Romans | While Rhodes burns

An homage to Targum, reading Romans 8 through an ecological lens this hottest month on record. 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.

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.

Filled with new wine

One of my happy places is Little Creatures brewery in Geelong – or any big barnlike place which serves hot chips, a decent pint, and a place to hang out with family and friends ...

Read here or listen here.

Teachers like Jesus

Good teachers use what they know to show you a bigger, bolder, more expansive world. They help you find your right place in it, and they build you up in love. 

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.

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.

Jesus Christ, the apple tree, and me

While we were away with our sister church recently, Phil went for a walk. When he came back, Uncle Den wandered up for a chat: “I saw you come back from a bit of a walk-about just now.” “Yep,” said Phil, and he told Uncle Den how much he loves being outside by himself, and how he finds peace and rejuvenation there. Uncle Den asked him, “So do you talk to the birds that you see? Do you stop to listen to what they might wanna say to you? How ‘bout the trees? They’re always talking; do you listen to them, too?”

Read here, or listen here.

Lady Wisdom and the gender diverse community of God

Once upon a time, long, long ago, Lady Wisdom called out at the public places—the city gates, the crossroads, the mountaintops—and she said: “The Lord began the work of creation with me ...

Read here, or listen here.

Let's make a splash!

Baptism. It’s something John offered, and something Jesus underwent, and something his disciples are told to do. It’s got something to do with water and washing and sin: but what is it, actually? What are we doing, what are we declaring, who are we becoming when we are baptised? What does it all mean? Tonight’s story offers a few clues, but to explore the depths, we’ll first need to zoom out a little.

Read here, or listen here.

A Tale of Three Donkeys

The story of Balaam and his donkey shows what big asses we can be.

Read here, or listen here.

Senator Anning vs Christo-Cannibalism, and the New Community of Love

For many years, our family shared Christmas lunch with friends and strangers. We’d put the word out, and eat with whoever wanted. One year, it was huge. Friends, and friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends, all turned up at our door. Some of them I knew and loved; others, I hadn’t met before. But gradually I came to realise: almost everyone there was gay. And almost everyone came from a religious family, which had rejected them because of their sexuality ...

Read here, or listen here.

A reflection on John 6:51-58, given to Sanctuary on 19 August 2018 (BP15; Year B Proper 15) © Alison Sampson, 2018.

One Body, One Spirit, One Church Review

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians was written to a church two thousand years and 14,000 kilometres away; and yet, it speaks loud and clear to us gathered here today. This Saturday 11 August, we will hold our annual review. And it will be a heap of fun. The review questions have been woven into party games, and so most of it should feel like play. But behind the play is serious intent, and it is that serious intent which I will focus on now ... Read here, or listen here.

News flash! King David: An undercover exposé

Tonight, a very playful script re-telling 2 Samuel 6:1-22 here.

We followed it with a more formal reflection, here.

Birthed by the Spirit: Beloved by God

Tonight at Sanctuary, we heard John 3:5-8 and Romans 8:12-17, listened to Womb by Toni Childs, then had a guided meditation on the life-giving, loving nature of God. You can find it all here.

Good Sandwich, Great Teaching

What gives Jesus' teaching such authority? and what does this imply for us? Read here, or listen here.

A reflection on Mark 1:21-28 for Sanctuary, 28 January 2018 (B14)

Wounded and scarred - and here!

Some of you might remember a television program called ‘Yes, Minister!’, which took a satirical look at how government really worked. In one episode, a new hospital was awarded an efficiency prize. It was later discovered to have 500 administrators—and no patients! I was thinking about churches and Christian communities when I remembered this episode, for it is impossible to be seriously involved in a church or Christian community without coming up against the hassle of sick and wounded people.