Topic: Salvation

The baby whose coming is awaited will turn the world upside down (not just the lives of its parents!), and our counter-cultural observance of Advent is a necessary preparation of ourselves for that reality.

Jesus confronts us with our cannibalistic behaviour in order that we might follow him into a saving communion with God and one another.

Glimpses of the transformed world that God makes possible transfix us and leave us hungering for more.

When we expected to be shamed as we have shamed others, we are shocked and saved by the unexpected mercy of the crucified and risen Jesus.

As God’s people, we celebrate life in the face of death, because we know that the victory of life has been secured.

For both God and us, time can drag when waiting for change, but patience is salvation when forgiveness is offered as a means of change rather than as a reward for change.

The Spirit of Jesus unites us across previously hostile boundaries and teaches us a language of liberating love.

Meeting us on the road of despair, Jesus reveals to us that suffering and defeat are God’s means of bringing new life and hope.

Jesus died an apparent failure, but in his resurrection, the failure’s power over us is broken for ever.

Our deepest thirst will never be satisfied by cautious morality and religious compliance, but it will be abundantly quenched when we drink deeply of the living water of joyous intimacy that Jesus pours out freely.

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.

“Jesus Christ the Lamb of God”: These are such familiar words. We sing them almost every Sunday – but do we really understand what they mean or have they just become another Christian cliché for us?