Colourful Dreamer

This week I am flicking between the readings for the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (Candlemas) and Epiphany 4. All good stuff. Last week I used John’s gospel to say that the Word of God is not the Bible, but Christ the Word. I want to explore that just a little using some thoughts from Brian McLaren’s book “We Make the Road by Walking”.   In chapter three Brian translates The Word or Logos of God as the logic of God. And this logic by which all is created is the essence of God. To understand the nature of God, the logic of God one need only look at the life, teaching, actions, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth – the Word/Logos/Logic of God made flesh, like you and me. Brian then goes on to describe some competing patterns or logic at play in our societies: the logic of rivalry – where one strives to defeat the other; Compliance – where one seeks to learn to rules and abide by them; and meaningless mechanism – where the universe and our lives are simply parts o

Click here to listen Gate Pa –Epiphany 3 2016 Readings: Psalm                          Psalm: 19                                                                                           First Reading:                         Nehemiah 8:1-3,5-6,8-10     Second Reading:                    1 Cor 12:12-31                                                Gospel:                                    Luke 4:14-21                                                   What I want to say: I want to explore why we might stand for the gospel What I want to happen: So that people might be more thoughtful about how they do it, rather than just do it because that is what we do The Sermon 1. Introduction: Few years ago at meeting about something young women working in Anglican church there – not Anglican briefly touched on standing for gospel which she dismissed as unnecessary. All bible readings are important – not single out gospel             that put me in

It is a new year. A chance to reflect on our assumptions about life and faith and such. One of my bug bears is the phrase "The Word of God". When we hear “the Word of God” I think we too quickly think about the Bible. And that quickly gets reduced down to "The Makers Handbook" which is full of ways we are supposed to live and useful little proverbs we can pluck out and apply to all kinds of situations to prove ou r point - like guns are good and gays are really bad. (Some of my prejudice may be showing at this point.) This Sunday is the 3rd Sunday in Epiphany. The readings set down are: Psalm:  19  Nehemiah 8:1-3,5-6,8-10       1 Cor 12:12-31  Luke 4:14-21   I think the writers of these passages have something much bigger in mind. The Psalmist talks of the silent word proclaiming the glory of God. The Word is in this silent praise, but is also met in the Law, which was both written and oral. In Nehemiah the people seek the Word, standing and praisi