Matthew | Authority in the church

Look for leaders who love. Beware any setting, structure or dynamic where pastors don’t have external supervision, power is unchecked, accountability is opaque, or judgement, fear or shame are being deployed. Jesus came to bring truth and transparency, healing and wholeness, love, life and peace: so seek out those who radiate these qualities with good humour, humility and grace ... Read here or listen here.

Matthew | The demands of love

Perhaps you’ve seen About a Boy, which is really about two boys, or maybe more. One is twelve-year-old Marcus, growing up in precarious circumstances. The other is the beautifully named Will Freeman. Will is a man-child whose wealth has insulated him from other people, and from life itself. Yet through one of his most selfish decisions, he’s thrown into the path of young Marcus; and Marcus begins to make demands on him ...

Read here or listen here.

Philippians | In the depths of anguish, joy

In these days of terror and sadness, in this time of myriad personal and public griefs, in the bleak and terrible NO from the Australian electorate, in the anguish of many First Nations people, in the wounds of the earth and the worries about climate and the cries from Israel and Palestine and everywhere else, we can still know joy.

Read here or listen here.

Matthew | Called to be custodians

In a world racked by climate change, we need the wisdom of custodians. Read here or listen here.

Matthew, Exodus | Seventy-seven leads to hell or heaven

 

When we are wounded, our work is to interrupt the cycles of hurt and trauma and violence. And when we say "I forgive you" and "This stops with me", we are declaring our own freedom. We become part of something new and healing, life-giving, good; we become citizens of the commonwealth of heaven ...

Read here or listen here.

Matthew | The rigours and joys of love

 

Turning towards one another inevitably leads to conflict, and that means work. Read here or listen here.

Exodus | The god of freedom

We worship an intimate, responsive, changing God who gets involved in the mess of human history and calls us to shape the future by our choices. Some choices are better than others, sure. But because the future is not yet set, there is no single path ...

Read here or listen here.