Matthew, Exodus | Seventy-seven leads to hell or heaven

 

When we are wounded, our work is to interrupt the cycles of hurt and trauma and violence. And when we say "I forgive you" and "This stops with me", we are declaring our own freedom. We become part of something new and healing, life-giving, good; we become citizens of the commonwealth of heaven ...

Read here or listen here.

Matthew | The rigours and joys of love

 

Turning towards one another inevitably leads to conflict, and that means work. Read here or listen here.

Exodus | The god of freedom

We worship an intimate, responsive, changing God who gets involved in the mess of human history and calls us to shape the future by our choices. Some choices are better than others, sure. But because the future is not yet set, there is no single path ...

Read here or listen here.

Exodus | Agents of joyful rebellion

The story of exodus points to the joy-filled possibilities of civil disobedience.

Read here, or listen here.

Matthew | Redeeming Joshua

‘I’m from one of the oldest families,’ he said. ‘We’ve been here since the beginning.’ And with that he effectively erased 60,000 years of continuous living culture, just as his Irish ancestors had tried to erase the people from the land. He’s a lovely guy, straightforward and well-meaning, and totally oblivious to what he had just done ...

Read here, or listen here.

Jesus, now lead on

 

It takes a special sort of energy to plant something new; now it’s time for me to move on. I’ve been listening to the fields, and they’re telling me to lie fallow for a while. I’ve been listening to the birds, and they’re pointing me back to Melbourne and our little flock of family and friends. And I’ve been listening to the beautiful rivers which flow through this region, and they’re assuring me that the water of life will never run out – but that which wells up in me must soon be redirected ...

Read here.

Genesis | Striving with God and men

 A few weeks ago, I organised and hosted a ministers’ gathering. Near the end of the session, one of the ministers suddenly went on a rant about the failings of the church in the West. The church is collapsing, he said, because of the blurring of gender roles that began in the 1960’s and continues to this day. And there was I, sitting in a room full of men with my boots and jeans, close cropped hair, zero make up, and not a floral in sight—and all the authority which was conferred upon me through the rite of ordination.

Read here or listen here.