When we encounter the reality of God we are overcome with our own unworthiness, and we are confronted with a choice – to push God away and hide from our self-realization, or to accept God’s gracious invitation to mercy, transformation and mission.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons on Luke (Page 12)
The childhood picture of Jesus’ development calls us to ensure that our relationship with God is our primary allegiance, our first responsibility and the foundation of our identity.
Being saved can be painful, but its goal, becoming a purified people who can worship rightly without fear, is the ultimate reward.
It is in a developing relationship with Jesus Christ that our minds will be opened to understand the scriptures, just as happened for the disciples of Jesus.
With the coming of the Christ, our deepest longings and yearnings will be fulfilled.
Our doubts and questions are welcome to God so long as we are not using them to avoid Christ’s question to us – “Will you follow me?”
Christ’s wish is that all people will respond with thankful joy to his offer of holistic healing and growth – physical, emotional, social.
Moral integrity does not require operational naivety and Christian discipleship requires shrewdness.
Acceptance of God’s merciful presence and Christ’s ways will save us from selfishness and self-destructiveness.
Prayer is a learned discipline which begins with acknowledging God’s goodness and aligning ourselves with God’s purposes.
As small as our missions may seem, they have cosmic significance in Christ’s mission.
Fullness of life is often dependent on letting go of all the things we thought were going to give us fullness of life.
It is easy to lose appreciation for the benefits of faithfulness until we taste the alternative.
Suffering and prosperity are not punishments or rewards, but God’s grace may eventually be exhausted by those who squander it.
Jesus calls us to follow his lead in rejecting easy comfortable paths and choosing the tough road of costly active love.
Love for enemies is a response to God’s love for us, but in cases of huge hurt it is a community issue.
God’s blessing is upon those who fully enter the pain of life and who hope beyond it.
God’s church is to be a place of cleansing and healing and preparation for mission.
In baptism we follow Jesus in being “ordained” and empowered for mission.
There are all sorts of right-sounding ways we avoid being neighbours and to encourage service of neighbours.