God and Politics: Election Reflections, and 11 things that matter…
Relax – I’m not going to tell you how you should vote, but I thought I couldn’t let the upcoming Australian election pass without a mention. That would imply that Christians are unconcerned about the well being of the state and good government, which is simply not true. If you tried to tell any prophet from the Old Testament that believers should not care about how the land is governed they would have looked at you in sheer disbelief, for that concern saturates their writings. So are there issues that we, the followers of Jesus, should specially think about as we...
Read MoreFrom Platforms to Altars: Rediscovering Servant Leadership
You know as well as I do that the list of fallen Christian leaders is growing at an alarming rate. Many have been high fliers, leaders who were widely lauded and greatly respected until – well until it all came out. It has been more than a little depressing. I heard one pastor call it “deeply disillusioning” – that’s a fair summary. Something is amiss. A recent podcast I listened to warned leaders that it is possible to grow your platform more quickly than your character, and that leadership compromise is almost inevitable when your fame is larger than your...
Read MoreEaster as challenge more than comfort…
Back in 1950 Sir Norman Anderson famously wrote: “Easter is not primarily a comfort but a challenge. Its message is either the supreme fact in history or else a gigantic hoax.” Anderson goes on to explore the evidence for the resurrection forcefully arguing that unless it is factual, the entire foundation for Christianity is based on a lie. He writes that the resurrection is either “infinitely more than a beautiful story, or else it is infinitely less. If it is true, then it is the supreme fact of history; and to fail to adjust one’s life to its implications means...
Read MoreOn doing what you can…
Perhaps this Easter you will read the Mark 14 account of the woman who pours perfume over Jesus. Lest that doesn’t sound like an especially exciting story line, grab hold of this. She used the entire bottle which had cost more than a year’s salary. While we are not certain how many dollars that was in AD33, even if she was only on Australia’s minimum wage, it would now translate to about $40 000. Gulp! A tad extravagant, don’t you think? After all, I agonize when I spend $40 on flowers for my wife (who I love greatly), and wonder if a pot plant wouldn’t make more financial sense. But how...
Read MoreConscious incompetence: On knowing what we don’t know…
It was only a few sentences in a podcast I recently listened to, but it set me thinking. The speaker suggested there are four stages in the journey towards competence: Unconscious incompetence Conscious incompetence Conscious competence Unconscious competence An example may help to ground this. Let’s say you don’t know how to drive a car. As you watch people driving you think, “How hard can that be? Of course I could do that.” But then you hop into the drivers seat and as the car jerks and jolts along the road, you conclude that you are many driving lessons away from...
Read MoreOn what we don’t hear…
I’m due to preach from Matthew 16:21 where Jesus announces his suffering and death. Often that’s how we summarise that verse (the heading in my Bible is “Jesus predicts his death”), but actually if you look at it more closely you will spot that it also predicts Jesus’ resurrection on the third day. I wonder why his disciples reacted so strongly to the announcement of the bad news that he must suffer and die, but then appear to have paid no attention to the astonishing good news that immediately followed, that on the third day he would be raised from the dead. Do...
Read MoreFour Flavours of Regret…
In the days I served as a church pastor I would often visit the rest homes in the area and chat with the elderly residents. They were a mixed bag but in my mind they divided into two distinct groups, those who faced their closing years with a sense of resentment, disappointment – even rage, and those who were content and would enthusiastically recall many moments of pleasure and pride from the past. The difference did not stem from their physical condition (for all the residents were very frail), but how they viewed their past. It is clear to me that many face the closing pages of...
Read MoreSpotting God…
I have a small group of people who come to me for spiritual direction. It’s a richly rewarding experience to sit in the story of another person and to work together with them to discern what God is saying and doing in their life – an astonishing privilege actually. It has also reminded me of the many and diverse ways in which God turns up for people. For some it is while reading scripture, for others while in prayer, for many it is in the flow of life, though often it is then only recognised afterwards as an “I think that was God” realisation. Four things I am...
Read MoreAssuming Spiritual Responsibility
One of my more bizarre conversations as a pastor was when a man informed me I was the reason he cheated on his wife. As he said in a voice increasing in volume with each word, “It’s your fault! If you were a better preacher, and inspired me more, it would never have happened.” Hmmm. While I can’t say the conversation left me encouraged, it also didn’t cost me too many sleepless nights. But it does raise some interesting questions. How responsible are we for the spiritual well being of others, and for that matter, how responsible are we for our own spiritual well...
Read MoreAdam Raised a Cain: Reflections for Parents in Pain
Back in 2016 I wrote a post, Adam Raised A Cain, reflecting on the sadness of the Genesis 4:1-16 account where we discover that the worlds first parents raised a murderer, and that the worlds opening story of two brothers is of the one killing the other. It’s not a promising start, and reflects the Bible’s deep awareness that family is usually the source of both our greatest joy and our greatest pain. I thought it worth doing a minor edit of the post and thinking about our response when parenting doesn’t go as we imagined it would. That the Bible’s opening snapshot of...
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