In this story of magi and gifts,

it all comes down to these two questions, I believe:

Can we point to the true source of Life, Emmanuel, when we are asked?

Can we bring our selves, truly and wholly, as Gifts to this Emmanuel?

No more can be asked of us, as followers of Christ: 

but to reflect Christ’s light as best as we can.

Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father,  

and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Mary went with haste to a town in the hill country

to visit her aunt Elizabeth.

Well actually we don’t Elizabeth was Mary’s aunt,

we just know she was a relative,

but Elizabeth was really old,  

and her having a baby was a miracle,

so she...

In this Advent season leading to Christmas,

Probably most of us are feeling at best a cautious joy.

It’s maybe kind of like how we’re singing in worship,

We’re not singing much or full out, we’re masked, 

and we’re not really in the mood.

Almost 40 years ago, a film deemed by an ABC poll to be the 5th greatest film of all time, appeared on screens in movie theatres worldwide. The movie, by director Steven Spielberg, was E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial.

Some of you might have even seen it.

“The author of the novel on which the screenplay was based has indicated that she intended...

When someone says something horrible one is often too shocked to know what to say. So what does the woman respond?

Does she insult him back, and tell him to go back where he came from, back to the sticks, back to the backwoods of Galilee?

Does she confront him and say “how dare you call me a dog”?

Anger, in certain circumstances, is completely justified. 

But it shouldn’t lead.

It should follow listening, and talking, and dialoguing.

I could just play it safe and hoard my privilege to myself, 

or I could make myself more vulnerable and take some risks, 

potentially take some flak by standing up a little for those people who rate lower on the privilege scale: women, LGBT, People of Colour, 

because they have to endure harassment and discrimination on a scale that I never have had to experience. 

“Their love is cemented in a covenant Jonathan makes with David- a commitment to one another in the form of a union.
This text does not require a reader to have a finely tuned gaydar to be able to see it as an example of same-sex commitment.
The emotional attachment between the two men is undeniable,
and the fact that their relationship was publicly condoned by the men in the army is significant”. (Queer Theologies, Chris Greenough, 2020)

As far as I and many other Christians are concerned, homophobia, transphobia and conversion therapy are sins.

And echoes the cries of indigenous people these days:

Do you, white folks, not care that we are perishing?

Are we, like Jesus, asleep in the boat, 

completely oblivious to the hardships that First Nations are enduring, 

since we are comfortable, curled up asleep on our cushion?