The good news of resurrection meets us in the darkest places of our lives and so is initially incomprehensible and disorienting.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons on Doubt
Jesus never stops crossing the menacing water to come to where we are, saying: “Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
Jesus meets us in our doubts and discombobulation and gives us instead a community of joyful hope.
A comic monologue on the story of Doubting Thomas, presented in the style of “Fred Dagg” as a fan’s tribute to the late great John Clarke.
We live in uncertain times, unsure of the future shape of the church, but Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to us, not to give us certainty, but to guide and sustain us in the uncertainty.
Into the surreal fears and horrors of our murderous world comes the surreal delight of God’s resurrection laughter and the promise of life.
Although we can’t prove that our faith isn’t another crackpot fraud, we can provide evidence by living lives of love, hope and hospitality.
In the worldwide lockdown, we stand on an uncomfortable threshold and wonder where God is. God responds to our need, sending the Holy Spirit to stand with us.
Suffering raises painful unanswerable questions, but Jesus leads us into a life where the sharing of our honest questions is part of shaping a community of healing and hope.
Jesus Christ is the coming one who will fulfill the hopes and yearnings of the world, but we will imperil our faith and hope if we keep trying to set the agendas for him.
Honestly owning the rage that sometimes consumes us is an important part of maintaining our resistance to all that stands in the way of a Jesus-shaped life.
Sometimes God has to kill off our hopes and destroy our faith structures in order to create space for new life and truth to arise among us.
Doubts and questions, far from being a threat to faith in the risen Christ, are its normal starting point and constant companion.
Jesus came into the world to fill us with new life, and encourage us, and show us how to grow, so if we remain focussed on the light, letting it shine into our areas of darkness, then darkness will never have the last word.
The feeling of distance and separation from God – which we all feel – is perception not reality… it is the fruit of our fear and our holding-back.
Believing and following Jesus is about faith because certainty is impossible and doubts are unavoidable.
In times when we strive to see but cannot, when we struggle to understand and can find no satisfactory answers in the face of issues that confuse us, we can still search for communion with the one who knows all things, who understands all things.
God’s action in the world and in our lives is constant and faithful, but rarely flamboyant or unambiguous. Discerning God’s activity is therefore a learned skill.
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.
The unfailing love of God is with us, even in the tragedy, confusion, and anguished questions and doubts.