Topic: Love

Expecting God to always appear as an exalted triumphant  victor blinds us to the reality of God’s glory which is made known in suffering, self-sacrificial love.

Jesus calls us to model a pattern of love and generous inclusion, and to avoid the demonic temptations of exclusion and pride.

What would happen if violence were met with bread, with blankets, with hospitals, with forgiveness of debts?

Christ is present to us in love, unity and reconciliation, and thus these are essential to our worship.

Faith is a gift created in us as Jesus shows us that the pathway of courageous love and self-sacrifice is not impossible to walk.

Understanding God as a relational trinity can guide us into the deep loving relationships with God and one another for which we were created.

We are to witness to this incredible, unbelievable, but very real truth: that in God’s reality, love crosses every divide, even the chasm of death.

God’s refining work is done not through judgement and punishment, but through the transforming power of love.

God gives us the love we thirst for, even while we are still fighting against God, and in doing so, God sets the pattern for us to follow that will bring freedom to the world.

The stories of Moses, Elijah and Jesus on various mountain tops reveals a process of God’s self-revelation as the one who loves us and suffers for us.

The “things” we so readily put our trust in, or find our identity in, will all fall, and only God’s love and care for us will remain.

God is always reaching out to those who we have cast off as nobodies, treating them as beloved somebodies, and calling us to follow in doing the same.