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.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons on Hope
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.
Imagination, fed by Jesus, enables us to grow and stretch, to make a way from what is to what could be, for the sake of worlds of hope God is already excited about.
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.
Much traditional morality is based on the idea of separation into binary categories, good and bad, but the Bible also points a path towards a liberating non-binary future in God.
Into the surreal fears and horrors of our murderous world comes the surreal delight of God’s resurrection laughter and the promise of life.
The mercy of God – like the dawn that breaks a long darkness, the song that breaks a long silence – gives light, life and hope to those shadowed by death.
Christ calls us to be alert for his salvific coming in the midst of the terrors of the here and now, not just in the past and future.
It is in the midst of our tears that we discover that Jesus is not dead, but more alive than ever.
Christian hope is rooted in suffering that does not remain unanswered. God answers in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ensuring that everything will not only be fine, it will be better.
When our world and our hearts feel dry, cut off, and despondent, there is hope and life to be found in God’s promises.