The life and death of Jim Stynes give a contemporary picture of what it means to give your life away.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons on Service (Page 3)
In Christ we are set free from all that would oppress us in order that we might be free to live in gracious and life-giving service of God and others.
Though we get caught up in violent rivalries like Herod, God breaks through with the promise of a new kingdom where all are honoured.
Jesus calls us to love and care for the world’s victims, and to refuse to participate in making more of them (even from among the victimisers).
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.
Jesus calls us to be open to others, not shutting anyone out of our consciousness or care, and treating all as beloved neighbours.
True worship, which honours and pleases God, is a seamless combination of ritual praise and a life lived in doing good for others.
God’s call to us is to be the embodiment of divine compassion.
When we glimpse the fullness of what could be, we are called to the tough work of bridging the gap between here and there.
Christ calls us to continue to grow in the measure of our love, prayer and good works.
Extravagant devotion to the crucified Christ is the foundation of our compassion and care for other victims of the world’s callousness.
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.
We are humble servants who are strengthened and empowered by the Spirit to enter into the redeeming work of God.
God has promised that if we stay connected to him, then he will give us the energy and the love to go out from our comfort-zones into the alien territory of those who need God’s love most of all.
The hope that empowers us to maintain our counter-cultural obedience to Christ, is that the One who will eventually rule over all is the One who offers himself as a suffering servant of all.
Authority in the Christian community derives not from worldly status or popularity contests, but from a humble willingness to imitate Christ in his devotion to God and his service of others.
The gifts we most need – a place of belonging and a place of sacred meaning – will be found when we offer them to others.
Our liturgical expression of faith can nurture but not substitute for putting our faith into action.
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.
Christ’s call to respond to his presence in the needy is a call for the church to embrace a lifestyle of radical communal hospitality (but we have often used it to justify empires built on the labour of guilt-ridden, over-extended, under-prepared Christians!)