Colourful Dreamer

You can listen to this sermon here   Gate Pa – Year B   2 nd Sunday in Lent, 2024 Readings: Psalm                          Psalm 22:23-31                                          First Reading:                   Genesis 17:1-7,15-16                      Second Reading :              Romans 4:13-25                  ...

I wrote this three years ago. I am not preaching this week so have not written and theme. But in light of Gabrielle and other weather (climate) catastrophes over the last month or two,  it seems we need more than ever to " change our priorities and to live in such a way that this planet is not just treated as a resource to use, but as God’s gift." It begins with Abram and Sarai being invited to leave everything behind. Everything that shaped who they were and their place in the world. Their maunga, awa, marae, iwi and hapu. They were invited to become the people through whom God would restore humanity and all creation to all that God had originally intended. Nicodemus is an inheritor of this identity. But over the centuries his people had forgotten, and it had become all about maintaining your place in the tribe, your privilege and power. Jesus invites Nicodemus to leave everything behind and join the people through whom God is restoring humanity and all creation to all tha...

What an interesting collection of readings this week. Take Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18. A gruesome story that makes little sense to us. It is easy to get hung up on the brutality of the sacrifice and miss the significance of the moment. This is an ancient way of promising that what is being promised will happen, or the person promising will end up like the animals whose remains they walk between. Or in other words, God will be faithful to this covenant or God will die. God makes this promise even while Abram sleeps. God’s faithfulness does not depend on our response. God just is faithful. And God fulfilled the promise. Abram and Sarai did have a son, and through that son they had many descendants. God remained faithful to those many descendants. They were blessed, so that they might be a blessing for all creation and all life. For the gospel writers and for Paul, Jesus is how God fulfils the ultimate promise of this moment. Humanity would be restored, and creation renewed. Through Jesus,...