Colourful Dreamer

As I have said a number of times the key questions facing us and all those who seek to follow God are “Who is God, who are we and what is ours to do?” Today’s readings are all about these three questions. Jeremiah is writing to a people shattered by the events that have unfolded around them. They understood the answers to the above questions as God was their God alone, was all powerful and would protect them. All they had to do was trust. Well, they trusted and now Jerusalem was overrun with Babylonians, and the leadership was being taken to Babylon to live. Some prophets said “Do not worry. God will overcome and we will return very soon. Just trust!” Jeremiah said this was all God’s doing, and it was not going to be put right any day soon. Jeremiah said “we need new answers to these questions.” Jeremiah is very important. As we learnt in our Lenten studies last year many scholars think he is the first to declare God to be more than the God of the Hebrew people, but God o...

Over the last few weeks we have seen horrific events take place around the world. While we were transfixed as Oracle overwhelmed us, people in Kenya watched as terrorists attacked a shopping mall and brutally killed and maimed non-Muslims. In Iraq car bombs continue to kill Muslim men, women and children. And in Peshawar in Pakistan two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of worshippers at a church, killing 85 people. Amongst them was the children and mother of a colleague of mine. And the bombings continue with more dying each day in this struggling city. What are we to do in the face of such loss? How are we to respond? Lamentations was written in such a time of huge despair, as was our Psalm. Jerusalem had fallen, again. This time the temple was destroyed. The symbol of God’s presence and of all hope, gone! The last of the leadership was hauled off into exile. All was lost! How were they to sing the Lord’s song in a new land? And in their despair they cried for veng...

All my sermons over recent months can be found here. Enjoy

Gate Pa – 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time,     29th   September 2013    Readings: Hebrew Scripture:       Jeremiah 32:1-3,6-15 Psalm:              Psalm: 91:1-6, 14-16       (But Psalm 42 cos we need a good lament) Epistle:             1 Timothy 6:6-19            Gospel:            Luke 16:19-31    What I want to say: I want to use the story of Elizabeth of Hungary to shed light on the story of Lazarus – how can we live out what this story is suggesting What I want to happen: people to talk about who is at their/our gate, and how do we and how might we respond  The Sermon        1.      Introduction: wonder w...

One of the things that struck me on my recent journeys is how easily Christianity has been co-opted to support and give credence to economic and political systems that benefited the very few. The Bible was used to declare slavery as God’s way; Aboriginals in Australia and the San in Capetown as non-human and pests to be exterminated; and whites to be superior to blacks and therefore created to rule over them. Terrible things all justified by the use of scripture. It has always been so with the people of God. We find the way of God hard. We look to make it more manageable, and allow it to give credence to ways that allow us to focus on ourselves and to be blinded to all others. Today’s readings invite us to hold to God’s bigger vision, for ourselves, our societies, for all humanity. The prophets, including Jeremiah constantly speak against this co-opting of God to justify the way of self-preoccupation. We have heard Jeremiahs profound lament over this. He is clear that this will ...

  Gate Pa – 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time   Readings: Hebrew Scripture:       Jeremiah 8:19 – 9:1 Psalm:                          Psalm 79:1-9 Epistle:                         1 Timothy 2:1-10          Gospel:                        Luke 16:1-13 What I want to say: Explore gospel reading link it to:             living wage concept             upcoming local body elections What I want to happen: People to think carefully about who to vote for and w...