Reflections from the belly
After the service, a visitor bailed me up. ‘That prayer,’ she said. ‘You called Jesus our friend. Why would you do that?’
‘Um … because he tells us to,’ I said.
‘What!’ she snapped, then she shook her head briskly and walked out, leaving me wondering about the forms of address she considered permissible …
Read my piece for the upcoming Zadok Perspectives here.
I’m delighted to announce that The word made flesh, a reflection I wrote on faith and autism, has been accepted for publication in an upcoming anthology by UQP. The as-yet-untitled anthology aims to disrupt clinical approaches to autism by showcasing a diversity of perspectives on the neurotype, and I’ll be rubbing shoulders with a range of awesome contributors including Clem Bastow, Jo Case, Fiona Wright and Jess Ho.
Continue reading “UQP autism anthology”
Fear is immobilising, but Jesus’ peace offers a way forward. A reflection given to the good folk at Ashburton Baptist Church on 7 April 2024. You can listen to a recording of it here.
So Donald Trump is now selling a Bible. ‘God bless the USA’ is embossed on the front cover, along with a flapping American flag. If he ever actually opened the book, he might stumble across the first letter of John, a beautifully tender letter of love. And he might find the words, ‘Perfect love casts out all fear.’
Continue reading “John | But they were doubtful”
Jesus’ ‘triumphal’ entry into Jerusalem is a parody, and that itself is the message. A reflection given to the good folk at Coburg Uniting Church on 17 March 2024. You can listen to a recording of it here.
It is wonderful to be here today, worshipping among you for the first time. Now, I am a Baptist minister and this is a Uniting Church, but in my experience everyone is connected. And, I tend to find, people in churches gossip. So I hope you don’t mind me mentioning this, especially on our first meeting, but when I told someone that I was preaching here, they had an opinion about this church.
Continue reading “Mark | The jester’s joke”
Rejected by the worshipping community, blind Bartimaeus is commended for his faith. A reflection given to the delightful Rosanna Baptist Church on 17 March 2024. You can listen to a (very tinny) recording of it here.
He was slumped outside the city gate, because he wasn’t allowed to enter. Once, he had been on the inside, but not any more. Maybe he asked too many questions. Maybe he struggled to make nice. Maybe people felt uncomfortable around his disability, or his kid’s. Or maybe people’s reactions to his sexuality or gender had pushed him out.
Continue reading “Mark | Blind faith”This Sunday I had fun chatting with my old mate Simon Holt at Collins Street Baptist Church. Watch it here, or read a rough transcript of my part below. Simon introduced the story of Jonah, with context and commentary, then moved onto these questions …
Continue reading “Jonah| #blessed when life is unfair”
It’s the fish god of Assyria and Babylon and empire; no one escapes its appetite.
It’s dark and acidic and stinking and grinding; it’s the abyss; it’s vulnerability.
It’s the site of desperate prayers and promises, and a life given over to God.
It’s the thing you have crossed the oceans to find, when you realise it’s been cradling you all along.
It’s the tomb, it’s the womb, it’s the site of rebirth, it’s the convulsion which spews you to shore.
Words for the closing of a church. (Listen.)
Once upon a time, nearly eight years ago, some of us did something very foolish. A bunch of people who had mostly drifted away from church or were burned by church or had been rejected by church bumped into a quirky minister on holiday, and wondered if they might try again. Continue reading “John | Farewell Sanctuary, my beautiful beloveds”
Maybe God isn’t an angry absentee landlord, and maybe the wicked, lazy, worthless bloke isn’t the slave at all. A provocative retelling of the parable of the talents. (Listen.)
Who profits? Who pays? For many years, these words were daubed in bright yellow paint on a wall near my old house; I read them every time I walked past. Gradually they sunk in, until they became the fundamental questions I bring to everything. The news. A sermon. A theological position. A decision. And, of course, any reading of the Bible. Continue reading “Matthew | The billionaire, the stockbroker and the storyteller”
God’s steadfast love endures forever. (Psalm 136:1b)
When a church closes, there is much to grieve yet also much to celebrate. It is usual for some of this to be done in a formal way at the final service, through two or three people chosen to tell that community’s story. Typically, they would be minister and deacons, but of course this preferences a particular type of person and power. However, I think it would be more appropriate to make space for many different voices. Continue reading “Psalms | Writing a psalm of thanksgiving”
Alison and the whale 