Nathan has been a pastor of our Church since 1994.
All that matters about God, about sin and forgiveness, and about living with integrity and freedom, flows from the human encounter with the crucified and risen Jesus.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons by Nathan Nettleton (Page 8)
A close encounter with God in Christ can make us paralysingly aware of our own sin and failure, but the experience of grace can transform that into a solidarity and gratitude that empowers us.
The only measure of our progress in Christian faith is our love for others, including those we are least inclined to love.
In God’s vision for humanity, every person and the role they play is valued and cared for. When society fails to live up to this, the Church is called to go against the flow and courageously champion and model it.
The promise of baptism with fire may surprisingly lead us to a loving suffering messiah.
We can’t take it for granted that Jesus will be where we want to go, for his ways often go contrary to ours and our business is to follow him.
The joyous message of Christmas demands a response from us all year round.
Christ calls us to be alert for his salvific coming in the midst of the terrors of the here and now, not just in the past and future.
If we are to call Christ a King and still remain faithful to him, we must begin with the subversion of the very concept of kingship that Jesus points to when he is questioned by Pilate.
God calls us to beware of simple solutions that actually violate the laws of love and hospitality towards the strangers.
After horrendous suffering and loss, the most courageous and ultimately transformative response is to reinvest in life and love with passion and hope.
Faithful lament, even enraged and despairing lament, takes us close to the heart of God, though we usually can’t perceive God when we are there.
The Kingdom of God can only be accepted the way a child welcomes a hug, not the way lawyers accept a divorce settlement.
Jesus offers life in all its fullness, but many would rather settle for the odd snack rather than the full banquet.
Paul’s word play on drunkenness is both a useful contrast and a useful comparison for Christian living.
We live in amidst a culture of highly toxic, self-righteous, finger-pointing. Jesus calls us to a radical love which will stop the blame game but still speak transforming truth to those who oppress.
There will always be people in the church you find difficult to get on with, and it is their presence that will really enable you to grow in your ability to love.
The indiscriminate ways Jesus shared and spoke about food broke the rules of his society and the rules of many churches down to this day.
The experience of winter is God’s gift, inviting us to silence, healing and new depth of life.
The culture of God rises in defiance of the empires of this world, but it will look more like an annoying outbreak of self-sown, invasive weeds than an alternative empire.