Colourful Dreamer

You can listen to this sermon here   Gate Pa – Advent 2 - 2023 Readings: Psalm                          Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13                                          First Reading:               Isaiah 40:1-11   Second Reading:        2 Peter 3:8-15                          Gospel:                          Mark 1:1-8      ...

We continue our time of preparing for and celebrating the coming of Christ in history (Christmas) mystery (now) and in majesty (when God’s will be finally done on earth as in heaven) with Isaiah and Mark shouting – “Wake up!” In Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55) the writer grabs his listeners by the metaphorical lapels and shakes them out of their despair, longing, and complacency.   They were far from home in exile, feeling crushed and forgotten. Jerusalem was sacked and the temple with the Ark was long gone.   And the writer yells, “wake up. You are not forgotten. God is coming ready or not, and nothing will get in the way. It’s time to go home, time to start again. You are on the threshold of a new time. The time is urgent, and you need to get ready.” John stands on the Jordan side of the Jordan, on or near where the Hebrew people ended the Exodus and crossed into the promised land. Below the hill Elijah was gathered up into heaven on a flaming chariot. On this place of thre...

A big theme in Paul’s letter to the Romans is law. We normally understand this to mean Torah. It is also the theme in Matthew 11, where Jesus is offering an understanding of Torah or yoke. Torah was given to allow the people of God to be righteous – to be faithful to the ever present and eternally faithful (righteous) God, who was working to redeem humanity and restore creation. Too easily it became a measure to assess our worthiness and to exclude people we felt unworthy. God got lost. God’s covenant work was forgotten. And our relationships with God, each other, and all creation were broken. Some suggest that law for Paul also meant any human system that shaped identity and worthiness, and defined who and what was acceptable and who and what is not.   And Paul is saying that all these lead to death. I wonder how being n the Season of Creation helps us read this. Maybe sin includes all that breaks our relationship with God, each other, and all creation, and is seen in the cata...

This week like every Palm Sunday we are invited to journey with Jesus down the Kidron Valley and into the ambivalent Passover crowds of Jerusalem, on through the maze of streets and events until we reach Golgotha and the cross. We are invited to notice how we respond as we enter this week and how this story helps us see our world differently and to live compassionately. It begins with a small crowd from the country waving branches (no palms in Matthew) on the Monday (Matthew is just playing with us now) before Passover. They are welcoming their “king” who rode a donkey into the city. They cry Hosanna!! Each Sunday, we join them crying Hosanna as we gather around the Eucharistic table. What is it we cry? Hosanna is both our plea for God to save, and a shout of praise and exaltation. As we join that procession what is it we long to be saved from? And for what do we give thanks and praise? This king is unlike most other kings. He does not enter Jerusalem like Pilate or Herod Antipas...