Although the coming Christ is brings our deepest hopes to fulfillment, we still fear his coming because of our unhealthy investments in the present.
Each human being is an icon of Christ and so the respect and care with which we deal with others is an expression of our devotion to Christ.
Will we live out allegiance to the state, the economy, the mass media, consumerism, status-driven values and wealth, or to God, to the new community, to upside-down kingdom values and to a radical alternative which is the source of hope and transformation?
Icons, as representations of the incarnation rather than images of God, can serve to open us to God rather than becoming alternatives to God.
Christian progressives must not despise those who feel insecure about change, and Christian conservatives must not despise those who take new ways.
Christians are to be known for what they do rather than what they abstain from.
Embodied in all creation, God labours to bring to birth a new creation and the children of God.
Flesh and matter are means of communion with God, but to set the mind on them for their own sakes denudes them of value and us of dignity.
Sin seeks to enslave our bodies, but if we will take on Christ’s yoke we are incorporated into Christ’s body for redemption.
From the desire of a baby for the breast, we can learn a lot about our need of God’s nurture.
Christ has come that we might have fullness of life, and it has cost him dearly.
A paraphrase of this ancient sermon, still preached every Easter in many Eastern Orthodox churches.
No matter how dead something is, if the Spirit of God enters, there will be new life.
Our deepest yearnings are satisfied in God, and only scratched elsewhere.
Fights and divisions in the church are a sign of how far we still have to go, but if we don’t run from them, God will use them to mature us and grow our ability to love.
The church rightly has an impact on the world, bringing out the taste of God, but it won’t come from pedantic obedience.
We are saved by our trust in God, and the only basis we are offered for our trust is the cross.
The experience of Christ crucified unites us – theories about it are more likely to divide us.
The Word has become flesh to redeem us. Now our redeemed response must become flesh.
Preparing the way of the Lord is not just a temporary clean-up for the visitor, but an embracing of the new possibilities that are opening to us.