One of the most characteristic features about Australia is its light.  Visitors often speak of its clarity and its intensity.  Even our forests with the eucalyptus canopies allow a great play of light to filter through below giving them, too, a unique character.  At this time of the year the experience of light is at its strongest:  we are midway through summer.  Summer, according to the Australia poet, Les Murray, is in both fact and image the dominant season of the Australian year.  Even in our southern places, where it is usually mild, the weight of the imagery often obscures local conditions.  Although it may not be our experience this year, summer, he asserts, is the blazing…

Recently, someone remarked to me about an exchange she had had with a lady who put the question to her, “Who made God?”  “If God has made everything, who made God?” “When did God begin?”  Of course, God has neither beginning nor end. God is.  Yet, to imagine something that has no beginning, that has always been, is not possible to comprehend.  I think it is slightly easier for us to imagine something that may have no end, for we have a glimpse of eternity in our own experience of time, but to imagine something without a start is difficult indeed. We can apprehend such a mystery, but we cannot…

As we continue our Advent journey, the sense of expectation in our waiting increases. Christmas is just two weeks away! This can fill us with a sense of disbelief and dismay because of all that we consider needs to be achieved beforehand. But it can also fill us with a sense of wonder and anticipation. The outcome of wonder is joy. And so, we light the third candle of our Advent wreath – the rose-coloured candle – designated for the gift of joy that is given to us as people of both hope and faith. As those who watch for the birth of the Lord’s life in the world, we…

We mark our journey to the Festival of Christmas by each week lighting a candle on our Advent Wreath. Each candle represents one of the blessings of Christmas: hope, faith, joy, peace and love. These are the true gifts of Christmas, the gifts given to us as those who seek how the life of Jesus is birthed more deeply in our hearts and in our world. In lighting each candle, we are reminded of how we are to be people of hope, faith, joy, peace and love. Lives marked by these gifts are radiant lives, lives that bear the life of Jesus in our world, lives transparent of this Promise…

In these weeks we have been bewildered by images of flooding throughout much of western NSW. Towns that only three years ago were in the most desperate drought, enveloped by the smoke of bushfire, are now inundated with water. We think today especially of the people of Forbes, of Eugowra, of Condobolin. The sheer unpredictability of the landscape reminds us that in Australia we can never quite tame this remarkable land; it resists domestication. When we are presented with the reality of extreme climate events, however, is not uncommon to hear the description, ‘apocalyptic.’ The word signifies a catastrophic end of time. In the face of calamity there is a…

One of the people that stand out in my memory when I was engaged in the ministry of spiritual direction was a young man, Steven.  When I first met Steven he had completed a degree in film and was involved in film-making, and was becoming quite successful in his endeavour.  But Steven was also struggling.  He was depressed and the depression was becoming more significant. I met with Steven regularly over perhaps a twelve-month period, seeking to listen to him and understand something of his life’s journey. Through our conversations it became apparent that though he was becoming quite successful as a film-maker he actually didn’t like doing what he…

Sometimes we recognise that we are travelling through a very difficult path. Almost every day seems to bring about further bad news. It is difficult for us not to lose heart. And yet when we gather here this weekend we are told a story by Jesus about never losing heart.  We are to be like the importune woman, God is like the judge who eventually gives in to our persistence.  Sometimes, however, it is very hard not to lose heart.  Sometimes life’s events themselves take away all our strength to keep hoping.  And we incline to despair. And so perhaps we need another way of looking at the story Jesus…

One of the most important things we can learn about the gospels is the nature of the language that the writers use.  It is the language of parables – a language, it seems, favoured by Jesus himself.  Jesus was a great teacher, as we know.  He was a great storyteller and he constantly uses stories to communicate his message.  But the parables are not simply stories.  A parable is very particular kind of story:  it is a story that is designed to confuse us, to unsettle us, even in some cases, to shock us. We have grown used to them.  They are not unfamiliar. But yet, there is something in each of them that doesn’t make sense.…

The populist American writer, Robert Fulgham once told of the story of a famous international chess player, Frank Marshall.  Marshall made, what Fulgham termed, the most beautiful move ever made on a chessboard.  In a crucial game in which he was evenly matched with another master player, Marshall found his queen under serious attack.  The queen is the most powerful piece on the board.  There were several avenues of escape, and since the queen is the most important offensive piece, the spectators all assumed that Marshall would observe convention and move his queen to safety. Deep in thought, Marshall used all the time available to him to consider the board…

In the annals of Christian legend there is a famous story about one of the early Roman martyrs, St Lawrence.   Lawrence lived in a time of persecution, and as a deacon was responsible for his community’s administration.  The prefect of Rome had already taken the Bishop of Rome into custody and was about to do the same to Lawrence. However, realizing that Lawrence had the keys to the community store, and thinking that this might contain much gold and silver, he first demanded that Lawrence show him the location of the store. Being a wily administrator and not losing his cool, Lawrence said, “Give me three days and I will…