Preacher: Nathan Nettleton

The reading of scripture is one of the most important places where God has promised to become present and known to us.

God comes to us, in seemingly insignificant places and borne by easily overlooked people.

A growing incidence of cataclysmic violence is not a sign of God’s activity, but it does call us to hold on to our hope and look for God’s action in small signs of life coming from death.

We remain blind to much of what Jesus would have us see until we allow him to open our eyes to see through the eyes of others.

True greatness comes in devoting ourselves to recognising and liberating the greatness in others, and that will often come at the cost of misunderstanding, sniping and rejection.

Taking up your cross is about a willingness to pay the price of following Jesus and living out your baptism. It is not a generalised stoicism.

God is doing and saying far more than we can see or hear, but God is always ready to penetrate the presumptions and complacencies that are closing our eyes and ears.

Our One God and Father feeds us with one bread so that we might grow up into Christ and be the missional community the Spirit is leading us to become.

Jesus reveals that God is a God of abundance who will lovingly provide plenty for all, but the common perception of scarcity easily corrupts us and leads to treachery and abuse.

God created everything and destined everything to be part of the one glorious story of God’s love and grace, and through Jesus, God draws us back into the story.

When things are desperate, God calls us only to be faithful and committed, because the outcomes are in God’s hands, not ours.

The Spirit of God is acting to bring life out of death and hope and vitality out of despair.