Reflections from the belly
In which Jesus hooks up and heals some ancient wounds. (Listen here).
No doubt you’ve heard a sermon on this broad before. Short skirt, red lipstick, and way too many boyfriends: how gracious of Jesus to speak with her! What a mensch! And what a miracle that the townsfolk turned to him despite her vague and wishy-washy testimony. Isn’t God amazing?!
Continue reading “John | Boy meets girl at well: Several readings”
Transcending our secular age. (Listen here).
‘How can anyone be born after growing old?’ asks Nicodemus. ‘Can someone enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ I’m someone who has given birth three times, and my children are now all bigger than me. The idea of shoving one of them back in is so grotesque, I suspect Nicodemus is playing for a laugh. Either that, or he’s a fool. Because everyone knows you can’t enter the womb a second time: what a nincompoop!
Continue reading “John | Living into eternity”
Life in the gospel according to John: what is it? Here’s my take for a second-gen Vietnamese-Australian congregation living in a secular age. (Watch on YouTube here.)
You’ve all seen them. Maybe there’s one in a house you know, or maybe at a place you like to eat pho. Maybe it’s on a shop counter, or in the corner of an office. Wherever it is, it’s a little shrine. What’s on it can vary. Sometimes it’s oranges, but at Tet, or the lunar New Year, it’s the five fruits. Usually there’s incense, often jasmine tea. There may be flowers, even an oil lamp. Perhaps a Buddha or a crucifix. And, of course, there’s the photographs of ancestors who are being remembered and honoured at these altars.
Continue reading “John | The relational god”
As the sole pastor in a small congregation, I’m a GP. That is, I’m not a children’s pastor, a women’s pastor, a preaching pastor, or any other specialist. Instead, I’m a general practitioner. So when I think about church, of course I think about adults, but I also think about children. I think about autistic people, and people with disabilities, and people who are non-readers. Continue reading “Faith | Orthodoxy, and the case for curiosity, wonder and love”
Jesus is not asking us to intellectually agree with a set of propositions, but to entrust our hearts to him in love. (Listen.)
Many years ago, I left home and went away to university. I came from a background where people talk about faith and science and politics and everything else, and perpetually wonder and ask questions. At university, I expected the same. I hooked up with the first Christian group which presented itself, but soon felt totally bewildered. I found myself in conversations I never wanted to have, in which the acceptability of women in leadership, the theory of evolution, questions of sexuality and gender, and many other issues were put under the microscope, and my position was always shown to be wrong. Continue reading “John | Born again into self-giving love”
Alison and the whale 