Sharing some thoughts

  There’s a moment on Christmas Eve when everything seems to hush. The lights dim, the bustle slows, and something in us moves forward. We’ve heard this story so many times—Mary and Joseph, the journey, the stable, the manger—but tonight it feels different. Tonight we’re not just remembering a story; we’re stepping into it. We’re standing on holy ground, in that thin place where heaven bends low to earth. Because Christmas Eve is a threshold. It’s the moment before the dawn breaks. The moment when hope is held in the quiet, like a candle cupped in the hands. It is the stillness before the song begins, the pause before the angels speak, the breath before the world changes forever. And into that quiet, God comes. Not with fanfare. Not with power. Not with the kind of glory we might expect. But with vulnerability. With smallness. With the cry of a newborn child. God who shaped galaxies chooses to be wrapped in cloths. God who spoke creation into being chooses to learn how to spea...

  We hear the word justice in all kinds of places. It might be in conversations about poverty, racism, inequality, even climate change. It might be in legal cases. And yet, for so many people, justice feels like something often talked about but rarely achieved. The reality is that for many people life seems to be full of injustice, and these people are often struggling already and they remain caught in a trap that they can’t rise up out of.  And it’s into that reality that the Bible speaks with clarity and power. Our readings from Isaiah (58:6-11) and Matthew (25:31-46) remind us that justice isn’t an optional extra for God’s people. Justice isn’t just a nice added extra, and it’s not just something we think about but take no further, because it’s actually at the very heart of our worship and discipleship. And Advent makes that message sharper still. Advent is certainly about waiting, but not about passive waiting and just hoping that something will happen. Instead, Advent is ...

  We live in a world that is constantly calling us to “change.” Politicians promise change, advertisers sell us products that will “change our lives,” and self-help articles tell us to “become the best version of ourselves.” Yet in spite of all the call for change, many people feel stuck - stuck in habits, sometimes stuck in guilt, sometimes in a feeling that they will never be good enough, whatever that good might mean. I wonder if people had those same feelings when John the Baptist came speaking his message of change:  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  How welcome would that message have been for some? But his message though is something very different. It is God’s invitation to real change - change that begins in the heart, change that lasts, change that brings hope, whatever situation we find ourselves in.  Advent is the season when we hear that call afresh, and when we prepare not only to celebrate the birth of Jesus but also to meet him face ...