The light of the kingdom

On Thursday, the nation stopped to commemorate a National Day of Mourning for the victims of the Bondi terrorist attack. Today, in solidarity with Indigenous followers of Jesus, we pause to honour another Day of Mourning, reflecting on the dispossession and ongoing injustices experienced by Australiaโ€™s First Peoples, acknowledging our shared history, and renewing our …

The light of the world

There are times in life when you really need a light. Driving home from Brisbane through last nightโ€™s intense rainstorms, as an east coast low sat stationery over the central coast, I was increasingly grateful for my own carโ€™s headlights, the hazard lights of other cars, and those little โ€œcatโ€™s eyesโ€ embedded in the motorway, as …

The light of a star

We may have packed away our tinsel and Christmas trees for another year, but the Christmas story doesnโ€™t end with Christmas Day. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that โ€œAfter Jesus was born โ€ฆ wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, โ€˜Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For …

The first place was a voice

No galaxies, no sun, no Earth, no oceans, no flora or fauna, no history, no you or me. Only the living God, who is Spirit.ย The Bible begins with this breathtaking sentence: โ€œIn the beginning God created the heavens and the earthโ€ (Genesis 1:1). Those words serve as a doorway through which every conscientious reader of …

When human rights fail us

Psalm 12:1-8 Australian navy personnel rescue asylum seekers from a sinking boat off Christmas Island in 2001.ย  I have had the privilege of sitting with asylum seekers at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney, and at the Curtin Immigration Detention Centre in remote north-western Australia,  as the asylum seekers shared their stories of oppression, fear, …