Reflections from the belly
So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. (Romans 12:5)
There are people who are so much a part of ourselves that it is hard to imagine ourselves without them, and it is hard even to think about them without also thinking about ourselves. On 18 October, then, I lost a part of myself, my beloved Jean.
Continue reading “Saints | My beloved Jean”
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.
You may not have known him, but last week Sanctuary lost one of its ‘people of peace’: Jon Yaakov Gorr, known to many as Elephant. He was killed while riding his beloved bicycle in Allansford, and perhaps you have driven past him on his regular ride down Hopkins Point Road into Warrnambool. Continue reading “Saints | Farewell, Elephant: A Jewish man whose friendship was a gift to this Baptist pastor”
I’m finding it difficult to climb out of bed in the morning. A global pandemic, the monotony of shutdown, the changes to family, work and congregational life, climate catastrophe: unsurprisingly, I find the state of the world overwhelming. I just want to lie in bed and do nothing; to ignore kids, work, climate and let the world hurtle its way to destruction. There are days when I feel nearly paralyzed by grief and fear. Continue reading “Luke | Slow reading | Paralysis”
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”
A testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit in my own life, and a promise to all who have been judged and found wanting. (Listen.)
I grew up in a hypercritical atmosphere. I know my mother loved me deeply; nevertheless, I was told every day that nothing I did was good enough. I’d wipe the kitchen bench, and be screamed at for holding the sponge carelessly or for knocking a few crumbs on the floor. I’d sweep, and she’d shout that I was doing it all wrong; when I changed how I held the broom, things only got worse. Once, I dropped a drinking glass; amid sobs and shrieks I was accused of destroying something precious and irreplaceable. Of course, I became a timid, anxious, furtive kind of child; and a cripplingly self-conscious adolescent who was so defensive and so filled with rage that there were times when I could barely breathe. Continue reading “John | Holy Spirit: Defence lawyer, healer, friend”
It takes deep humility to receive God’s grace. (Listen.)
As Jane Austen didn’t quite say, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man in possession of a good fortune … needs absolutely nothing from God.” I regularly hear people tell me that their sickness and their sorrow is not worth praying about; let God first attend to other people’s need. While this all sounds very noble, as if God is a limited resource which must be carefully rationed, it strikes me that at least two things are wrong with this attitude. Continue reading “Luke | Prayer, pride and prejudice”
As a pastor, most of my conversations revolve around relationships: having them, not having them, or having them break down. What is becoming clear to me is that most of us have internalised a whole lot of assumptions and expectations around relationships which we think are Biblical. Yet making a claim for a ‘Biblical marriage’ is pretty fraught, for if the Biblical witness teaches us anything about relationships, it is that they are, in fact, culturally bound. Continue reading “Relationships 101”
How we hear stories about Jesus depends on our image of God. (Listen here.)
How we hear stories about Jesus depends very much on our image of God. I was thinking about this because, in our conversation last week about the prayers of confession, several people said that they felt, or had been taught, that God was just waiting to judge them. The image of God as a harsh and violent judge is pervasive, and it shapes us. Like the disciples who go with Jesus up the mountain, many of us hold onto this idea, even although it may not be quite right. For this image of God comes, in part, from an older story, a story which predates Jesus. A story that also involves a mountain. Let me tell it to you: Continue reading “Matthew | Angry judge, or the face of love?”
It is a truth almost universally acknowledged, that a man in possession of a good fortune … is in the good books with God. One of the problems with growing up comfortable and in the church is that it is too easy to think this. For we are the good guys: the right sort of people who never do anything seriously wrong. Insulated by our wealth and our privilege, we glance over at all those ghastly people whose lives are a mess, congratulate ourselves for our nice morals and clean living, and assure ourselves and everyone else that we belong in God’s house. For we are not sinners like them. We never rejected God; we belong in the kingdom. Yet, week after week, in God’s house we hear stories which should challenge our assumptions, and this week is no exception. Continue reading “Luke | Pride and Prejudice”
Alison and the whale 