Readings:

• Job 23:1-9, 16-17
• Psalm 22:1-15
• Hebrews 4:12-16
• Mark 10:17-31

There are no stupid questions… perhaps you’ve heard that before and maybe you didn’t believe it when you heard it, because deep down you might have a question you’re too afraid to ask, for fear of being seen as stupid.

What about feelings? Are there any stupid feelings? Are there any feelings you’re afraid to share with friends, family, your faith community or God? Are there any feelings that aren’t welcome in worship, perhaps you’ve stayed away from worship before because of some of these feelings, thinking they’d not be welcome.

The story of Job shows us that there are feelings that friends might find uncomfortable, but that God is able to carry. This shouldn’t be a surprise, the Hebrew Scriptures are full of stories of God’s people arguing, and fighting with God, there’s even a form of Psalm called Lament which is specifically a song / prayer of complaint, check out this week’s Psalm as an example.

Even Jesus cried out on the cross to God asking why he had been abandoned.

[Read more…]

This is a brief reflection on the Job reading from Sunday the 3rd of October 2021, Job 1:1, 2:1-10. The story of Job gets 4 weeks of our time over October, it’s a great story.

Have you caught yourself wondering why things keep happening to you? Why you have cancer, why you’re going through a bad break up, why you’ve lost your job, why you find yourself homeless, why you’re sick, why you’re in hospital after a heart attack…

It’s not your fault.

Perhaps you’ve been tempted to make up stories to make yourself feel better, perhaps you, or your grandparents did something bad, sinned, and now you’re going through this.

It’s not your fault.

Perhaps you’ve caught yourself thinking that God’s testing you, that it’s all a part of your faith being tested. God’s closing a door and opening another, there’s always a reason for people’s suffering…

It’s not your fault.

[Read more…]

This week James invites us to pray. I don’t know if you remember ever being taught to pray, if you learned to pray when you were young, or when you were old, if a parent or elder taught you to pray, or if one day you found yourself looking to the sky crying out to God for something, anything, or maybe you found yourself walking along a path admiring the world and just thought “Wow.”

I was taught to pray by my parents, and my church, but over time I found that my understanding of prayer, and how I’d pray would change.

Today I find myself praying, as if it were a conversation wth God as I drive, walk, shower, or even now as I type this reflection now.

Author Anne Lamott suggests there are three types of prayer;

Help. Prayers that ask for help from a higher power.

Thanks. Prayer offering gratitude for what we have.

Wow! Prayers that acknowledge the amazing world around us.

[Read more…]

What would you say is the Gospel of Christ? The good news of Jesus?

Personally, I find it quite easy to name what it isn’t…

It’s not about being saved
It’s not about the pits of hell and the gates of heaven
It’s not about a cosmic ransom paid
And it’s definitely not about abandoning the stories of the Hebrew Scriptures…

In fact, the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) lean heavily into the stories of the Hebrew Scriptures, all the way to the very beginning…

It is Jesus who takes us back to the beginning,
And reminds us of the God who created us…

[Read more…]