Colourful Dreamer

I just received this from a friends bog. Larry is gone. When I was younger he was so influential. I loved his music. He showed me Christians could do rock. It was sooo cool. And his concerts were great. So great. I have an abiding memory of him playing solo, and just holding us all with his playing and singing. Great times. We have lost a great soul. May you rest in God's peace, and rise in glory

Last week I went to a theological hui run at our Theological College, to ehlp us use Romans to explore our life and unity as a church. Kathy Glieb did two main presentations which were really really helpful. To start as she did with an exploration of why Paul wrote this letter and what it purpose was helped put the whole thing in context, and made it much more useful for us today as a church. Paul wrote this book to the divided churches in Rome. Yes churches, not church. They were seriously split. And if you read the book you will see the theological reasons for those splits. Paul needed the support of those churches to help in his proposed mission to Spain. He needed to overcome some of the negative things that had been said about him, particularly that he was not friend to the Jewish Christian church, And he needed the churches to focus on what united them, the gospel and their common mission, rather than on what divided them, so that they could support this mission. Hence the letter...

This is a talk given at the Hamilton Ministers Winter Lectures, August 2007. It has taken me awhile to type it up! To start with, who am I? I am an Anglican priest, who has worked in youth ministry fro the last 20 years, both in the Methodist and Anglican churches I am a Franciscan I have a deep interest in spiritual formation And I am a husband, and a father of three children The topic, “Young Lives, New Life” can be read in a variety of ways. It can be read as meaning the new life “we” offer young people This way fits with picture we are constantly given of young people As either lost, hurt, in need Or out of control, drunk, being hoons on the road, or as violent or viscous criminals. From my own experience, nether of these pictures are very accurate. In fact my experience would suggest the opposite is true. The Australian survey across 15-30 year olds reveals that at least in Australia young people are happy and content, in fact are optimistic about the future. So what is another...

Last night I went to a combined Ash Wednesday service with the local Roman Catholic parish. This in itself was a great symbol of acknowledging our unity and confessing our broken communion, a good way to start Ash Wednesday. Although much of the service was about our individual brokenness and need for repentance, it was placed within the communal brokenness. What caught me though was how this Ash Wednesday occurred on Waitangi day. I have often thought of this day as a day for celebrating the vision of those who worked for the treaty, and the vision behind it. I have also thought of the treaty as offering us as a church and a country a way of being. What I was reminded of this ash Wednesday is the ongoing need to repent how we have failed to live that out, and to start anew in seeking a just way in this land. Starting anew, recognising past failing, letting go of the crushing burden of that, and starting again to live it out fully. I know some within Tikanga Maori will be angered by th...

Yesterday we said farewell to someone who showed us what it means to be an ordianry New Zealander. Our church ran a memorial service last night. Here are the prayers I wrote for this service as a tribute to the man and his legacy. Creator of life and light, We praise you this day for the beauty of your world, for mountains stretching ever towards the sky, the vast reaches of ice and snow in Antarctica, rivers such as the Ganges with thread on into the hills, for the radiance of dawn and the last smouldering calm of the sunset. We thank you for the life of Sir Edmund Hillary a life well lived We thank you for his many achievements for his great love of adventure, for his passion for the Sherpa people for his humility A man who showed us what it means to be “an ordinary New Zealander” God, Creator of mountain and ice Creator of all Hear our prayer Gracious God, surround us and all who mourn this day with your continuing compassion. We especially pray for the family and friends of Sir Ed....

Two Choices, I know you'll make the right one. What would you do? You make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice? At a fund raising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?' The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people tr...

THIS BETHLEHEM SPOT Was Jesus born in this Bethlehem spot? Not a nice stable at the back of an inn, but the animal end of an ordinary house-cave among the dung and the feed? Did Mary breathe deep, hold and push in this underground smoke darkened shrine? Did Joseph stand helpless among the men safe away from the blood, pain and tears around a fire warmed against the winter chill? Did the whenua of God lie on this star shaped spot where millions have prayed? Is it here God inhaled that life giving breath, and exhaled that first joyful cry? I don’t know! And none of it matters… Unless Jesus is born in me this Christmas Unless I breathe life afresh with God Unless I leave the helpless men at the safe end of my cave and join the woman in the messy hand dirtying work of giving birth to God’s world today. May you have time to breathe life afresh this Christmas John Hebenton tssf Anglican Youth Network Facilitator: Tikanga Pakeha Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia 15 Farm ...