Colourful Dreamer

Our world seems so deeply divided at the moment. We see this played out on our screens from the USA with deep divisions around Roe vs Wade and gun law reform. We see it in Ukraine. We see it here. Social media hasn’t helped, with people feeling free to say appalling things they never would face to face.  I wonder in the midst of all this what we might have to say? Those division are not new. Maybe they are just more visible. They were around when Paul and Luke were writing. They were around when Jesus set his face to Jerusalem. And they are not part of how God desires this world to be. Jesus lived God’s shalom – wholeness, peace, wellbeing. He healed and restored community. His own community of followers was hugely diverse, including zealots, devout Jews, and tax collectors. Last week we heard him set his face to Jerusalem and all that lies ahead there – the seeming victory of all who seek to divide and devour. This week he sends out 70 (or 72) followers to join in his work procl...

This sermon can be listened to here  G ate Pa – 19th June 2022, 13 th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Readings: First Reading:              Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Psalm:                         Psalm 100 Second Reading:        Gal 3:23-29                 Gospel:                          Luke 8:26-39                          What I want to say: Last Sunday was Trinity Sunday. One Sunday a year to think about the Trinity, and then put it back on the shelf for another year. One important aspect of The trinity is the relationship be...

Last week some of us struggled to keep up with St. Patrick once he gave up on his bad analogies. What he said was, "The Trinity is a mystery which cannot be comprehended by human reason but is understood only through faith and is best confessed in the words of the Athanasian Creed, which states that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, neither confusing the Persons nor dividing the substance, that we are compelled by the Christian truth to confess that each distinct Person is God and Lord, and that the deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coequal in majesty." (St. Patrick's Bad Analogies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQLfgaUoQCw ) Whew! For many, one of the important features of traditional Trinitarian theology is the relationship between the three persons. I wonder what words we might use to describe this relationship. For me words like mutuality, love, generosity, and compassion come to mind. I am invited to be o...

You can listen to this sermon here Gate Pa –  Trinity Sunday in Easter- Year C - 2022 Readings: Psalm                          Psalm: 8                                                                      First Reading :             Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31                                     Second Reading : ...

Happy Trinity Sunday. This day is a gift. It is a day where we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the awe and wonder at the mystery of God who is three in one. It is a day to acknowledge we don’t have all the answers and to learn humility. It is a day to repent of our desire to explain and control God, and instead to have our minds blown by the omnipotence and awesomeness of God. A few years ago, Archbishop Phillip wrote that “(h)owever difficult it might be, to speak of God as Trinity is to speak a wonderful truth, for the Trinity speaks to us of a God who is no distant, remote, isolate monad, but rather proclaims an experience of God who in essence is relational. God as Trinity is God in communion, three in one. Inter-dependence, mutuality, loving in communion are all expressions which flow from our knowledge of God as three in one. St. Augustine of Hippo described the Trinity as “the lover, the beloved and the love between them”. The doctrine of the Trinity was not developed as a...

This sermon can be listened to here Gate Pa –   Pentecost Sunday - Year C - 2022 Readings: Psalm                          Psalm : 104:25-35                                                   First Reading :               Acts 2:1-21                                                      Se...

The Acts version of the coming of the Spirit in a new way swamps our understanding. We often miss it, but the writers of scripture offer several ways to describe the Spirit and to depict her work in the world. In Luke’s gospel the Spirit is there from the very beginning.  He tells the story slightly differently in his gospel than in his second volume. In Acts, Luke offers us drama. The Spirit comes in a new way with whistling wind and appears like tongues of flame settling on each disciple, both men and women. They are driven out to speak in languages they could not know. The diversity of God’s creation is affirmed. People far from home hear the language that speaks to their souls. In John, on Easter day, Jesus breathes the Spirit on each of those gathered. No whistling wind. No tongues of flame. A gentle breath they inhale in shock. As they breathe they know in their bones they are deeply held in love. Just as Paul will later say, there is nothing in all creation that can separa...