Sermons

In the face of powerful evil, our choice like Jesus’s choice is between the natural human instincts of flight or fight, and the third way of obedience to God.

Extravagant grace can be terrifying because it asks nothing of us but a complete change of life!

God consistently favours love and acceptance over purity, so when we are not sure, it is better to take a risk on love and acceptance.

God’s love is like a refuge from the storm, like the hospitality of a generous host, like the continuing delight of a bridegroom for his bride, and like the alchemical power of the miracle-worker transforming even our fear and inconstancy into the power to love, forgive, and cherish.

In baptism Jesus submits himself to his God-given destiny and vocation, and it is by a similar submission to God, allowing Christ to live out his baptismal life in us and for us, that we have life and hope.

It is always a shock to realise just who Jesus is and what he’s on about.

A modern paraphrase of the Nativity Sermon of St John Chrysostom, first Preached in Antioch in 386AD

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.

Advent is a time of deep paradox, a season that speaks to the reality of our world and calls us to be awake.

Jesus promises that if we will face our deepest fear – the loss of our very souls – and if we will trust in his love, then we shall live, even though we die.

Religious ritual and ethical living are both bound up together in the journey of following Jesus into the Realm of God.