Topic: Repentance

Confused feelings in the aftermath of the Bondi massacre are a window into the ongoing need for healing and transformation in our own hearts.

The coming Christ will do whatever he can to get through our defences.

When we respond to others with judgement and contempt instead of empathy and compassion, we fail to understand God and live God’s love for others.

True forgiveness, which we encounter most fully in the risen Christ, does not gloss over the past but revisits it fully and carefully that we may be fully set free from it.

When we truly encounter God in worship, we see everything in all its splendour and horror and are transformed for mission.

If the message of Christmas is real, then our preparations for it need to be radically life-changing.

In order for men to step up and end the scourge of domestic violence, they need to experience themselves as loved and valued, liberating them to love others.

Both contemporary and ancient understandings of the rainbow sign point to God’s expansive love overcoming our fears and hostilities.

God reaches out to us through babies and elderly folks with a message of love and redemption that cuts through the theological justifications of empire and warmongering and calls us to peace.

If we keep imitating one another, paying back violence with vengeance, the world will be consumed in an escalating fury, but Jesus rescues us and gives us a life-giving example to follow.

In the encounter with Jesus, we realise how radically different the world is and how completely we need to change.

A close encounter with God in Christ can make us paralysingly aware of our own sin and failure, but the experience of grace can transform that into a solidarity and gratitude that empowers us.