God and religion misunderstood can be the cause of hostility, division and violence, but the God made known to us in Jesus is a God of grace who generously gives us life, freedom and reconciliation.
God and religion misunderstood can be the cause of hostility, division and violence, but the God made known to us in Jesus is a God of grace who generously gives us life, freedom and reconciliation.
God’s refining work is done not through judgement and punishment, but through the transforming power of love.
The stories of Moses, Elijah and Jesus on various mountain tops reveals a process of God’s self-revelation as the one who loves us and suffers for us.
The “things” we so readily put our trust in, or find our identity in, will all fall, and only God’s love and care for us will remain.
Forgiving the way Jesus does will always be seen as not just disreputable, but even dangerous and criminal.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
In order for God to come to us as the healer and the liberator of souls, we must be prepared to let go of every religious pretension, every cultural certainty, every economic doctrine, every aspirational rule.
God’s ways of abundance and grace are almost incomprehensible to those of us who have been shaped by the world’s ways of scarcity and merit based rewards and punishments.
The capacity to understand and follow the way of Jesus is a miraculous gift.
It is human nature to think that our ways are God’s ways, and so to shun those whose ways seem alien or disgusting to us, but Jesus calls us to recognise God at work in others, however different.
In Christ we are one with all flesh and blood, and so our struggle is not against any other people, but against the spirits and powers and forces which would divide people and make them enemies.
God calls us to welcome and care for “the strangers” the refugees and asylum seekers in our midst.
God’s covenant of love and grace is made unconditionally, not depending even on our response, and so the promises are made to our children whether they respond or not.
We want to be rewarded as we think we deserve, but God wants to give us everything.
God gives extravagantly and abundantly, but in order to experience it, we need to begin sharing it.
The good news of the Kingdom always seems disreputable and dangerous and unwelcome, and it asks of us a whole new way of being God’s gracious people in a world of hatred and violence.
It often feels as though faithfulness is going to cost us everything, but God is a God of wonderful surprises.
The crucified and risen Jesus reveals the truth about the triune God’s grace, love and communion, and calls us to reflect those relationships in our communal life.
The gratuitous mercy made known in the resurrected Christ requires us to rethink the nature of God all the way back to creation.
We have a distinct and privileged identity as God’s chosen people, but it does not turn us away from other people, but leads us to offer ourselves to and for them that all may share in the grace that has made us who we are.