It is only by letting go of our tribal need to define who is in and who is out, that any of us shall, in the end, show forth a kingdom which is from God.
Those who insist that faith must satisfy their every ideology may miss out, while those who simply yoke themselves to Jesus will find the freedom and peace for which they yearn.
If we are committed to the way of Jesus more even than we are to each other, we will end up doing what is truly best for each other and for all God’s creation.
We voluntarily live a vowed life as a grateful response to God’s saving acts.
If Abraham is our common father in faith, and like him we are justified and made whole by our faith in God’s mercy, then Christians, Jews and Muslims might find unity in sharing, humbly, in the wonder of that gift together.
The world is full of offers of poisoned cups to quench our thirst, but Jesus offers us his own Spirit to sustain us in the wilderness.
The wound of abandonment which haunts every human being will find its healing in Christ who is everywhere present as the authority and power of God.
We go out not to take Christ to others, but to meet Christ among them and reconnect his story and theirs.
The resurrection of Jesus is about the in-breaking of something which is so new, so different, so unheard of, that it changes things so entirely that we will never again become captive to all that is predictable, or ‘necessary,’ or ‘fated’.
We are called not to know, but to be known, not to see, but to be seen by God, who gazes upon us with a love so wide and long and deep that it surpasses all our imaginings.
Living as God requires may not make sense in the world, but God will make it worth our while.
Jesus calls us to take the way less travelled, to leave behind the sin that entangles, to be welcomed by God, that we may have power to welcome and love even our enemies.
The impossible life of peace, joy, justice centred in the other, only becomes possible because God makes it possible.
The gifts we most need – a place of belonging and a place of sacred meaning – will be found when we offer them to others.
Joseph is an admirable model of the willingness to put calling and values ahead of convenience or reputation.
Hope is a courageous and active stance towards life which is nourished in those who attend to the voice of God in Scripture.
Faced with the callous injustice of the world, it takes tenacious trust in the vision of God’s just reign to survive.
The faith of Christ is about the redemptive power of wounds, so love your wound and befriend it, for it is probably an angel of God in disguise.
When the world falls apart, God recognises the pain, the despair, and the anger, and gifts us with faith, with an assurance that God’s power of love will yet prevail, that God will accomplish the justice and the peace we long for.
Even those whose actions are morally indefensible usually have attributes that challenge our own failings.