Book: Isaiah

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.

In times of rupture, we, like Isaiah, can pour out our words, images and even anguished songs as we try to gather up the pieces and make some sense.

In baptism we surrender to God’s claim on us and enter a vowed relationship and life which will have its ups and its downs but in which God is forever faithful.

In Jesus, the truth about God’s ways and means is brought to light and we are called to so reflect that light that all might be drawn to it.

Jesus asks us to assess the legitimacy of any ministry by its transforming and liberating outcomes for the world and its peoples.

Our sure hope of a new future brought to fulfilment in the coming Christ inspires and empowers us to live now in ways which resist the despair and selfishness of our age and anticipate the peace and righteousness of the coming age.

The Advent break in of God in Christ is underway, bringing disruption of a status quo that our world needs to be free of, and liberation from the imprisonment of sin.

The global social breakdown of which Jesus speaks is caused by the failure of our old oppressive ways of maintaining peace, but God has promised us a better way on the other side.

Adversity, violence, and suffering can come as a consequence of not just sin, but of radical love, but with love it can strengthen and sharpen us for fullness of life.

Imagination, fed by Jesus, enables us to grow and stretch, to make a way from what is to what could be, for the sake of worlds of hope God is already excited about.

When God is doing new things, our familiar signposts are no longer helpful, and our capacity to follow is dependent on our living relationship with Jesus.