When we embrace God, we come to embrace all of those who bear the image of God… including ourselves. To give ourselves fully to God isn’t to lose ourselves, but to resist the versions of life that are thrust upon us that say, “every person for themselves, climb the ladder, accumulate the stuff”… all the offers that are laid before us about what to pursue and what to love. And to embrace God in such a way that we actually embrace ourselves, one another, and all things in which God is present.

Read More

Jesus does not actually encourage his disciples (or anyone) to follow the example of the widow. Rather, he says that out of her poverty, she had “put in all she had to live on.” In the first century, a widow was vulnerable and at risk in a society structured in such a way that the wellbeing and financial security of women was often reliant on their husband or other men. This vulnerable woman, whose husband had died and was living in poverty, had been pressured by a manipulative religious system to put in the little that she had, leaving her destitute and with nothing left.

Read More

Jesus also knew that we would be exposed to situations in life that create fear in us and extended us an offer of peace in the midst of our anxiety. Will our anxieties suddenly just ‘disappear’ from our lives? Or will we be able (even temporarily) to dislodge them from the places they invade that cause us to lose our sense of peace.

Read More

We can be quick to see the “demons” in others, but we all carry stories and experiences within us that disrupt and disorganise our equilibrium. Sometimes those things sit beneath the surface and so here, in the midst of that discontent, we are invited to be present to God and for God to be present to us. For some of us it may be anxiety, especially in a year like 2020 and an era of yet more lockdown. For some of us it might be anger, frustration, depression or alienation. And so the invitation is to cultivate the awareness that God can be (and is) present to us in the midst of that wrestle. And if we can allow the breath and light of the divine presence to illuminate, then perhaps we’ll find that that same presence will liberate too.

Read More

The releasing of debt by Jesus means that not only is the man healed, but he is also no longer beholden to the religious leaders; no longer having to appease them in order to belong. Jesus liberates the man from any debts and the act of healing – as is so often the case with Jesus – is symbolic not just of the physical healing, but of transforming the man’s social inclusion. This man is released from any indebtedness to God or to religious leaders. He is truly free.

Read More

In considering how we might be participants in the life of Jesus, the story of the cleansing of the temple found in Mark 11 v 11-18 is a great example of how he felt and acted concerning social injustice, specifically regarding the poor and marginalised.

Read More

In this context, the will of the Father is not some mysterious or anxiety-inducing plan. The ‘will of God’ in this moment was found in the crossing of divides, the closing of the gap, it was to go against all the reasons why she should not be included and to find instead a moment of inclusion and empowerment. And Jesus believes that to participate in God’s will in this way, is sustaining to him like food is to our bodies. If living water was about something he would give out that would sustain her, he says that it was his giving of that living water to her that was in fact the food that sustained him.

Read More