Book: 1 & 2 Samuel

The desire for a fair universe is real and grief-filled – but Jesus steps outside that framework entirely, and invites us into something better.

Serving Christ as king challenges our use of power and politics and questions where our ultimate loyalty and security lie.

Perhaps amidst the increasingly depressing state of the world, Jesus is calling us to learn the path of faithfulness from those who never win.

When misunderstood, being “the chosen” can mutate into a toxic culture of entitlement that produces horrific criminal behaviour, and Jesus calls us to join him in challenging that culture.

God is most likely and able to work through those who accept their own weakness and don’t try to forcefully assert their own power and influence.

Though the experience of grief often feels like an absence of God, it is a deep experience of the heart of God, and is symbolised as such in the brokenness of the Eucharist.

Being God’s people can be awkward.  Our actions of love and care stand against the me-first culture, and to seek justice, love, and a better world.

Instead of leaving unsaid the things that could cause conflict and division, we are called to listen intensely, slowly, intentionally, allowing all to speak their truth, so that we can find a way to move forward together in love and humility.

The experience of winter is God’s gift, inviting us to silence, healing and new depth of life.

As important as our responses and decisions are, before we know, we are known. Before we understand, we are understood. Before we say ‘Yes’, ‘Yes’ is said to us.

God’s coming does not reinforce our social norms and hierarchies, but breaches them to reconcile and re-dignify those who the social order has sacrificed and cast aside.

We are often blind to our own entanglement in evil, but when our eyes are opened, we are called into pathways of repentance and transformation that lead to life and healing.