Book: Matthew

Although often dismissed as utopian nonsense, Jesus’s teachings about non-retaliation and love of enemies are the key to the salvation of the world.

We make a devilish mistake when we project the origins of hell onto God. Jesus calls us to follow him into a new way of life that will save us from plunging into the hells of our own making.

The world finds the message of Jesus almost incomprehensible because it seems too simplistic and unrealistic to be taken seriously.

Jesus did not come to be the ultimate sacrifice that would appease God, but to show us, once and for all, that God does not want sacrifices at all, but lives of love, mercy and compassion.

Baptism is a magnificent gift, far surpassing anything we could imagine or devise, for ultimately it is God’s chosen means of self giving to us.

In the violence and suffering that surround the Christmas story, we find the revelation of a God who does not inflict violence and suffering, but suffers violence to bring love and peace.

In Joseph we see an impressive example of someone with the integrity and courage to embrace God’s new directions despite considerable personal cost.

Jesus Christ is the coming one who will fulfill the hopes and yearnings of the world, but we will imperil our faith and hope if we keep trying to set the agendas for him.

God’s visions of the future are often dismissed as unrealistic because our limited vision causes us to expect only more of the same.

In Christ, God is made manifest to the world as King, Light and Lover.

It is in our woundedness, this woundedness we try to avoid and would rather not acknowledge, that we find our identity as the body of Christ, our identity as the church.

The feeling of distance and separation from God – which we all feel – is perception not reality… it is the fruit of our fear and our holding-back.