Colourful Dreamer

 You can listen to this sermon here   Gate Pa – Year B - 4 th Sunday of Advent, 2023 Readings: Psalm                          Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26                                                     First Reading                 2 Sam 7:1-11, 16                     Second Reading          Rom 16:25-27                  ...

The theme for this fourth Sunday of Advent is love. More precisely God’s love. God’s love is what Paul talks about in his letter to the Corinthians. Hard and crunchy, and utterly faithful. The Hebrew word for “covenant love” is hesed, that peculiar, immersive, active, transformative love that God shows for Israel and requires of us as well (see Micah 6:8). It is a love that eternally pursues all creation, creating a just world where all thrive. Christmas is all about this love. Also on this Sunday, we also traditionally focus on Mary. We Anglicans are not sure what to make of Mary. Over the centuries she has been Mary mother of God; Mary the fourth member of the Trinity (that one didn’t fly so well); Mary the eternal and blessed virgin; Mary the Theotokos (God bearer); Mary the humble, meek and obedient servant of God; or just Mary who happened to be Jesus’ mother but otherwise is not so important. Unlike the other New Testament writers who are more low key in their presentation of...

Our world seems so deeply divided at the moment. We see this played out on our screens from the USA with deep divisions around Roe vs Wade and gun law reform. We see it in Ukraine. We see it here. Social media hasn’t helped, with people feeling free to say appalling things they never would face to face.  I wonder in the midst of all this what we might have to say? Those division are not new. Maybe they are just more visible. They were around when Paul and Luke were writing. They were around when Jesus set his face to Jerusalem. And they are not part of how God desires this world to be. Jesus lived God’s shalom – wholeness, peace, wellbeing. He healed and restored community. His own community of followers was hugely diverse, including zealots, devout Jews, and tax collectors. Last week we heard him set his face to Jerusalem and all that lies ahead there – the seeming victory of all who seek to divide and devour. This week he sends out 70 (or 72) followers to join in his work procl...

Thursday of this week was Ascension Day, the day we mark the Ascension of the Risen Christ to the Godhead. This Sunday is known as the Sunday after Ascension. The churches celebration of the Ascension is based entirely on the Book of Acts. The gospels either don’t talk about it or have it on Easter Day. So, how does the Ascension change our present and shape how we live our lives? As I have said before, the Gospels were written in many ways to teach that in Jesus we meet God. That means our understanding of the nature of God should be shaped by Jesus’ life, ministry and death. The resurrection acts as God’s big tick to all that Jesus’ life, ministry and death reveals about God, and that the world may know that every soul and all creation has come from and has a place in the creative love of God.   Resurrection affirms the crucifixion as the door into the heart of God,   and with the Ascension declares that the risen Christ is no longer confined to one place and one time, but...