Book: Philippians

The pathway to a life of joy and gratitude is to imitate Jesus in filling our minds with things which are worthy, honourable, merciful and loving.

A sermon on accepting the gifts of God

The self-emptying of Jesus reveals both his divinity and the pathway to our full humanity.

The life Christ call us to is not found by seeking to recover the past or escape from the past, but by opening ourselves to the new things God will do.

Our allegiance to Christ and our citizenship of his Realm take priority over those to our local culture, but that doesn’t rule out a continuing love of our homeland and tribe.

The ten commandments are not a measure of our moral accomplishment, but a gift offered to God by a grateful covenant people.

Advent faith believes in the possibility of surprise, and that our tragic and repetitive history has a punch-line which will overturn everything that we have been taught to expect.

In baptism, we have passed from the preoccupations of the present to the a life shaped by God’s future, and though the completion of that transformation may be painful, it is nevertheless the fulfilling of our deepest longings.

In the elusive quest to know Christ, spiritual disciplines are a valuable means, but can also easily degenerate into idols.

At the deepest level of our need, we are called to rest in the love and righteousness of God, which can never be forced.

Christian discipleship is an ongoing journey, so any attempt to preserve what is right today can mean we are in the wrong place tomorrow because Jesus has moved on.

There are all sorts of things that can make us look impressively Christian, but the only thing that matters is to deeply know Christ and to enter with him into the experience of his suffering and resurrection.