Christ’s grief gathers up our griefs and achieves the promise of a day when tears will be no more.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons on Grace
The capacity to understand and follow the way of Jesus is a miraculous gift.
Jesus calls us to embrace God, life, and one another with joy, delight, hope, and grace, not with heartlessness cloaked in legalities.
God’s gracious acceptance is so free from favouritism that we find it scandalous and daunting.
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.
Healing the world’s tribalism and uniting us as one human family is the central goal of the gospel, the mission of salvation, the realisation of the kingdom of God.
Those who faithfully follow Jesus and proclaim his message are flawed human beings who will not often appear successful or impressive.
In baptism we are adopted into a new family that is radically inclusive of those who have been cut off.
The forgiveness we experience in the risen Christ is dauntingly radical and we are called to share it.
God is passionately in love with us and longing to give us every good thing if we will respond to his love.
The transfiguration reminds us that in and through Jesus, the perfect Son of God and the perfect Son of Man, we each have the potential to experience and to be glimpses of God who is the true agent of change in our lives and in the world.
The story of Jonah challenges us whenever we start thinking that we have special rights as God’s people.
As we journey with and into God, we all prepare carefully, travel persistently, seek advice, approach the sacred with humility, and discern the way forward.
While many have a passive-aggressive relationship with God, the gospel gives us a vision of God that liberates us to live freely, expansively and joyously.
If we keep imitating one another, paying back violence with vengeance, the world will be consumed in an escalating fury, but Jesus rescues us and gives us a life-giving example to follow.
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.
In order to recognise and cooperate with what God is doing, we often need to recognise and see past the assumptions that come with our own privilege.
Looking for emerging patterns can help us (and Jesus?) recognise the ways that God is opening new pathways of grace and inclusion.
Jesus never stops crossing the menacing water to come to where we are, saying: “Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
God’s Providence usually works by people, moved by the Spirit of God, sharing when they have more above their own needs.