Topic: Suffering

Jesus calls us to be salt and light by living a public embodied faith that tells the truth, resists indifferent silence, and makes God’s justice and love visible in the world.

The hope born at Christmas does not erase, deny, or hide from the horror of a violent world, but meets us in the midst of it.

Isaiah 35 declares joy and courage and gladness, for those stuck in the wilderness and dry lands.
Joy for the weak hands, the feeble knees and the fearful hearts.

In calling us into the culture of God, Jesus calls us to give up our addictions to tribalism, competitive grief, and selective compassion.

In his suffering death, Jesus calls us to solidarity with all who suffer, and in his complete lack of vengefulness, the risen Christ offers the hope of healing from our violence.

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.

The image of Jesus as the good shepherd can speak of tough life-on-the-line love, not just cuddling lambs.

In an increasingly polarised world, championing the radical love and mercy shown by Jesus is likely to bring hostility from all sides.

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.

Many parts of the Bible can be and often are weaponised as tools of oppression, but when we read it critically, with and through the teachings and example of Jesus, it calls us to liberation and life.

Grief and suffering bring us close to the heart of the suffering God and can open us to God’s transforming and resurrecting power.

In the Christ-child we encounter God responding to our suffering and leading us into the promised land of new life.