Colourful Dreamer

Some of us have been ashed. Lent has begun with this sign of our mortality and repentance visible. A sign of our willingness to walk the way of humility and have our minds blown by God’s shalom. In my reading for this Sunday, I came across this by Karoline Lewis from Working Preacher. “In the past, I have called into question the notion of giving up something for Lent and instead, invited a decision on something to embrace. Not something “to do” but something “to be.” Something that gives you joy, that nurtures you. It’s okay to have joy during Lent. It’s okay to think about how you will take care of yourself during Lent. It’s okay to imagine a Lent that does not have to have as its primary mood that of sacrifice. Your starting point for Lent matters. You can suffer through Lent. Or, you can choose to move through Lent from a place of wonder and gratitude: wondering where God might show up, what God might reveal in this dormant time, this time set aside so as to anticipate life, a ti

This is our last week listening to Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain” – Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount. Here Jesus is in a broken place among broken people teaching what the year of the Lord’s favour looks like. This is what God at work in the world looks like. This is Luke 4 in action. As we approach Lent we are invited to consider how much this shapes our hopes and dreams for ourselves and for our communities. What would our society look like if we prioritized the poor, the hungry, the homeless, those who mourn. What are the powers and structures that need to be non-violently resisted? What are the logs in our own eyes that we need to, in all humility, acknowledge and deal with? The Diocese of Waikato & Taranaki offer these thoughts as we come to Ash Wednesday and Lent   “You probably know a few people who 'wear their heart on their sleeve' - people who make their feelings about someone or something pretty obvious. However, you may not know that this phrase origi

Ash Wednesday was a surprising day this year, as we worked out how to be faithful and safe in level 2. In this year with reminders of our mortality constantly nagging away we were invited to wear the mark of the ash – a reminder that from dust we come, and to dust we shall return. I wonder what that evokes in you? For me it is a mix of responses including wonder and awe. This dust we are made of comes from stars. You and I, we are made of star dust.   And in a gesture of profound love God took this star dust, and breathed life into it to create us. Wow!   That ash cross holds a lot of meaning. In the early church Lent was the time of preparation for those to be baptised at Easter. This was more than a time to learn about the being Christian. It was a time of preparation to take on new identities as followers of Christ. It was modeled on the story we hear every first Sunday in Lent of Jesus in the wilderness. This year we hear Mark’s bare bones account of Jesus hearing God declare t

This is our last week listening to Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain” – Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount. Here Jesus is in a broken place among broken people teaching what the year of the Lord’s favour looks like. This is what God at work in the world looks like. This is Luke 4 in action. As we approach Lent we are invited to consider how much this shapes our hopes and dreams for ourselves and for our communities. The Diocese of Waikato & Taranaki offer these thoughts as we come to Ash Wednesday and Lent “You probably know a few people who 'wear their heart on their sleeve' - people who make their feelings about someone or something pretty obvious. However, you may not know that this phrase originates from medieval tournaments. Knights who wanted to display their affection for a particular lady would tie her hanky to their sleeves and then charge at someone with a lance. It was considered to be a very courageous display of loyalty... On Wednesday, March the 6th, w