I find myself amazed routinely about how little the wider public understands about the values of Christianity. To an extent, we Christians have brought this on ourselves: the media’s full of stories about various Christian groups rejecting others and using their faith as an excuse. But I also think that what might contribute to this is our failure to explain to people in simple terms what’s meant by the term ‘Kingdom of God’, around which so much of Christ’s teaching revolves. (Click on the title to read more)
Author: James Blott
What does God think about homosexuality?
The Australian rugby player Israel Folau has been in trouble with his employers over tweets that ‘Hell awaits’ ‘Drunks, Homosexuals, Adulterers, Liars, Fornicators, Thieves, Atheists, Idolaters’. He’s been condemned by many for views that aren’t representative of ‘the values of the sport’, but as often happens when these issues hit the headlines, he’s also been described as a ‘devout Christian’ and no-one seems to have challenged whether his views are a fair representation of the views that informed and committed Christians should have on these issues. It’s for that reason that I feel the need to open up the issue of Christians and homosexuality, on this occasion more by way of commentary than sermon. (Click on the title to read more)
What is God’s true nature?
Of all of Jesus’s stories, none is more familiar than the much-loved story of the Prodigal Son. But perhaps because it’s so well-known, we miss so much. I think we need to try to open ourselves up to hearing this story in a new way, to strain to hear it as those for whom it was first told may have heard it, however difficult that might be and however huge the cultural and historic gulf between us and Jesus’s first audience. Because here lies Jesus’s own story about his Father’s true nature. (Click on the title to read more)
How should we treat ‘immoral’ people?
It’s distressingly common to hear Christians denouncing others (including fellow Christians) for their lack of morality and demanding that those they see as not following ‘biblical teaching’ must ‘repent’ before they can be fully accepted into ‘God’s church’. But is this teaching itself biblical, or a uniquely human distortion? (Click on the title to read more)
Did Jesus denounce wealth?
The view that a great many people seem to take about the parable of the rich man and Lazarus is, I think, along these lines: “If you’re fortunate enough to be wealthy in this world, God will turn the tables after your death and you’ll be sent to hell for eternity. Conversely, if you suffer a life of destitution, illness and misery on earth, God will compensate you after your death and you’ll spend eternity in heaven”.
If this depiction of the parable were true, then it would explain why so few of our fellow citizens feel that Christianity has much to offer them. But I think a closer look at the parable reveals that Jesus’s real meaning may have been lost. (Click on the title to read more...)
Judas Iscariot and Good Friday
I’ve always been unsettled by the stories about Judas, and what follows was written in an attempt to explain why. Good Friday is an uncomfortable day, as it’s the one day when we’re asked to be introspective as we look up at the cross. We’re challenged not only to see Jesus hanging there, but we must be brave enough to see on the cross all those whom any of us have, at any time, rejected, excluded, bruised, damaged. (Click on the title to read more...)
Reflective Preacher 