Matthew | Who profits? Who pays?

Once upon a time, there was a billionaire who was rather fond of cage fighting. But what with the collapse of an overseas stock market, and a royal commission, and a great deal of lobbying to protect his interests, he’d had a hard year. He needed to take some me-time, and chillax. But before he went away, he called in his chief investors ... a story and a hermeneutic. Read here or listen here.

Matthew | Ten foolish bridesmaids, embraced

Ten bridesmaids. We may hear this story as a Boy Scout lesson: Be prepared! Then we find some sick hungry homeless people, in order to earn our service badge and win the approval of our scoutmaster-king. But some of us are less confident about our belonging, and hear the story differently. Tonight from Sanctuary ... 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.

No judgement, just paradise

In Christ we discover no judgement, only paradise: so why is condemnation such a feature of Christianity? A potted history. Read here, or listen to an earlier version 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.

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.

Sheepish goats and the scandal of grace

As is the way of things, whenever I meet middle class people, they ask me what I do for a living. When I say I’m a pastor, they almost invariably reply, “Oh, I don’t go to church—but I’m a good person!” And I think to myself, “Good on ya!” Because the older I get, the more certain I become that every single one of us has an incredible capacity for good—and an incredible capacity for evil ...

Read here, or listen here.

Winnowing out only violence, or The move from John to Jesus

Some years back, I saw a woman in a carpark smacking her child. And as she smacked, she yelled, “WE DO NOT HIT IN THIS FAMILY! WE LOVE!” It reminded me of those ostensibly Biblical parenting models, in which cool and collected parents maintain discipline by spanking their naughty children—and then lovingly use the moment as a teaching opportunity. Because the people being hit are children, and because our society doesn’t rate children’s experiences very highly, we adults can miss the contradiction here. Yet if we substitute ‘women’ for ‘children’, perhaps things become clearer: even if it’s ‘just a smack’, there is a mixed message going on, to say the least.

Read here or listen here.