"How do faithless people like me make sense of this past year of COVID?" This was the headline of a Guardian article by John Harris who wrote: For many of us, life without God has turned out to be life without fellowship and shared meaning. The article gave an insight into how one atheist wrestled with questions of randomness and meaning when faced by a life-threatening disease like COVID-19. He wondered how religious people approach such an issue.
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Interest rates are low. Where can you find an investment with good returns? Of course, we don’t only invest our funds, we invest love in our family and time in our hobbies. We also invest spiritually, through faith in the Kingdom of God. As Jesus said, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven ...” (Matthew 6:20) Today we see what Jesus invested in.
It has been a strange year, Easter is only a couple of weeks away, but I don’t feel like I am in an Easter frame of mind. Recently, an acquaintance of mind said he was feeling discombobulated, out of kilter. It is as if the familiar spiritual landscape has shifted, some one has removed the street signs and we are having trouble finding our bearings.
So today in our bible reading we return to a familiar story, meet familiar characters, and hear the familiar words of Jesus. In this passage we find love, mercy, forgiveness and encouragement as we turn our hearts towards Easter. Sermon Series: John the Baptist I'm enjoying watching the America’s Cup. I don’t know the first thing about yachting. Melanie would confirm this because many years ago we hired a little yacht at Wanaka and I managed to capsize it at the first gust of wind. While I don't appreciate the finer points of the racing, I can’t help but be impressed when the yachts get up on the foils and skim across the water.
We speak of our church as a ship set sail, but at the moment we are not up on the foils. The lockdowns have becalmed us and taken the wind out of our sails.
Our Parish Council Elders share their favourite Bible verse.
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