Colourful Dreamer

Without looking we have arrived at the fourth Sunday of Advent with its theme of love. As we rush headlong into Christmas we are invited to stop and take a moment to rest with Mary and Elisabeth in this intimate and holy moment. With Mary we will sing and pray her prophetic psalm of praise and protest. Yes protest. We are too used to singing it from our place of privilege. This is the song of an invisible poor peasant girl from a small unimportant village in a land under brutal occupation voicing God’s protest against the powerful, important, wealthy and privileged elite who defined who mattered and who didn’t. Her fear and uncertainty mingles with hope and leads to her to voice what the outworking of God’s love looks like. God’s love and justice starts with Mary, the God-bearer. As we struggle with what Covid has done to us, Mary reminds us that we are all of the utmost value to God. In “The Message”, Eugene Peterson paraphrases the beginning of this song as “I'm bursting with...

Last week we celebrated All Saints and All Souls, remembering and giving thanks for those who   have died, especially over the last year. On Thursday I will join some others at the RSA to remember the ending of WW1 and to acknowledge the enormous cost to this land. We too often forget that this was also the start of the Spanish Flu which killed tens of millions around the world, in part spread by returning troops from Europe. It was a time of grief, fear, anger, and loss. The world had changed forever and there was no going back. Remembering our dead involves acknowledging how hard it was for them and us. These last months have been hard. Our world has changed. Covid is here to stay. So, we are invited to acknowledge our own grief, fear, anger, and loss. And we are gifted the Book of Ruth which Bonnie helped us into last week. Ruth is a book of protest. Like Job, a protest against the idea God blesses the righteous with wealth and sons. Naomi felt wronged. A protest against the r...

Last Sunday, as part of our joyous regathering, we celebrated our Church constitution – Te Pouhere, which weaves us together like a whāriki or woven mat, Māori, Pasfika and Pākehā. Like the flax strands in ngā whāriki, each Tikanga or cultural strand takes part in the life and mission of our church knowing their voice and way of living the gospel is as important as anyone else’s. It is a gift of God. At the same time Anglicans in Auckland were gathering for prayer led by ADJust, the Diocese of Auckland Young Anglicans for Social Justice. They prayed that all lives would matter around the world, not just the lives of the dominant, or of men, or the powerful. They prayed that in USA and other European dominated countries like our own, that Black Lives would Matter as much as white lives. They prayed for God’s justice to prevail. And then, behind a cross, they joined the Black Lives Matter march. Part of what that march called for in this land is that we honestly address our history a...

Without looking we have arrived at the fourth Sunday of Advent with its theme of love. As we rush headlong into Christmas we are invited, on this day we traditionally focus on Mary, to stop and take a moment to rest with Mary and Elisabeth in this intimate and holy moment. With Mary we will sing and pray her prophetic psalm of praise and protest. Yes protest. We are too used to singing it from our place of privilege. This is the song of an invisible poor peasant girl from a small unimportant village in a land under brutal occupation voicing God’s protest against the powerful, important, wealthy and privileged elite who defined who mattered and who didn’t. Her fear and uncertainty mingled with hope and lead to her to voice what the outworking of God’s love looks like. God’s love and justice starts with Mary, the God-bearer; and all the poor and so called unimportant men and women who are defined by God as of utmost importance and value. We see them today in migrant caravans, refu...