Matthew | Like a scandal

God demands Joseph wake to a deeper reality, where love takes priority over obedience to God’s law, and scandal forms the womb of grace. (Listen.)

Matthew | Like, are you kidding?

It was strange and countercultural and thoroughly unimpressive, not what was expected from the Messiah at all ... Read here or listen here.

Matthew | Like an arsonist

 

John the Baptizer has strong words for religious leaders; but, in the kingdom of heaven, even the most vulnerable person need not be afraid.

Read here or listen here.

Matthew | Like a thief

When a thief broke into our house one night, I was sound asleep. My husband was in Melbourne, but a friend and her daughters had come to stay. And so I was woken at 3am by my friend whispering, ‘Ali! Ali, wake up! There’s someone in the house …’ 

Read here or listen here.

Luke | Promises, paradise, and the vastness of love

Luke's joyful gospel provides a powerful antidote to the forces which seek to scapegoat the vulnerable.

Read here or listen to an older version here.

Isaiah | The city of joy

A city of joy, its people a delight: this is what God promises through the prophet Isaiah. Sounds wonderful! So, what are the elements of this joyful city? First, says Isaiah, health and wellbeing ...

Read here or listen here.

Luke | Seven brothers, a hapless widow, a falling satellite, and what it means to live

Some of you might remember the quirky tv show, Northern Exposure. A young urban Jewish doctor is sent to small town Alaska to pay off his tuition debt; and there he encounters all sorts of eccentric inhabitants, including Maggie. Maggie’s a bush pilot whose boyfriends all happen to die in bizarre ways. For example, there’s Dave, who freezes to death on a glacier, then Rick, who is killed by a falling satellite ...

Read here or listen here.

Luke | Not even #humble

Competitive faithfulness has no place in God’s kingdom; instead, it’s all about love. 

Read here or listen here.

Jeremiah | Our fickleness, God's faithfulness

Who among us has never broken covenant? Who among us has been always and entirely faithful in thought, word and deed to family, to friend, to spouse, and to God? If this is you, stop reading now. For everyone else, a word of hope from Jeremiah. Read here, or listen here.

Jeremiah | Suffering from solastalgia? This is what to do

Ten years ago, the scientist Glenn Albrecht coined a new word. He was studying the impact of open-cut coal mining on the people of the Upper Hunter region of NSW. The mines were creating new and horrific scars in the landscape; the power station was polluting water, air and soil; there was persistent drought. As the earth groaned, Albrecht realised that the people who lived there were experiencing a form of chronic distress for which English has no word; he came up with the term 'solastalgia' ...

Read here or listen here.

Luke | Want to encounter God? Get lost!

If we want to encounter God, then we can’t limit ourselves to church or creed or doctrine or any sense of complacency. God’s off seeking the lost: and this tells me that we are found by God precisely when we ourselves are lost. In other words, God finds us in our doubt and confusion; when we’re wandering the wilderness of dementia; when we’re in the depths of depression; when we’re bewildered and vulnerable and afraid. God finds us when we’re hidden in darkness and shadow and it seems that the world has abandoned us. God finds us in our questions, and when we are seeking, and when we are straying. God finds us not in the confidence of certainty, but in grey areas, in liminal spaces ...

Read here or listen here.

Deuteronomy | In the face of climate catastrophe, choose life

This week, as cataclysmic floods pour across Pakistan, destroying farms, roads, towns and infrastructure and displacing over 30 million people; as unprecedented heatwaves and wildfires continue to threaten much of Europe; as long-term drought impacts water security for millions of people in the southwest United States; as we brace ourselves for the likelihood of another La Niña cycle and further devastating floods; as we learn that the catastrophic bushfires along the Great Dividing Range burned six metres deep in places, rendering regrowth impossible, the most famous words of Moses’ most famous sermon should ring loud and clear ... Read here or listen here.

Luke | Disabled and poor people are primary at God's table

It's been more than twenty years since my mother died crippled, lame and blind. So how does a body like hers experience the church? And why is this important?

Read here or listen here.

Luke | But I thought it was all about peace!

When people are set on fire by Jesus and start putting their faith into action, when they start asking hard questions about money, power, and who gets to speak, they get pushback. Tempers flare, conflict erupts, and division ensues. How God's peace can trigger conflict.

Read here or listen here.

Luke | All the loneliness money can buy

What can money buy? There are the obvious things, of course. The big house, the nice car, the Rolex. The overseas holiday. The designer dog. But what money really buys these days is distance from other people: large swathes of uninterrupted life. Large house blocks, where you cannot hear or see the neighbours. Private cars, for quiet, independent transport. Restaurants with plenty of space between the tables. Gated apartment buildings, entry by swipe key only ...

Read here, or listen here.

Hosea | Gomer, the face of God

God is not seen in a violent man, but in a woman known for her love. Exercising a hermeneutics of suspicion with Hosea. Read here, or listen here.

Luke | Martha made whole

Inviting Christ into your dwelling means being renovated from the inside out. (Listen, or watch on YouTube.)

Luke | The Good Samaritan: A guided meditation

A meditation in which we use sacred imagination to inhabit various viewpoints, and receive healing at the hands of an enemy. Read here, or listen here.

Galatians | Victoria's new Child Safe Standards, culture change, and the law

What does it take to be a truly child safe organisation? Reflecting on this through the lens of Galatians. Read here.

Proverbs | Wisdom for changing times

Competence is overrated, certainty is boring, golden calves are tacky and dogma is dead. It's the questions which are interesting; it's the wrestling which brings life. Biblical wisdom for changing times ... Read here or listen here.

Pentecost | God's holy breath

Take a breath. The breath which you have drawn in, which fills your blood with oxygen and gives your body life, is the same air which —  who knows? — a pterodactyl breathed and a pobblebonk in the rushes and a kangaroo on a nearby plain. It’s the sigh of a cyclamen on a Florentine hillside and the blow of a blue whale arcing from the sea and the song of every ancestor who has gone before; it’s the original reuse, recycle ...

Read here or listen here.

Revelation | God's final 'Yes!'

To the marriage of heaven and earth, all are invited: and the invitations never stop coming. Like the letters from Hogwarts to Harry, the deckle edge cards are flowing through the letterbox, pouring down the chimney, pattering against the window and sliding under the door. We find the invitations tucked into our hunger for a bigger story, our yearning to belong, our thirst for healing; there’s one in the hand of every person who asks for a cup of cold water ... (PS: There's no fiery hell.)

Read here or listen here.

Just imagine!

A few years ago, I went to the Southwest Roadshow. There, LGBTIQA+ folk, allies and agencies listened to and learned from one another about the needs, resources and gaps in the region. I was there as an observer, at the invitation of friends. But to my surprise, one of those friends then introduced me to the gathering and told everyone about Sanctuary.

Read here or listen here.

My little finches

I was feeling despondent so I went for a walk when I came across a flock of red-browed finches. They were darting back and forth across the path, cheeping merrily at each other. And they said to me, ‘Learn from us! Look how happy we are in our little flock, flitting between sun and shade.’ And I said, ‘But where is my little flock? I don’t know anymore. And I seem to be stuck in the shadows.’ Read here or listen here.

On widows, women, and resurrection life

My mother loved beautiful clothes. She wore designer silk dresses and an embroidered purple velvet kaftan; she tripped around in Spanish platform sandals. But perhaps her most precious garment was a simple blue bomber jacket, given to her by some Cambodian widows ... Not your usual Mothers Day sermon, perhaps (surprise surprise) - tonight, from Sanctuary. Read here or listen here.

The things that make for peace

The triumphal entry aka Palm Sunday. Disciples praise his deeds of power and sing of peace; but Jesus? Well, Jesus weeps. 

Read here or listen here.

Knowing Christ

The perfume Mary pours out on Jesus wafts sweetly through the centuries, anointing people and communities so that the ever-present poor are fed ... Read here or listen here.

But he was still hungry ...

"On the fifth day, the Second One was given schools of mullet to swim through the bay, and long dark kooyang to leap up the falls. Flocks of corellas caroused through the sky and yellow tailed black cockatoos called out. Spotted pardalotes filled the karrang, and cormorants perched, airing their wings. The waters and skies were filled with life: but he was still hungry ..." A mashed up re-telling of a few old stories. Told tonight on Peek Wurrung country, Eastern Maar nation

Read here or listen here.

Christ, our mother hen

To a world torn apart by violence, Jesus offers himself as a ... mother hen?! 

Read here, or listen here.

If you are God's child ...

*If.* It’s a very small word with a very big weight, and I hear it all the time. If only I prayed hard enough … If I were a good enough Christian … If I read my Bible more … If I just tried harder … If I really trusted God … How many times have I heard some iteration of this, sometimes from the people I listen to, sometimes within my own head?

Read here or listen here.

Enemy-love, community, and the healing of the world

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also … Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” These words of Jesus are all very well if you are a six-foot male and built like a truck, or a burly fisherman, perhaps, with eleven brothers behind you. But too often these words are spoken to victims of violence in ways which cause terrible harm.

Read here or listen here.

Luke | The level playing field

“Blessed are you who are on JobSeeker or NDIS: for yours is the culture of God.” What?! As anyone who’s on one of these schemes knows, this means being constantly humiliated. It means being treated with suspicion and turning up to pointless interviews and jumping through arbitrary hoops and filing endless paperwork—and periodically having your benefits cut anyway. How could this be God’s culture? How could this be blessed? 

Read here or listen here.

The gift of God's words in a world turned upside down

Over the last two years, our world has been turned upside down. We used to meet inside the building for church, but last week we were on Zoom; and this week here we, worshipping in the garden. We used to leave the house for school and work; but during the many months of lockdowns, most of us learned to work and study from home ... 

Read here or listen here.