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 ...

Read here, or listen here.

#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 ...

Read here, or listen here.

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.

Going deeper at work with Jesus

Close your eyes, and consider your workplace: the place where you put regular time and effort; the place which demands your experience and skill. It might your home, where you raise children, cook and clean. It might be a classroom, where you teach or learn. It might be an office, where you negotiate and communicate. It might be a garden, where you help things grow. It might be a courtroom, or a library, or a factory, or a studio, or a hospital. Wherever it is, whatever you do: consider your workplace. Imagine yourself there ...

Read here, or listen here.

Seeing through God's eyes takes practice

Here we are, forty-one days after the hype of Christmas and just starting another year at kinder or school. We are a group of lovely ordinary people with lots of children among us, and we are gathered tonight to worship God and receive a blessing, just as, two thousand years ago, like every other ordinary Jewish family, Mary and Joseph went to the Temple forty days after their firstborn son’s birth to worship God and receive a blessing.

Read here, or listen here.