A sermon on Psalm 23
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons on Psalms (Page 3)
God’s promised protection can only be understood through the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
The unfailing love of God is with us, even in the tragedy, confusion, and anguished questions and doubts.
In God’s coming reign, things we find impossible to reconcile will be reconciled.
It’s our place to be within, and part of, creation and to love it as God loves it, and to learn to be ready to stand with others in their place of need.
The God who we encounter in such different ways is, nevertheless, the one God, and we are called to share in the life of this one God.
Goodness and mercy are with us now – and we have to learn to accept them.
In the encounter with Jesus, our self-delusion and our scapegoating are painfully exposed, but with the possibility of forgiveness and freedom.
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.
The revelation of what God is on about in Christ will always upend our expectations and disrupt our lives.
In the face of monumental devastation and suffering, God speaks a word, and the word becomes flesh.
Jesus acted out the parables that he was telling in his encounters with people, expressing the nature of God who seeks after us and rejoices in our being found and restored. God invites us to be people like that.
Jesus’s resurrection was a sign which declared that Jesus’ cause was God’s cause, that Jesus’ values were God’s values, that Jesus’ people were God’s people.
God’s love is like a refuge from the storm, like the hospitality of a generous host, like the continuing delight of a bridegroom for his bride, and like the alchemical power of the miracle-worker transforming even our fear and inconstancy into the power to love, forgive, and cherish.
Grace is the opposite of karma, that most ancient and persistent of human laws which proclaims that we get what we deserve. We do not get what we deserve, and thank Christ we don’t!
Any political wisdom which has lost touch with the values revealed to us in the character of God is on the road to disaster. It is not wisdom at all; it is just the mouthings of wealth and power.
The day of Pentecost is the day when the Spirit comes to interrupt and call into question the inevitability of our despair.
Darkness cannot conceal anything from God, but God who confronts us with truth and justice, and invites us to choose life and promises to help and bless us in that choice.
We voluntarily live a vowed life as a grateful response to God’s saving acts.