Colourful Dreamer

As I was preparing for this week, the podcast I listen to in preparation each week talked about the letter to the Hebrews offered several responses to the question, “what do we think God was up to in Jesus?” As I thought about that, I think we can add, and what does that say about God?   Big questions that are there every week. How we answer them shapes what we think about the life of faith, church, and the mission of God. The people on the podcast suggest that Hebrews offers more than one answer to that first question. With Job, it encourages us to ask the question, and to hold lightly the answers we come to. We are reminded that our understanding of the nature and way of God is in the end limited and flawed. God is God. But they are still questions we need to reflect on. As I have said many times, the gospels address these questions through the story of Jesus; what he said and did, the people he mixed with, and his death, resurrection, and ascension. To put that more simply, ...

Grace and peace This Saturday is Super Saturday: Get vaccinated!!  And I have been asked by the diocese and by Jan Tinetti our local Labour list MP based in Tauranga. to help spread the word. You can find out more here about Super Saturday: Get vaccinated!!  here . Even if you are already double jabbed, we all have a role to play to get our vaccination rates up to a level up well over 90% for all ethnic and age groups in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Higher vaccination rates mean better we are better able to keep ourselves, all our families- whanau, and all our community safe. Especially the most vulnerable, what ever their age, who have underlying health issues like asthma. Higher vaccination rates are about keeping our hospitals open for all who need medical care. Overseas experience shows us that when hospitals and health care providers are swamped with Covid cases then other people w...

It might be that the last year and a half have raised some big questions for some of you. Questions about why this has happened. Questions about what being a follower is really about. Today’s readings, especially the readings from Job and Mark, are full of some of these big questions. We can join with Job in his absolute bewilderment at what is happening with him. Or more precisely in his pleading’ “why O God have YOU done this to me?” How often have we heard people ask that question? How often have we asked that question? At the heart of this question is our understanding of God, and God in our lives. It is such a fundamental question. And we will have to wait another week to hear how God responds. As we wait and ponder that question it might be helpful to remember that the lectionary has led us from the initial story of Job’s misfortune and completely missed his friends’ unhelpful attempts to aid him. They live in a very narrow theological world and they invite us to wonder in what...

  Gate Pa –   27 th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Year B + 5 th Sunday in Season of Creation Francis of Assisi Readings: Psalm                          Psalm 26 First Reading:             Job 1:1; 2:1-10                                                 Second Reading:        Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12 Gospel:                        Mark 10:2-16        What I want to say: Francis understood ...

F or the last four weeks we have been celebrating the Season of Creation using the title of “Oikos- a home for all”. With Christians from around the world we have proclaimed that ALL life belongs to God, and acknowledged our need to work with God and all God works through to protect and heal God’s gift of our common home. Using the central image of Sarah and Abraham’s tent, we have contemplated this world as God’s tent, where ALL life belongs to is equally precious to God and is offered welcome, shelter, refuge, and safety. It is God's deep desire for all life and all creation to thrive.  This desire is behind Day 8 of the Principles of the Franciscan Third Order which says, “(We) fight against all injustice in the name of Christ, in whom there can be neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female; for in him all are one. Our chief object is to reflect that openness to all which was characteristic of Jesus. This can only be achieved in a spirit of chastity, which sees ot...

  Gate Pa – Year B – 26 th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Season of Creation 4 26 h September 2021 Readings: Hebrew Scripture:      Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9: 20-22 Psalm:                          124 Epistle:                         James 5: 13-20 Gospel:                        Mark 9: 38-50 What I want to say: In this Season of Creation to explore the need to imagination our relationship with and place in creation – our common home; and courage to live that out. Esther offers an example of what reimagining your place looks like, the risks and the rewards – a story still celebrated by Jews today at Purim. Esther also offer...