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 Hope
In his suffering death, Jesus calls us to solidarity with all who suffer, and in his complete lack of vengefulness, the risen Christ offers the hope of healing from our violence.
Those who faithfully follow Jesus and proclaim his message are flawed human beings who will not often appear successful or impressive.
The physicality of the resurrection is a mystery that assures us that God values and honours us as whole, embodied humans, even if our bodies are damaged or worn out.
The good news of resurrection meets us in the darkest places of our lives and so is initially incomprehensible and disorienting.
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 the birth of Jesus we see the beginning of a peace mission that is not based on force but on patience, forgiveness and presence.
Discovering who we are called to be is an ever-evolving journey as we follow Jesus in changing circumstances.
Though we are to strive for righteousness and justice now, what we achieve now is a mere shadow of what will be fulfilled in the day of the Lord.
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.
The stairway to heaven is revealed in the darkest places and situations of our lives, in the difficult and dangerous places, in the situations where we least expected it.
When God closes one chapter before opening another, the time in between is a time for prayer and entering into the life of God.
Jesus meets us in our doubts and discombobulation and gives us instead a community of joyful hope.
In the Christ-child we encounter God responding to our suffering and leading us into the promised land of new life.
Jesus asks us to assess the legitimacy of any ministry by its transforming and liberating outcomes for the world and its peoples.
Our sure hope of a new future brought to fulfilment in the coming Christ inspires and empowers us to live now in ways which resist the despair and selfishness of our age and anticipate the peace and righteousness of the coming age.
The global social breakdown of which Jesus speaks is caused by the failure of our old oppressive ways of maintaining peace, but God has promised us a better way on the other side.
God has promised a time of resurrection and renewal, and has given us guidance for living faithfully in the meantime.
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.