Matthew | Trans/figuration

How a trans man shines bright like a diamond, and other stories. (Listen here.)

What a weird story. Jesus goes up a mountain with a couple of his mates. Then he cracks his neck like a glow stick and lights up, and his friends see him talking to a couple of dead dudes. This story raises about a zillion questions, like, How did Jesus’ face and body light up? What about his clothes? How did the disciples know the other blokes were Moses and Elijah, and why them? What on earth is a ‘bright cloud’? Why were the disciples terrified? Why did Moses and Elijah disappear? And why did Jesus want the experience to be kept secret until after the resurrection?

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Isaiah | To be like Birrarung or, To serve & thrive

In a world and media landscape which threatens to overwhelm, Isaiah offers a way of hope. (Listen here.)

‘Why have we fasted and you haven’t seen?’ the people ask God. ‘Why have we humbled ourselves and you haven’t paid attention?’ We’ve given up coffee, chocolate, alcohol and even social media: so why aren’t you answering our prayer?!

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Genesis | Bunjil & the Order of Melchizedek

Content warning: This post names some of the violence of genocide.

My thinking has been shaped by insights from tralwooway man, Rev Dr Garry Worete Deverell, and from Bidjara/Kari Kari woman, Professor Anne Pattel-Gray. I first preached this in January 2025. Later that same day, a wedge-tailed eagle swooped down and flew alongside our car for a moment, peering in eye-to-eye at me. It was a deeply moving experience of affirmation and blessing, and I take it as a sign to keep sharing such interpretations. (Listen here.)

On 26 January 1788, the First Fleet landed in Sydney Cove. There, Captain Arthur Phillip raised the Union Jack and claimed half the continent for his king. It marked the beginning of the disruption, dispossession and colonisation of over 300 nations, and a devastating loss of life. Fifty years later, on this same date in 1838, over 200 Gamilaroi people were massacred at Waterloo Creek.

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Christmas | Filling earth with the culture of heaven

Scene: The minister sits in the wooden throne behind the pulpit, gazing fixedly at her phone, while the congregation waits anxiously for her to begin the sermon … One from the archives. (Listen here.)

Whoops, sorry, is it me? I was just praying with an app. It’s awesome, it helps me be more spiritual. And it’s been recommending other apps: there are so many! There are apps for prayer and meditation. There are apps for reading the Bible in a year, and for memorising scripture, and for reading a single passage very slowly. There are apps to log my spiritual habits; apps with the Ignatian examen; apps with daily liturgies from monasteries; apps to frame silence.

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Matthew | Love in the shadows

God demands Joseph wake up to a deeper reality, where love takes priority over obedience to God’s law and scandal forms the womb of grace. One from the archives. (Listen here.)

This Sunday, in the midst of Christmas chaos plus a funeral, I brought out an oldie but a goodie for Manningham Uniting Church. You might hear it as a simple reflection personal faith, and that’s well and good. But for those who have ears to hear, it also has much to say about current events, whether the shootings in Bondi, the ongoing deaths in Gaza, or so much more. For, in Matthew’s story, God demands that notions of righteousness and holiness are set aside in favour of love. In such a faith, violence is impossible, not only the violence of holy war but the violence which demands we destroy the violent. This loving insistence on nonretaliation is one incarnation of the scandal of grace. But for now, let’s turn our attention to a man caught up in another aspect of scandal incarnate: Joseph.

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Matthew | Expectation management

What are we waiting for? And how, then, do we wait? (Listen here.) Content note: One mention of suicide, in the first paragraph only.

The saddest funeral I ever did was for a young woman who died by suicide. She attended a very high energy local church, all praise and worship. However, it did not do funerals and certainly not for suicide. Trying to find a pastor who would hold a service for their daughter, her distraught parents were eventually given my name.

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Matthew | On Baptists, snakes and holy fire

As our faith matures, some things will be burned away. (Listen here.)

It was my first Sunday at Manningham Uniting Church. After the service, a person came up to me looking rather anxious. ‘I understand you’re a Baptist,’ they said. I confirmed that this is indeed the case. ‘Well,’ they said, ‘it may interest you to know that some people here believe in science.’ I suddenly realised why they looked so worried.

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Matthew | Our hope in the dark: Being left behind with Jesus

Maybe being left behind is the better thing. (Listen here.)

My friend came home from school one day and found the house empty. His mother was visiting with the neighbour, but my friend didn’t know that. He walked around that empty house calling, ‘Mum? Mu-um!! MUM!!!’ No reply. My friend went up the stairs and checked the bedrooms. No mum. He checked the bathroom, the linen closet, the laundry. Still no mum. He went out into the garden and checked front and back, then he checked the shed. Nothing. Once he realised that she really wasn’t there, he collapsed into a foetal position, sobbing. His worst fear had been realised: the rapture had happened, his mother had been taken, and he’d been left behind.

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Colossians | The visible image of God

Corporate logos vs the cosmic λόγος. (Listen here.)

Whenever I hear Colossians or pretty much any of Paul’s letters, my brain has a tendency to shut down. ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ I think or maybe, ‘Yeah, nah,’ as I impatiently wait for the gospel reading. Why? Because Paul’s letters are packed with political and cultural references that we all too often miss. So we tend to talk about them using formal theological terms and other religious mumbo-jumbo, spiritualising what are actually explosively political texts. In this way we answer questions no-one’s really asking, rendering the texts abstract, lifeless and marginal to our faith.

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Isaiah | A vision for the City of Manningham

Isaiah’s vision of the city of joy, shared at the induction of Rev Con Apokis. (Listen here.)

A city of joy, its people a delight: this is what God promises through the prophet Isaiah. It sounds wonderful! So, what are the elements of this joyful city? First, says Isaiah, health and wellbeing. No child will die young; no senior die prematurely (Isaiah 65:20). And we can imagine it. In this city, the air is clean, and the soil and waters, too. There are no coal-fired power stations; no rampaging wildfires; no unprecedented floods. No children or elders are struggling for breath through air yellow with smog; no one is sick from forever chemicals because these are forever banned; no one is collapsing from extreme heat.

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