Tag: suffering
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The God of Silence – reflections on Endo’s novel, Scorsese’s film
My latest column for the Christian Courier, can be found here, or below. How is it possible for the ocean to be silent? Can the sea lose its voice? On the face of it this seems impossible. The waves come rolling in with rhythmic constancy – breaking and pounding against the shoreline. Even on those…
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how big is your world?
How big is your world? You are an individual. And from your particular body – from your particular time and space – from your unique set of experiences – you look out onto the wider world. How big is your world? You are not the centre of the world (most of us know we are…
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Grief and Distance – Responding to the World Wide Web
In our digital age it’s not always easy to register an appropriate or meaningful emotional response when sad or difficult news reaches us from far-off places, whether through our social media feeds or on the digital news outlets we frequent. In the face of such news we will certainly feel something – a sense of sadness…
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stewards of mysteries
Paul writes to the church in Corinth: You seem to think Apollos and I are pawns to be played on the chessboard of your church battles. You seem to think that Apollos and I will carry your flag into war – that we are little more than figureheads who will represent your cause against brothers…
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Representing Advent and Christmas
I am by no means an artist. In fact it’s only in the past number of months that I’ve begun putting pencil to paper – that I’ve begun taking baby steps in trying to understand how to use shading, lines and different pencils (2B 4b HB 6H) in service of an idea or image. And…
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Praying from the belly of a fish. #sermon #exile
How do you pray from the belly of a fish? At one level it’s a pretty basic biological question – and a basic biological problem. In the belly of a fish, there isn’t any air. In the belly of a fish, you’re wedged in tight, unable to breath. In the belly of a fish, you…
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as surely as…
This morning we want to start out by saying a bit more about the city of Philippi. We’ve talked a little bit about the experiences of Paul – we’ve talked a little bit about Christian community in Philippi and about their experiences – but we want to say a little more about the city of…
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altogether joy?
My sermon from this past Sunday – the first in a series in the book of James. ____________________ This morning we begin a series of sermons in the book of James – a relatively short letter that comes just after the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. The book of James, as we’ll see,…
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Biographies of Faith: Joni
A sermon in my series on ‘biographies of faith’. ____________________________ A couple of weeks ago we began a short series on biographies of faith. Over these few weeks I am doing something just a little different in my sermons as we consider the lives of women and men who are for us examples of the…
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‘Yes’ or ‘No’?
A sermon preached today, Good Friday. In this sermon I largely follow the account of Jesus’ work and Jesus’ self-understanding as this is set out by N.T. Wright in his book Jesus and the Victory of God. ____________________________ Approach the cross that is set before you on a hillside. Lift up your hands and…
encrusted words 