Colourful Dreamer

Because I am away during this year’s Season of Creation, I have decided to move our engagement with this time to July. And maybe that will encourage us to take part in the actual Season is some more active ways. This year’s theme, chosen by young people working with the International Steering Committee, is Let Justice and Peace Flow. The Prophet Amos cries out “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5: 24). This year we are invited to join the river of justice and peace, to take up climate and ecological justice, and to speak out with and for communities most impacted by climate injustice and the loss of biodiversity.  We are invited in this week’s readings to reflect on what stops us joining this mighty river. In his letter to the Romans, Paul speaks of how Christ breaks the power of sin that enslaves us. While there are many ways to understand sin, I wonder if in the context of climate change, biodiversity loss and life-threatening...

You can listen to this sermon here   Gate Pa - Ascension Sunday and Easter 7 Year A, 2023 Readings - Palm                              Psalm: 68:1-10, 32-35                                                  First Reading -              Acts 1:1-14                                           Second Reading -          ...

I wrote this three years ago. I am not preaching this week so have not written and theme. But in light of Gabrielle and other weather (climate) catastrophes over the last month or two,  it seems we need more than ever to " change our priorities and to live in such a way that this planet is not just treated as a resource to use, but as God’s gift." It begins with Abram and Sarai being invited to leave everything behind. Everything that shaped who they were and their place in the world. Their maunga, awa, marae, iwi and hapu. They were invited to become the people through whom God would restore humanity and all creation to all that God had originally intended. Nicodemus is an inheritor of this identity. But over the centuries his people had forgotten, and it had become all about maintaining your place in the tribe, your privilege and power. Jesus invites Nicodemus to leave everything behind and join the people through whom God is restoring humanity and all creation to all tha...

You can listen to this sermon here Readings: Psalm                     Psalm: 119: 33-40 First Reading        Lev 19:1-2, 9-18 Second Reading 1 Cor 3:10-11, 16-23 Gospel                     Matt 5:38-48                                 What I want to say: We continue our journey into the sermon on the Mount, holding the beatitudes as our map and key. We listen as Jesus continues to reinterpret the law for the new time he lives in, applying the law to new circumstances and requirements. He does do in ways that invite people to be subversive and persistent in the joining God to bring t...