Jesus calls us to embrace God, life, and one another with joy, delight, hope, and grace, not with heartlessness cloaked in legalities.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons on Fullness of Life
Jesus carries and embodies the Biblical tradition of wisdom, calling us to let go of our self-focussed lives and expand into new lives of wisdom, love and compassion.
The measure of the value of our worship is the measure of the transformation of our lives into imitations of the love and kindness of Jesus.
God is passionately in love with us and longing to give us every good thing if we will respond to his love.
Even in the midst of our worst troubles, uniting with God brings purpose and joy (which is not the same as mere happiness), and joy is an antidote to fear.
There is life and nourishment hidden in the depths, and through Jesus the rock it is accessible to us.
Jesus’s purpose for us is that we (individually and collectively) have fullness of life.
There are forces conspiring to keep us in the dark, but Jesus opens our eyes so that we can see that our deepest yearnings are satisfied only in God.
Jesus asks us to assess the legitimacy of any ministry by its transforming and liberating outcomes for the world and its peoples.
When you know yourself truly beloved by God in Christ, you are freed from fear and shame to live fully and generously and courageously.
Those who are insiders in the life of God are characterised by their love and compassion for all, especially those deemed unworthy of it, and by the humility to be schooled by outsiders.
God’s generosity provides the context for our worship and the model for our living, especially when we are faced with hostility.
All that matters about God, about sin and forgiveness, and about living with integrity and freedom, flows from the human encounter with the crucified and risen Jesus.
Jesus offers life in all its fullness, but many would rather settle for the odd snack rather than the full banquet.
Paul’s word play on drunkenness is both a useful contrast and a useful comparison for Christian living.
The recognition that in Jesus we see the exact likeness of the Father rescues us from fear and slavery and invites us to live as the beloved children of God.
The things we have we are to hold with open hands, looking with a generous eye for the oppotunities to share our resources in ways that make a difference.
Jesus leads the way towards a new experience of life that is so utterly alive that death is powerless to threaten, limit or constrain it.
When God calls us to invest in the places we live, it is a call to active agents of positive change, not compliant patriots.
I want to look today at the story Jesus told in today’s gospel reading. It’s a story set on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, and apart from the usual interpretations we bring to it, it is for me a story about chance encounters and being open to what happens. I’d like to start by…