Christ the King Sunday

Christ the King Sunday

Our ideas of kingship are sometimes unhelpfully skewed because human power and authority can mislead us: If we think of world leaders today, presidents and politicians, we might think kingship is about ego; hiring people who agree with us and firing those who don’t; pushing our own agenda for our friends and having the freedom to say and do whatever we want. This is the opposite kind of leadership which Jesus has over our world. His Kingship is the upside-down logic of God: where all are welcome, the meek are blessed, the poor are fed and the homeless find home.

Second Sunday before Advent

Second Sunday before Advent

Many of us carry muddled and unhelpful images of God within us. Images from childhood perhaps of a God who looks for ways to punish the tiniest of slip-ups, or a God who is so distant and uncaring, that they created the world and then walked off letting us get on with it.

There is little intimacy in such images, little space for growth or delight. For others of us the pendulum has swung the other way. Jesus, God-with-us, is a gentle, kind friend – almost like a teddy bear, a comforter in times of desperation, who fits easily into our comfortable lifestyles all within our control.

The 9 Beats of the Beatitudes (All Saint’ Day Sermon)

The 9 Beats of the Beatitudes (All Saint’ Day Sermon)

I want to give you something to take with you as we go back into lockdown. It’s something I read in a small book on my desk.

I’ve been reading pages from it since the start of March. It’s called the Ninefold Path, by Mark Scandrette. Mark and his friends are musicians and theologians from around the world, who united themselves around a single project – to bring Jesus’ teachings of the beatitudes alive, afresh for a new generation; regarding them as – quote – “the world’s path to recovery”. They produced an album but also that little book I have sitting on my desk.