Embarking on the journey of authenticity or becoming our true selves leads to a place where we are comfortable in our own skin, wearing clothes that fit us and living a life that suits our uniquely inherent design.
Read More
The concept of Manaakitanga encourages us to reach out beyond the desire to share on the condition of self-preservation. It’s easy to share in a safe environment with those you trust and like. Generosity really blossoms however when your life is shared in a way that challenges our insecurities and fears which guide us every day.
Read More
If God is a God who tortures people forever for not getting their religious choices correct, then God is a monster, God is Molech and I have no interest in following that kind of God. That kind of God can be used to justify violence and war and oppression. That kind of God sets us up for tribalism. Instead, Jesus asks us to forgive, and when we say ‘how many times?’ he says ‘again and again.’ So does God do the same?
Read More
The eternal way of living is big love and the eternal way of punishment (in need of rehabilitation) is that side of my nature that is entrenched in annoyance. What I allow to annoy me will forever torment my sensibilities and firmly close the door to the spirit of Christ that knocks with the sound of Manaakitanga.
Read More
Every single time the New Testament talks about the ‘future’ it is to challenge, inspire and enliven the way we are living in the present. This all has implications for our relationships, the work we do, for the art we create, the things we do that give order and shape to God’s creation in the present
Read More
May you come to know that God is always speaking, God’s voice echoing in the cosmos; and revealed in the sacred stories of those who have gone before us. And may you see that the circulating flow of divine love in the Triune God, also lies at the heart of all things; for God is love.
Read More
We are encouraged to live in the light of the story of Jesus, the revelation of a God of love, and in the power of a new Spirit. We are confronted with ourselves, but offered radical grace and acceptance and invited into a taking up of responsibility to live differently in the world.
Read More
The path to transformation starts with radical acceptance, an acceptance that leads to a profound re-humanisation of self and others. The story of the ‘gospel’ acknowledges that when we are unable to accept and forgive ourselves and one another, God names our acceptance, God names our forgiveness, and the Spirit of Christ enlivens us to experience transformation and renewal.
Read More
We were late-comers to the story and our imago dei has emerged from the soil of time, space and matter. Humans are not the pinnacle of creation but the result of the ground of matter evolving in a way that reflects the imaging of God. Humanity has its roots and beginnings in a very beautiful poem that suggest that all matter is ‘good’ and our imago dei is underpinned by that goodness.
Read More
Jesus was already preaching the forgiveness of sins and forgiving sins before he died. He did not have to wait until after the resurrection to do that. Blood is not acceptable to God as a means of uniting human community or a price for God's favor. Christ sheds his own blood to end that way of trying to mend our divisions.
Read More
Hopefulness keeps us wondering about what might be, a heart felt longing that dreams of magical places and mystical possibilities, unencumbered by the pessimism and cynicism that so easily sickens our hearts.
Read More
We need a change of heart, and a new plan of sustainability where we practice humility by walking cautiously on this finite planet and being aware of our limits.
Read More
There is a beautiful symmetry and interplay between heaven and earth, land and sea, nature and mankind that invites us into its wonder and mystery in order that we might experience a sacramental moment.
Read More
Jesus refuses to see God as a tribal warrior deity; he doesn’t bend to the vision of God offered by the violent political and religious powers.
Read More
The word for breath in Hebrew is ruach, which is feminine in its origin. The ancient Hebrews understood Spirit as the source – the breath of all life, giving life to all things, moving between and holding all things together and grounding all of life into one being, of which we are a part.
Read More
Jesus' death is a death to the entire sacrificial system. It says ‘no more!’ to the spilling of blood as a way to gain God’s approval. This is not what God is like.
Read More
The Jesus of the New Testament is a radical, disrupting and revolutionary presence. When they first used the phrase ‘Lord and Saviour’ to describe Jesus, they used it because that was the title reserved only for Caesar. It highlighted the provocative challenge to the empire that was embodied in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Read More
God is in the place of abandonment – even supposed abandonment by God. Christianity is a protest against the vision of God as a being out there somewhere turning his face away from our pain. God cries out in Christ against that kind of God.
Read More
John uses LOVE as his supreme metaphor for God and unveils its role in our awakening to, and awareness of, the divine. The explanation of love is always, first and foremost, an explanation of the character of God.
Read More
Death and new life is woven into the very fabric of existence itself. And so when we reflect on the story of Easter, this is not just about a transaction, involving payment and appeasement. It is about seeing and participating in the fundamental aspects of reality.
Read More