Colourful Dreamer

You can listen to this sermon here   Gate Pa – Lent 4 Year B - 2024 Readings: Hebrew Scripture:      Numbers 21:4-9 Psalm:                         107:1-3,17-22 Epistle:                         Ephesians 2: 1-10 Gospel:                        John 3:14-21 What I want to say: How do the themes of Hermitage, Solitude and Community help us this Lent Use the Jerusalem Bible version of Ephesians “ We are God’s works of art,” -           See ourselves and others as works of art? Use this to reflect on John 3 – second half of the conversation with Nicodemus – which is al...

As I have said, Lent is inspired by the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness wrestling with and being tested in his identity. Who was he as the “beloved son of God”? How would he live that out? What would he trade it in for?   Lent is our time to ask what it means for us to be beloved children of God. (Or as the writer to the Ephesians says, God’s works of art). Asking whose we are using the four words we used to describe Jesus – how to they describe God? Who are we – how do those words apply to us? What is ours to do – how do we live them out? And what gets in the way of knowing and living all that? How do this Sunday’s readings help us in this work? There are many who find our gospel reading (John 3:14-21) condemning and difficult. Your safe if you believe, otherwise eternal damnation!   But I don’t think that fits with what John is saying in this Gospel. His focus was God’s active love of this world and God’s commitment to redeem and restore it. So let’s put this passa...

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...