While in the cave he hears a voice which says, ‘What are you doing here’? This is not so much a geographical enquiry but a multi-layered question that goes to the heart of what has led him to this place and what needs to change in order to move him into the next chapter of his narrative. 'What are you doing here?' is the kind of invasive question that we need to be continually confronted with, especially if we are going to reinvent ourselves in some new way.
Read MoreIf we love what we care for, we will extend that to future generations. We will love our earth because she nourishes and cares for us, and because she is the home of those to come. In this way may we be the best ancestors we can be, and may our descendants speak well of us.
Read MoreIf God is present in Jesus, then God is the source and origin of friendship. We could say, that God is friend-ness itself, or friendship itself. However you want to say it. But it means that friendship isn’t something we have to create, as much as it is something to enter into and participate in. Which can all sound a bit mystical and magical, but I like that. I don’t have to create friendship out of thin air, I just have to foster an openness to it.
Read MoreIf wonder is around us, if the sacred is hiding in our ordinary lives, how can we train ourselves to see it? In an extraordinary partnership between science and religion, scientists have discovered that the act of meditation not only strengthens the parts of our brain responsible for imagination, but deeply affects our sense of self, reducing our self-centredness and helping us reframe ourselves as part of a larger universe.
Read MoreThe call into connectedness, into breaking down status and division, this becomes a call into the ways of justice in the world. It challenges me with the question, how do I relate to and treat those around me? Do I see some people as less than me because of my status, or relative wealth, or privilege? Or can I recognise that we belong to each other, and that we all, together, are found ‘in Christ’, the one in whom all things hold together and in whom all of creation finds a sense of common belonging?
Read MoreWhen space explorers this past century sent back the first photographic image of our planet earth robed in her beautiful cloaks of green and blue there was a sense that She had a central place in the Universe (as we humans also view ourselves). But then as research and technology evolved new images appeared letting us see that we as a planet are just a dot in the larger scheme of the Cosmos. This has allowed for the realisation that we are just a small part of the whole, and that we in some strange way belong to something much greater than the sum of our own parts.
Read MoreWe often move from one surface thrill to the next trying to capture the essence of closeness and love like a one night stand rather take the plunge into the deep well of oneness and transformation, realising the transcendent nature of relationship is primarily understood through the lens of human interplay, reciprocity and commitment.
Read MoreOur moments together may be few, but they can be rich, and maybe as we tap into some of the goodness of God we will become the best versions of ourselves, image bearers. Not only will we be anchored at peace and happy to be alive, those around us who are watching might be interested in becoming (not Christians by name), but image bearers of Christ also.
Read MoreSolidarity, as a theological virtue, is about seeing ourselves as connected, as belonging to each other, to the earth, and to God. And because we belong to each other, there are implications for how we live in the world, and the pursuit of justice and peace. When we think about the story of Jesus, the claim of the Christian tradition is that this is Immanuel: God with us. The ultimate expression of solidarity. This is the divine solidarity of God. God demonstrates solidarity with us. God becomes one of us. God is one of us. And so the grounds of any Christian sense of solidarity with the world beyond ourselves, begins with a sense of divine solidarity with us, here and now.
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