Reflections from the belly
In the face of sin, death and injustice, we are called to walk in newness of life. (Listen.)
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
With these words, the poet Wendell Berry describes a way of life that, simply by being born in this time and place, we have all been trained to desire. Continue reading “Romans | Practice resurrection”
If you want to encounter the Risen Christ, don’t gaze into heaven! Just look around. (Listen.)
There he was, living and walking and eating among us. There he was, hanging on a cross. And there he was, among us once again and explaining the scriptures and breaking bread. And then he simply … disappeared. Continue reading “Acts | Just look around”
As an ordained minister, I get asked funny questions on forms sometimes. This is one of them, and this is my response.
Homosexuals in the church? A wonderful idea! There should be many more, and there could be if we showed even the basic respect of getting our nomenclature right. I don’t know anybody who calls themselves homosexual. It’s largely considered an offensive term, only used by people outside the community. The people in our congregation call themselves ‘gay’, ‘queer’, ‘bi’, ‘trans’, ‘non-binary’ or ‘allies’; as a group, they are members of the LGBTIQA+ community (and Sanctuary). Continue reading “IDAHOBIT | “Please state your convictions regarding homosexuals in the church””
God-stories are always anchored to particular places. So what are our God-stories, and how can they charge the landscape? (Listen.)
Once upon a time, our ancestor Jacob went on a journey. He left the place called Beer-sheba and came to the place called Luz. It had been a long day on the road; it was now twilight. The first stars were becoming visible in the darkling sky. So he took one of the stones of that place, a flat stone, a smooth stone, and brushed off the dirt; then he used it as a pillow. He wrapped himself tightly in his traveling cloak, and drifted into a deep, God-filled sleep. While he was dreaming, he saw a stairway reaching from that place all the way to heaven, and God’s messengers were moving between heaven and earth. Continue reading “Genesis | ‘Surely God is in this place!’”
God is not seen in a violent man, but in a woman known for her love. (Listen.)
Like so many women, I know what it is to receive unwanted attention and even assault. The comments about my breasts in primary school and, later, the wolf whistles; the propositions. The unsought gawkings and strokings and gropings. The encounters where consent was murky at best. And given what so many of my sisters have experienced, I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Continue reading “Hosea | Gomer, the face of God”
“In the beginning was the Word …” It’s such a familiar phrase, many of us have stopped already paying attention. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we think, we know Jesus is the Word, let’s move on. But today I’d like to pause and focus on the word logos. Continue reading “John | Slow reading | In the beginning, the conversation”
An enfleshed God unites us with the community of all creation and points us to urgent climate action. (Listen.)
There are two kinds of eating, says Jesus; two kinds of food. One, we eat of the created goodness, plants and animals which we rip into with our teeth, and chew and swallow; they are absorbed into us so that we might live. This is the food which perishes. The other, we eat of Christ, ripping in with our teeth, chewing and swallowing. Christ is absorbed into us that we might live beyond simply being alive: this is the food which endures. The first food provides vitamins, minerals, calories, fats; the second, transformation, wholeness, wisdom, healing. The first grants fullness of stomach, here and now; the second, fullness of life in time beyond time. These ways of eating are intimately related: and they point to the care of the whole earth. Continue reading “John | For the life of the world”
The Bible is a dangerous book, full of contradictions and contested images of God. How, then, shall we read? (Listen.)
Last Sunday we baptised a young woman, and then we gave her a dangerous gift. That is, we gave her a book of wisdom and stories, prayers and puzzles, comforts and challenges, contradictions and contested images of God; yes, we gave her a Bible.
JUBILEE ASKS: Does my little beetle have God in its heart? I love my job, and when I get a text from a parent forwarding a question like this, I love it even more. Jubilee, the answer is Yes! Absolutely yes: Your little beetle has God in its heart. And its beetling walk, in fact the fullness of its beetliness, is how it praises God.
People have wondered for millennia where God lives. So what’s the answer? An overview of the gospel according to John. (Listen.)
Where does God live? What does God’s house look like? Does God live at church? These are big questions often asked by small people, but I wish more big people would ask them. Because I reckon many big people haven’t really worked out the answers, even though the questions have been floating around for thousands of years. Continue reading “John | Make a home in God, and God will make a home in you”
Alison and the whale 