that and make ourselves available for whatever God wants to do, all kinds of scary things may actually be possible.
In a moment of transfiguration we glimpse the weightiness of Jesus and his mission, and we are ourselves transfigured, becoming people of greater substance.
Taking up your cross is about a willingness to pay the price of following Jesus and living out your baptism. It is not a generalised stoicism.
Jesus offers life in all its fullness, but many would rather settle for the odd snack rather than the full banquet.
When things are desperate, God calls us only to be faithful and committed, because the outcomes are in God’s hands, not ours.
Religious zeal often turns violent, but the revelation of Jesus Christ makes known a God who repudiates our violence and sets us free from it.
Extravagant devotion to the crucified Christ is the foundation of our compassion and care for other victims of the world’s callousness.
The glory that has been seen in Jesus can shine forth in us, but there will be obstructions to be purged and commitments to be made first.
God is love, and so love is the only real measure of spiritual maturity or accomplishment.
Recognising Jesus as Lord requires such a reversal of conventional values that it cannot but dangerously transform us.
With Jesus as our pattern, we find a new identity in our uncompromising allegiance to God’s ways.
To name Christ as King is to identify ourselves as dissenters to the claims of any other authority.
God offers to make us his children, a position that may not appeal to our autonomous ambitions, but which offers honour and security.
Jesus leads the way in exposing and opposing violence, no matter what the cost, and life is found in following his lead.
Christian ascetic discipline is not about earning God’s acceptance, but about banishing the demons so that we can live life more fully in the here and now.