Radiating Resurrection

How long, O Lord, must we wait? How long until a saviour comes and sweeps through this nation, and puts everything right? How long until the corrupt are thrown out of power, the violent are contained, the poor are cared for, and the earth is restored? How long until political leaders show compassion? How long until religious leaders repent for the damage they have done? How long until asylum seekers are freed from detention? How long until children in foster care find stable healthy homes? How long until Australia’s First Peoples receive recognition and justice? How long, O Lord, must we wait?

Read here, or listen here.

Satisfying the Hunger Within

What are you hungry for? What are you craving? Food? Friendship? The dulling of the pain? An end to loneliness? The lighting up of the darkness? The warm embrace of love? To be hungry is to be human. To feed ourselves is to be human. And we live in a ravenous age. We are all barraged daily with advertising for things which promise to sate our hunger, to quench our thirst, to satisfy our desires, to heal the pain, to end the craving, to fill the emptiness within.

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Predatory foxes and powerless hens

“Where was God?” a friend once wrote to me. “Where was God when my father was on the rampage, trying to break down my bedroom door? Where was God when I was hiding under the dining room table, shaking and terrified? Why didn’t God keep me safe?” There’s an old children’s song that goes like this: “My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do …” And when I think of my dear friend, who sang songs like this in religious education classes at school, and who begged God to keep her safe from her father at home, my heart breaks ...

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#40ways40days in Lent - Ordinary Saints

This Lent our congregation is reflecting on discipleship in Luke's gospel. Each day, we will post something on our website on how one aspect of discipleship might play out in daily life: perhaps a personal reflection written by a member of the congregation, perhaps an excerpt from a book, perhaps a poem or a prayer. You can read them day by day starting with the introduction here.

Journey to Jerusalem: A roadmap

Transfiguration isn’t a once-off event. Instead, it is happening and it keeps happening to us ...

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Context, community, and the sermon on the plain

The Zen Master Shichiri Kojun sat reciting sutras when all of a sudden a thief burst in, brandishing a sharp sword. He demanded his money or his life. “Do not disturb me,” said Shichiri. “You will find the money in that drawer over there.” Then he continued with his sutras ...

Read here, or listen here.

Blessed are those who ... suffer?

On the day my mother died, we crammed into her ugly poky hospital room. She had been sick for years, and in and out of hospital, but none of us had understood that she was so close to death. We were given just a few hours to prepare. So there we were: shocked, dismayed, terrified; and totally, totally heart stricken ...

Read here, or listen here.