Being virgin is a superpower!

 Mary’s virginity has nothing to do with passivity or innocence. Instead, it’s the independent attitude which undergirds her prophetic power. Read here or listen here.

Witnesses to the light

'There are no final proofs for the existence of God; there are only witnesses.’ Abraham Joshua Heschel, John the baptizer, and a member of our congregation speak. 

Read here, or listen here.

Sophie says, "Stay awake!"

Sophie and the gang had been at the Centre, where cardinals swanned around in brocade robes and mega-church pastors wore thousand-dollar sneakers. These religious authorities were well-known, successful. They had access to the prime minister and all his cronies; they were all over tv and social media. Everybody knew God had blessed them with wealth and health; everybody knew they could get in on the blessing by donating to the building fund

Read here, or listen here.

The judgement is upon us now

The judgement of Matthew 25 is not about individuals, hell or the afterlife; but nations, consequences and how we live now. 

Read here, or listen here.

The courage to be worthless

The parable of the talents challenges us to speak truth to power, whatever the consequences. 

Read here, or listen here.

What is your next step in God's story of liberation?

 

Moses lives; Moses dies; but God’s story continues – and we are all invited to participate. 

Read here, or listen here.

Presence bathed the room with love

Who among us hasn’t said something like: God, show me your plan. Tell me what I’m supposed to be doing here. I need clear guidance, a proper sign. Not some mimsy-wimsy spiritual hint, but something solid, something real. Otherwise, how will I know that you’re even with me? And how will anyone else know?

Read here or listen here.

Ten words, three strategies, and a never-ending flow of life

 

Just imagine: You have been set free. Free from unreasonable expectations, casual contracts, and ever-increasing KPI’s. Free from the busywork of middle management and trivializing performance reviews. Free from the gnawing feeling that, no matter how many hours you put in, you will never know enough or do enough or be enough or have enough. Free from seeking other people’s approval; free from the need to be seen as helpful, powerful, successful, special, right, reliable, calm, happy or wise ...

Read here, or listen here.

In the wilderness of 2020, God keeps providing

The ancient story of a wilderness-wandering people invites us to ponder how God sustains us during shutdown. Read here or listen here.

Walking between the waves: On state power, military violence and our hybrid identity

When a nation is founded on violence, and uses violence to ensure people’s ongoing submission and obedience, the forces of chaos will one day overwhelm and destroy it. 

Read here or listen here.

Plagues, and other signs and wonders: A story for our times

Once upon a time, long long ago, there was a nation whose gods shaped it into a pyramid of power. At the top was one man: Pharaoh: the semi-divine son of the sun god Ra. And as happens to everyone, Pharaoh was made in his god’s image. Dominating. Enslaving. Murderous. Turning the things of life—midwives, the Nile—into instruments of death ...

Read here, or listen here.

Aunty Sandra Onus, Lidia Thorpe, and the pharaoh with no name

On the other side of Gariwerd, along the Western Highway, you’ll find a camp. It’s the Djab Wurrung Heritage Protection Embassy ...

Read here, or listen here.

Committing to be together, apart

 As we look to our fourth birthday and annual service of recommitment to the faith community, what exactly are we called to do and be? Read here, or listen here.

Becoming prisoners of hope

In this current moment, despair feels natural: but we are only partway through a story, and the ending has not yet been written. Read here, or listen to an earlier version here.

Neither death nor grief nor anything else can separate us from God's love

I can’t count the losses. Sure, nobody I know has died; but I’ve seen my beloved father in the flesh only once in six months. Most of my friends I haven’t seen at all. My children’s schooling has been interrupted; their activities are on hold; hanging out with their friends feels fraught. My oldest daughter is finishing high school, and nobody knows what the next year holds. Will there be work? Can she live in college? Will university lectures be face-to-face, or simply online?

Read here, or listen here.

Life on the margins has its own reward

Jesus expects his disciples not only to offer hospitality, but to receive it: for through it they will be transformed.

Read here or listen here.

Dear Hagar: Letter from a white woman

The stories of Sarah and Hagar have been appropriated by white colonial peoples to devastating effect. This is one white woman's acknowledgement and response.

Read here, or listen here.

Welcoming the stranger, encountering the divine

Emerging from shutdown is an opportunity to create space and time in our lives: but for whom?

Read here, or listen here.

In the face of chaos, a new story

As the Black Lives Matter protests unfold, let us remember an old story, given to a people who were also invaded, removed from their land, forced into slavery and subject to state sanctioned violence. Read here or listen here.

Reaching beyond the gathered church

During shutdown, many of us long to gather like the first disciples “all together in one place”; but the Spirit of Pentecost pushed them, and pushes us, to reach far beyond the bounds of the gathering. Read here, or listen here.

How can we be fed by the body when the body has disappeared?

For churches grappling with the loss of physical gatherings and an uncertain future, the story of Jesus' ascension provides a model for discernment. Read here, or listen here.

Defence lawyer, healer, friend

I grew up in a hypercritical atmosphere. I know my mother loved me deeply; nevertheless, I was told every day that nothing I did was good enough. I’d wipe the kitchen bench, and be screamed at for holding the sponge carelessly or for knocking a few crumbs on the floor. I’d sweep, and she’d shout that I was doing it all wrong; when I changed how I held the broom, things only got worse. Once, I dropped a drinking glass; amid sobs and shrieks I was accused of destroying something precious and irreplaceable. Of course, I became a timid, anxious, furtive kind of child; and a cripplingly self-conscious adolescent who was so defensive and so filled with rage that there were times when I could barely breathe.

Read here, or listen here.

Make a home in God ...

People have wondered for millennia where God lives. So what’s the answer? An overview of the gospel according to John.

Read here, or listen here.

COVID-19, shutdown, and the leaders we need

As we shelter in place, let us consider what COVID-19 is revealing about our world, and let us consider which voices we will follow out of the enclosure. Read here, or listen here.

Our lives, broken and shared

The Risen Christ is recognised when he takes bread, gives thanks, and shares it; just as when we take our own lives, give thanks, and feed others.

Read here, or listen here.

Even scars become gift in God's hands

The children of the COVID-19 lockdown will bear scars of this time for the rest of their lives; yet even scars become gift in God’s hands.

Read here, or listen here.

Trusting that life will prevail

The Apostle Paul said that if Christ had not been raised, then our faith is in vain. So what is resurrection faith?

Read here or listen here.

Caught between two parades

There were, and always will be, two parades to choose from: one embodying the power of empire; the other, vulnerability and self-sacrifice.

Read our Palm Sunday reflection here, or listen here.

A word of life to a nation in lockdown

The people were devastated. Families, friends and neighbours had been killed by an invading army. Bodies had been abandoned, with no proper burial. Shops were shuttered; streets were emptied of life. Those who survived were in exile, and everything had changed. They could not worship in the usual places; they could not go to familiar markets or town squares; they no longer saw their friends ...

Read here, or listen here.

Not Donald, not Boris, but you and me

In this time of global pandemic, closed borders, economic collapse, isolation, and loneliness, ordinary people like us are needed to do God’s priestly work.

Read here or listen here.

Giving our heart to Jesus

Many years ago, I left home and went away to university. I came from a background where people talk about faith and science and politics and everything else, and perpetually wonder and ask questions. At university, I expected the same. I hooked up with the first Christian group which presented itself, but soon felt totally bewildered. I found myself in conversations I never wanted to have, in which the acceptability of women in leadership, the theory of evolution, questions of sexuality and gender, and many other issues were put under the microscope, and my position was always shown to be wrong...

Read here, or listen here.

It's about family violence, but not as you might think

To suggest victims of family violence should ‘turn the other cheek’ is a toxic distortion of Jesus’ teaching. A look at the context of these words, and how they are an invitation to challenge all forms of violence and control, including within the family. Read here, or listen here.

We need to talk about hell

Some of us grew up with threats of hell, that burning lake of fire and brimstone into which the sinful will be cast at death to their everlasting fiery torment. Given how regularly hell comes up in many a church’s preaching and in popular culture, and given how graphically it is described, you might wonder why I never mention it here. Am I avoiding all the nasty bits of the Bible? Well, no—but I think it’s time we had that little chat: we need to talk about hell ...

Read here, or listen here.

The uses and abuses of salt

Some of my mother’s health kicks were worse than others. I could cope with brown bread, more lentils, less cordial; and we’d never been allowed lollies or chips. But when she decided to eliminate salt, meals became unbearably bland. Flavours no longer melded together, but jostled up against each other; everything lost its savour. “You’ll get used to it,” she’d say. “You just need to retrain your tastebuds.” ...

Read here, or listen here.

Blessed are the school children, and other humble people

A reflection for our kids as we prepare to bless them for the coming school year.

Have you ever noticed how few people at this church drive a Porsche? Or how little time and money most of them spend on fashion? Have you noticed how rarely they go on big fancy trips? Or how often they buy things second hand or fair trade? Do you understand the choices that many of them have made? ...

Read here, or listen here.

This 26 January, pray for an invasion of light

Once upon a time, the land was fertile and good. Sparkling rivers threaded through it; lakes teeming with birds dotted it; and on its edge the sea thundered, shimmering with fish. The people of the land tended it for millennia, creating intricate patchworks of forest and field. They enriched the soil and made it friable; they selected plants for abundance and ease. The people caught fish; they hunted and traded; they tended their crops. They built houses and raised children; they passed on law through story and song.

Read here, or listen here.