Colourful Dreamer

Tarore (Ngatiawa - February 2015) She sits on rock benches flickering candle on charred altar embraced in young Tarore. Come away awhile she hears in stillness and buzzing fly. Rest in me.

Mother Hen (Ngatiawa - February 2015) She stood watching surprised at my coming from the room little feet beating under wings pyramiding out gathering in impatient ones. We look, she and I, until assessing I am safe; kia ora e manu; five chicks chirp free. Their quest goes on while I am left to wonder, how long o Jerusalem, how long?

One hundred and seventy five years ago a man hurriedly put on his hat and urgently rowed ashore, all were ready to sign his new treaty. Those waiting were arikinui, men of mana and cunning who knew the deceptive ways of the English. They did not trust this man under the hat but saw a wave coming and sought a way to preserve what was theirs; their tino rangatiratanga and a way to live with these new white invaders. Today they gift us this land and this treaty, this hope that two peoples can live together each honouring and learning the way of the other. Are we brave enough this year to celebrate this promise and live the way of Te Tiriti?

I am on hoiliday next week. These are my very initial thoughts on our RCL readings for October 4. Again, others will be preaching so this will be it from me. Today we are invited to consider how we read scripture. Do we read it to confirm our beliefs and find support for both our understanding of God and how we are to live that out? Or are we constantly invited to have a deeper and larger vision of who God is; to let go of our preconceived notions of who we are and find new ways of being loyal and fruitful followers of God. Today’s readings are all about the second way. The God of Job simply refuses to be defined. When catastrophe happens, Job’s friends use their theological models to help Job confess his great and manifold sin. But Job refuses and calls God to account. In the end both Job and his friends are held to account. God is so much bigger than all we can imagine and will not be confined by our theology. Jesus too lovingly invites both the rich young man and us t...

Last week we heard a passage from Proverbs 31:10-31   that many of us read as extolling very traditional roles for women. And it is not unknown for women in particular to not want to read it.   There is in fact no getting away from fact that those traditional roles are an important part of that reading. But I also suggested that it is more than that. The women described in this reading were not mousey submissive chattels. They were strong women who ran their households with imagination, and flair, and generosity. It is I think an invitation for men to choose their wives carefully, and to not just look for what their society deemed to be important, and for women to be more than they were traditionally described. And so some read it as championing traditional roles, and others as championing woman taking more significant roles both in their household and in their communities. This week we hear the story Esther, a story of the kind of strong woman proverbs refers to. ...