Reflections from the belly
Sometimes, grief hurts like hell. You feel like nothing but a collection of jumpy jangling nerve endings. Or your chest aches; your stomach spins. Other times, you feel nothing at all. Or you forget for a while, then remember with a start. You’ll probably feel guilty. Continue reading “Luke | Blessed are those who grieve”
The church is the body of Christ, and so it is our joy to be broken and shared to feed a hungry world. (Listen.)
Do you feed on success, or achievement, or excellence? How about winning, or seeing your team or country win? Do you feed on other people’s approval or praise or pity or love? Do you feed on wealth and power, or being followed on social media? What about the dopamine hit of other people’s ‘likes’? Do you feed on beauty? Do you feed on titbits of gossip, or righteous anger or outrage? Do you need to win every argument? Do you feed on being needed? Do you feed on your wounds? What do you feed on? Continue reading “John | With Christ as our centre and source, we too become bread”
The sacred body of Christ is a body of scarred tenderness, aching with love for the world. (Listen.)
At our last leadership meeting, we reflected on how we are members of one body, united and growing in love (Ephesians 4). We observed that we are therefore all connected: what affects one part of the body affects the whole; and this led us to think about the wounded and scarred bodies that form the body we call Sanctuary. For in recent weeks it has become clear that many of us live with chronic conditions or persistent pain: our bodies are exhausted, aching, or screaming in pain. Continue reading “Ephesians | The body of scarred tenderness”
Emerging from shutdown is an opportunity to create space and time in our lives: but for whom? (Listen.)
So here’s old Abraham, dozing in the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. Sarah’s inside, having a nap. The air is heavy; the afternoon is still. Somewhere, a fly buzzes. And the Lord appears to Abraham and he looks up, and sees three strangers down the road, emerging out of the shimmering haze. Continue reading “Genesis | Welcoming the stranger, encountering the divine”
Don’t be a moron. Be pure salt. And be ready to be sprinkled around. (Listen.)
Some of my mother’s health kicks were worse than others. I could cope with brown bread, more lentils, less cordial; and we’d never been allowed lollies or chips. But when she decided to eliminate salt, meals became unbearably bland. Flavours no longer melded together, but jostled up against each other; everything lost its savour. “You’ll get used to it,” she’d say. “You just need to retrain your tastebuds.” Continue reading “Matthew | The uses and abuses of salt”
Jesus turns our assumptions about God’s blessings upside down. (Listen.)
Have you ever noticed how few people at this church drive a Porsche? Or how little time and money most of them spend on fashion? Have you noticed how rarely they go on big fancy trips? Or how often they buy things second hand or fair trade? Do you understand the choices that many of them have made? Continue reading “Blessed are the school children, and other humble people”
As we continue our journey through the season of creation, I’d like to introduce you to another method of prayer. Prayer is a way of deep listening. Yet when our minds are busy and distracted, we cannot listen well; and so we need methods to still our minds. One of these is to go for a walk! The repetitive rhythmic movement, and the regular intake and exhalation of breath, can help us find that still centre: the space where we notice the spirit bubbling up and gently prompting us. Continue reading “Prayer | Climate march and other prayer walks”
Listen here.
Here we are, forty-one days after the hype of Christmas and just beginning another year at kinder or school. We are a group of lovely ordinary people with lots of children among us, and we are gathered tonight to worship God and receive a blessing, just as, two thousand years ago, like every other ordinary Jewish family, Mary and Joseph went to the Temple forty days after their firstborn son’s birth to worship God and receive a blessing. Continue reading “Luke | Seeing through God’s eyes takes practice”
So I’m back! I’ve spent the last two weeks travelling in Jordan, Israel and Palestine, and I’m full to brimming with the sights, sounds, scents, conversations and reflections I absorbed there. It was a wonderful experience, which I suspect will thrum behind much that I say and do over the next few years. Continue reading “Beatitudes | Warm boulders and other blessings”
Listen here.
This is the story of three donkeys, maybe more. Balak, the king, is the first. He believes that, if only he spends enough money and hires the best prophet, he can reverse God’s blessing over Israel and protect his borders from a horde of refugees. Even when the best prophet says this isn’t possible, Balak persists. What a donkey. Continue reading “Numbers | A tale of three donkeys”
Alison and the whale 