Colourful Dreamer

This Lent we continue reflecting on whose are we using or four words, who are we as people marked by those four words, and what is ours to do in light of all that. This week we are given the Decalogue - the 10 words or 10 commandments from Exodus - We too easily read these as legalistic or moralistic which need to be obeyed to earn something. Howard Wallace says they “were given so that people may live fully together and before God. They were not given so that people may be worthy to come into God’s presence. On the contrary … they are given after God liberated his people from Egypt and led them in the wilderness. Law or torah in the Old Testament, is always a way to live in the presence of the gracious God who first comes to us in our despair and need. They are also a reminder that living in the presence of this God brings responsibility toward God and toward all God’s creation.” 1 The 10 words are the way God shape the people of God to live out God’s graciousness and generosity fo...

You can listen to this sermon here   Gate Pa – Year B   1 st   Sunday of Lent 2024 Readings: Psalm                          Psalm 25:1-10                                                              First Reading :             Genesis 9:8-17               Second Reading :         1 Peter 3:18-22        Gospel :         ...

Lent has begun! And like every year our gospel reading is Jesus being tested in the wilderness. Mark’s version is brief. Jesus is baptised. He hears a voice declaring him to be God’s son, the Beloved. The heavens are ripped open and the Spirit descends like a divebombing dove and possesses hm, casting him out into the wilderness. Here the Satan tests him. What kind of “son of god” will Jesus be? Like King David, or the emperor Tiberius? Both are sons of god. Or maybe something else. That is what this time in the wilderness is about for Jesus. A test of identity that will shape how he lives out that call for the rest of the Gospel. What of the Divine nature will be revealed in what he says and does? Lent is offered as a similar time for us. A time in the wilderness to begin again living into being beloved children of God. Last week we used 4 words to describe Jesus and talked about what they revealed about God for us. Now we are asked “What of the divine nature is revealed in us?” How...

As this Sunday is the first Sunday in Lent, we hear again of Jesus testing time in the wilderness. Because we are in the year of Matthew, we get his version. Jesus is baptised and is declared to be the God’s Beloved Son. The Spirit then takes Jesus into the wilderness to face the big questions. What kind of beloved son will he be? How will he live that out? The wilderness is a harsh place where there is no hiding. Here he fasts and prepares. He is anchored in God. And at the end the Satan tests this identity.    How will he respond? Will be put his own needs first or trust that God will provide? Will he succumb to the dramatic and lure of fame, or will he trust God and meet the needs of those who encounter him on the way? Will he seek power and fortune, or seek nothing for himself and live in response to God’s compassion and justice? The Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount come out of this experience. They are who Jesus is. We too are beloved children. But too often, like A...

You can listen to this sermon here Gate Pa – Year A -  2nd Sunday of Advent, Readings: Psalm                          Psalm: 72:1-7, 18-19 First Reading                Isaiah 11:1-10 Second Reading           Romans 15:4-13                                Gospel                          Matthew 3:1-12         What I want to say: Ask “Why does God send a messiah” How we answer that shapes how we read this story and what we are preparing for in Advent and what we are celebrating at Christmas. Explore identity and repentance in li...