Preacher: Nathan Nettleton

The the birth of Jesus we see the beginning of a peace mission that is not based on force but on patience, forgiveness and presence.

Discovering who we are called to be is an ever-evolving journey as we follow Jesus in changing circumstances.

Though we are to strive for righteousness and justice now, what we achieve now is a mere shadow of what will be fulfilled in the day of the Lord.

Jesus calls us to a new world in which the lives of nations revolve around bringing the previously marginalised to the centre of our national way of being. Nations that fail to do that collapse into self-destruction.

While many have a passive-aggressive relationship with God, the gospel gives us a vision of God that liberates us to live freely, expansively and joyously.

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.

We we allow God’s word to work in us, it lifts the burden of oppressive teaching from us.

Living the beatitudes is tough and dangerous, and we will need the inspiration and company of the saints, before us and beside us, if we are going to make it.

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.

There is life and nourishment hidden in the depths, and through Jesus the rock it is accessible to us.

In order to recognise and cooperate with what God is doing, we often need to recognise and see past the assumptions that come with our own privilege.

God’s offer of unlimited forgiveness creates a new world in which we are free to stop judging one another and turning on one another and spiralling into violence and hatred.