Colourful Dreamer

Merry Christmas! After the three long years of dealing with Covid and all that has done to us, merry Christmas. After this year of war in Ukraine, high inflation, covid tinged normality, merry Christmas. In the simmering confusion and stress, impatience and frustration, weariness and longing, merry Christmas.  We have spent the last four weeks in Advent reflecting on the themes of living in hope - believing in spite of the evidence, and then watching the evidence change (Jim Wallis); centered in God’s peace – shalom - when all is as God desires for this world; knowing God’s love for all creation while nurturing the divine gift of joy. For the great Franciscan theologian John Duns Scotus, this is what Christmas is all about. The coming of Christ was not to fix anything or to save anyone, but God’s first thought. Christmas is God being born in a food trough not in a palace. Shepherds are the first witnesses, not the powerful. This is a statement of God’s commitment to the poor, the b...

You can listen to this sermon here   Gate Pa –  4 th Sunday in Advent - Year A - 2022 Readings: Psalm -                         Psalm: 80:1-7,17-19 First Reading -              Isaiah 7:10-16 Second Reading -       Romans 1:1-7 Gospel:                        Matthew 1: 18-25     What I want to happen: Let’s read Matthew on its own terms and not in Luke’s shadow Today we read the stories of two men, one faithless and untrusting (Ahaz in Isaiah) and one faithful and trusting (Joseph in Matthew). When I read this, I am reminded of John Dun Scotus – Francisan theologian of high middle ages - "The Incarnation is caused simply by God's generous and free love,...

There is a lot to squeeze into this week’s theme. Firstly, we are marking in a small way the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple ; a principle feast in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican Churches. It falls on this Wednesday, 2 February, 40 days after Christmas, and marks the end of the Christmas season. It remembers Jesus being presented at the Temple as the law required of a first son, and we hear the response of Simeon (The Song of Simeon or Nunc Dimittis) and Anna.   It is more commonly known as "Candlemas” when the candles for the new year are blessed, and the used stubs were distributed to the faithful for use in the home. This week we are using the readings for Epiphany 4. And we read them going into RED with omicron having breached the border and joining our summer. I read them with a sense of dreadful anticipation and uncertainty about what the next few weeks might hold for us, and with a sense of longing to be free of this virus. Longing is weaved all t...

We gather this Christmas looking for joy longing for hope holding our grief for what has been and what is and what will be We see a babe lying in a manger bed There we find God present in: Mary’s pain and doubt wonder at the unknown giving birth in this stable cave; Shepherds washed in fear and uncertainty, blinded by angel armies deafening song, calling them on; Joseph’s bewilderment as his simple life takes undefined turns wishing for life as it was, as it should be; mothers wailing gut wrenching despair holding their murdered sons, sacrificed on Herod’s paranoia and resentment; Foreign Magi risky questing and wise searching entering hostile lands looking. We see a babe lying in a manger bed There we find God present in our story our grief Christmas joy. God declares this world and all people worthy For God is with us present utterly committed even now ushering hope and wholeness gif...