What is freedom? Is it browsing down an eternal supermarket aisle searching for breakfast cereal? Or is it more like being a tree growing into full tree-ish-ness beside a river?
Author: Alister Pate
I'm a minister in the Uniting Church in Australia, with two congregations: one in Northcote / Chalice, which now includes Cafechurch Melbourne, and one up the road in Reservoir, confusingly known as Preston High Street. I am
What is the Good Life? Is it the firm thunk sound your Mercedes’ door makes as you shake your impeccably coiffed hair and drive off into a beautiful future? And what does the Good Life have to do with being of the mind of Christ?
The Kingdom of God is like this:
It’s a cool, clear morning in late summer. The sun hasn’t quite managed to peek over the eastern lake, and the workers wrap themselves closely in their cloaks and grumble. It’s just another day selling their labour for a measly pittance, just about enough to keep body and soul together. Just enough to make it worth being out of bed before the sun is, and to be standing around waiting here….
The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ […]
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Forgiveness and Freedom
How often should I forgive? Peter asks a good question. As often as, like, every day of the week? Not just seven times, exclaims Jesus, but seventy-seven times! Imagine being a slave who owed all the money to the emperor. Then, suddenly, you’re set free – just like that! What will you do with your freedom?
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Take Up Your Cross
Why does Jesus persist in saying such depressing things? Take up your cross? It sounds like a real downer. I would pass – except that, in fact, you can’t actually avoid crosses. My choice appears to be: what do I do about it?
Who is God? This is a big question. Perhaps the big question. All our other questions about the meaning of the universe, how to have a meaningful life, how to live in this world of suffering and compromise and ethical grey space – but which also has moments of transcendent moral clarity and of great […]
The storm was fierce, the night was black and you could hardly see who was next to you. Then Jesus comes walking over the water. What would you do? What does faith look like in the context of our current storm? Can you open your mind and heart to hear Jesus say: “Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid”?
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Bread in the Wilderness
I don’t know about you, but I am getting soooooo tired of Zoom. Let me clarify: it’s not Zoom as such – and indeed thank God for it, given how much worse things would be without it. It’s more… this whole socially distanced life is getting pretty stale. And, with no sign of things improving […]
What is the meaning of life? What does it all mean? This continual torrent of experiences, good, bad and indifferent? This world with so much beauty and terror? This sense that there is something more, something which will take everything and somehow harmonise it into something moving, powerful, and life-giving? Sometimes we can hide from […]
