We have slowly moved from the pain of Good Friday, through the eerie silence of Easter Saturday to find ourselves present on Easter Sunday. My invitation to you on this day is to lean into the real and authentic, however that may look and feel for you. This is what it looks like for me: An Easter reflection: Easter reflection: "Jesus is risen - Hallelujah!" is the cry ringing out from the church around [...]
An Easter Saturday reflection: Easter Saturday may feel to some like a nothing day, but it's also a reminder that so often we find ourselves in a space where we need to hold the tension between the pain of Good Friday and the joy and hope of Easter Sunday. A reminder that so often in life we find ourselves in that very space with events that devastate us often overlapping with ones we want [...]
A Good Friday reflection: A call to remain and lean into the pain that Good Friday speaks of before rushing too quickly to the joy of Resurrection Sunday. Because the pain is where too many people find themselves in the world and it is into that story that God reaches. Even Jesus, when confronted with a violent death asks if there is not another way. But then chooses to follow the path of pain & [...]
A communion reflection for you at this very unique time for us all... The original communion moment took place within the context of a feast... a meal between a teacher and his students who became close friends [well, most of them]... ...and i want to call us to this today. With the focus on what is happening with the homeless in Strandfontein, plus our own lockdown context, plus trying to stay connected to family [...]
Tomorrow is Good Friday, for those of us who observe that. Or at least i think it is. Last week i misread my google calendar and announced it was Easter last weekend but then my friends and family quickly bought me another week. It's been really hard to stay up to date with days during lockdown. But i think we are on a Thursday. i had some thoughts about Good Friday last night and [...]
Yesterday, i wrote a piece about how important the resurrection of Jesus Christ is to my beliefs and the way i live my life. But at St Johns yesterday, Benjamin the Priest read this passage from edgy theologian Pete Rollins talking about why he denies the Resurrection... And i have to say, i wholeheartedly agree... At one point in the proceedings someone asked if my theoretical position led me to denying the Resurrection of Christ. [...]
For followers of Jesus, today is the most important day. If Easter Sunday didn't happen, then everything we believe changes. Don't get me wrong, if Jesus had just been a good man who had come and lived the life He lived, i still think it would be worth following Him. The man who preached enemy love, who reached out and touched and spoke to and welcomed in the marginalised and the sick and the uninvited, [...]
This is the day when we remember a significant death. And how it changed the world. i began today, celebrating the start of the Easter weekend, watching the dvd from my best mate Rob Lloyd's funeral - a collage of photos and some video set to music... it's been just four months and i miss my friend so much. His death was significant and it changed my world. There is a Rob-shaped gap that remains [...]
And now, for our optional prompt! Today I challenge you to write a fourteener. Fourteeners can be have any number of lines, but each line should have fourteen syllables. Given the day, i decided to go for an Eastery theme: Easter, in fourteen beats An air of doom and gloom has descended upon the earth Friday night's unfortunate events made Saturday tough People dull-faced like zombies trying to take it all in Listening for but [...]
When Jesus walked the earth, He called many people to follow Him. And the crowds showed up. He spoke Truth and Life. He reached out to those at the margins, which in His day included women and children, Samaritans [the foreigner], the diseased and more... He performed miracles... He saved lives people were wanting to kill and He even raised some people from the dead. And the crowds cheered and pushed to get closer to [...]
