The gospel calls us on a road to healing and wholeness, but its steps are so deceptively simple (which doesn’t mean easy) that we often don’t take them seriously and so don’t do them.
When we know ourselves as known by God, the demonic power of violent naming is broken and new life dawns.
In the encounter with Jesus, our self-delusion and our scapegoating are painfully exposed, but with the possibility of forgiveness and freedom.
After the big event of Christmas, it is faithfulness in our everyday living that produces growth and godliness.
To those for whom the griefs of yesterday or the fear of tomorrow is just too much, come Lord Jesus.
In Advent, we wait to discern more carefully the One for whom we wait, and the One who waits for us.
Every relationship in the universe – between God and creation, between humans, and between humans and creation – is driven by three dynamics: justice, mercy and faith.
We are given gifts from God – faith, love and hope – to help us cope with all that is less than God – especially when ‘principalities and powers’ overwhelm us.
God longs to bless us in the land we have been given, but if we fail to live in faithfulness to the welcoming God, we will destroy ourselves and alienate ourselves from God’s blessing.
One of the implications of grace may be that instead of taking swords to the less good and pure, we learn to express the openness of God to the mixed bag of people who are on the journey with us.
We are called to stop defending ourselves and fighting off the intruders in the vineyard, but rather to welcome the spirit-sent opportunities that will demand of us, but will also change us.
God will open the way through the world’s chaos, and it will be grounded on extravagant mercy.
All of us, oppressed and powerful, are invited to act against violence and exploitation, to leave behind the oppressive ways and walk towards a new way of life.
God calls us, as individuals and as a church, to a journey with him, but sometimes we find ourselves sitting at a station watching the trains go by.
God will wound us if necessary to bring us into the full blessing intended for us.
Perhaps when law and order perpetuate injustice, God is on the side of the scammers and swindlers.
The Church will always contain more than its fair share of maliciousness, pettiness and nastiness, but the temptation to try to weed it out is a temptation to abandon the way of Christ and make things worse.
God calls us to live out the gospel, not just to think about, not just to pray about it, but to live it. Jesus called us to action, not to change their thinking but to change their lives.
The power of sin over us will not be broken by trying harder, but by pursuing Christ and Christ alone.
In the face of human evil, God has made a personal commitment to persevere in loving us and drawing us towards fulfilment.