Colourful Dreamer

Over the last few weeks, we have heard Jesus teach his disciples, Matthew’s community, and us, how to hold good community together. When asked by his disciples “who the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven”   Jesus responds by placing a child in their midst. It was not about their status. Instead Jesus reminded them that good community places the most vulnerable—like children, the marginalized, and those named in the Beatitudes —at its very centre. Good community has a common story that holds it together and gives it purpose. It is built on God’s deep love seen in the Exodus story and lived out in Jesus. Good community is not about us, but us living God’s deep love for creation and all who share this home with us. Last week in the gospel reading Jesus taught that true community is about mirroring heaven on earth through common purpose, deep commitment to each other, as Paul’s letter to the Romans, and the honesty required to face conflict. . Matthew 18:18 is often read to mean that wh...

Last Tuesday was ‘The Feast of Creation in Christ’, an Eastern Orthodox gift . This has long marked the beginning of their new liturgical year, commemorating the great mystery that everything was created through Christ . In 1989 the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I offered this day to the wider church as a Day of Prayer for Creation. The World Council of Churches has since extended this celebration to October 4th, the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi in what is now known as The Season of Creation. This ecumenical season calls us as followers of Christ worldwide to reflect on our common role as caretakers of God’s creation, to see that our wellbeing is interwoven with its wellbeing, and to unite in prayer and action to care for our common home. The theme for 2026 is "Living Water"  and is inspired by Ezekiel’s vision of a life-giving river flowing from God , urging us to focus on ecological healing, hope, and the deep interdependence of humanity and nature.   Thi...

Last Sunday I was asked to take the service at the church I attend. Vianney was away. There were some great texts to play with, and the Season of Creation. So here are the notes from my quite long sermon. Sorry all!   Maungatapu –   28 th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Year C -2026 Readings: Psalm                          Psalm: 91:1-6, 14-16                       First Reading               Jeremiah 32:1-3, 6-15      Second Reading          1 Timothy 6:6-19         Gospel                     ...

As we continue our Season of Creation, reflecting on how our trickles of concern, prayer, and action combine with those others from churches all around the world to become God’s mighty river of justice and peace, we are invited to reflect on what the Reign or Kingdom of Heaven on this world might look like? In the shadow of life-threatening climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution what is it we pray for every time we pray that “God’s will be done on earth as in heaven.” Paul in his letter to the churches in Rome reminds us that all of creation groans and writhes under the crushing weight of human sin, neglect and indifference. God’s Spirit is within the groaning, yearning for us and within us, yearning for true community for all creation, yearning for all that is held in the covenant to be fulfilled. We are to work with God in giving birth to God’s community, trusting and hoping that even when not a lot seems to be happening that God is at work, the yearning of the Spirit of G...

I am finding it an interesting exercise to read Paul and his letter to the divided church in Rome in this Season of Creation. It causes me to wonder if one of the ways we “live according to the flesh” is to sever our relationship with creation. Genesis reminds us that we are created from the soil in the image of the creating God to tend and care for all creation. Our wellbeing is intimately connected with that of creation. And yet so many of our prayers only talk about our need to love God, with no reference to Jesus’ repeating of the commandments to love God by loving our neighbour. And in this Season of Creation, I would include all creation and all creatures on this small common home as our neighbour. We might describe sin as being unable to find other ways of living even when we can see that our dependence on a fossil fuel economy is now altering the climate, reducing biodiversity, and choking us with pollution.   Paul invites us to know that the Spirit of God is with us in all...