Forgiveness is instrumental in a life of peace, and yet it is often difficult to talk about, hard to define, and can even be weaponised against suffering people. In this brief reflection we examine 4 themes of forgiveness that emerge from the story of Jesus. Firstly, forgiveness is about letting go of a desire for retaliation, revenge and harm. Second, forgiveness may require an acknowledgement of wrong and a commitment to change. Third, forgiveness can lead toward reconciliation (but that this is not always possible or healthy), and lastly, that power dynamics must be considered when we think about forgiveness. Ultimately, perhaps forgiveness is about how we grapple with the question: what do I want my life to circle around?

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As we talk about peace, one of the core themes in the biblical tradition is that of justice. We see this constantly in the cries of the prophets, who insist that peace for some at the expense of others is not real peace. We also see that for Jesus, peace is not some kind of naive niceness - Jesus calls out injustice and highlights the suffering and marginalisation of the vulnerable. In many respects, the injustices that threatened real peace in his time are similar to that of today. He wrestled with religious of power - the setting up of religious authority in a way that elevated some at the expense of others. He lived in the context of colonisation and a powerful Roman empire. And he grappled with a society that struggled with racial division and exclusion. We still have so much to learn from Jesus' vision for peace in the times we now live.

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Humans have long wrestled with the question: am I at peace with God (or the gods)? Ancient Israel certainly struggled with this existential wondering, and there are several ways of making sense of relatedness to God in the scriptural story. Jesus himself continues the tradition of navigating this question - and in his story, rather than revealing a God who is disappointed or angry with everyone, a story that makes us anxious when things go badly because we wonder what we've done to upset the divine, Jesus reveals a God whose stance toward us is one of belovedness. A God of whom we do not have to be anxious or afraid. Jesus does not come to bring peace with God, as much he comes to reveal it.

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The early creation mythologies of ancient Israel spoke of a world shaped, not by conflict, hostility and violence, but by shalom - an intention for peace with God, with each other, with the self, and with all of creation. In the story of Jesus this takes shape in his view of the presence of the kingdom of God.

Peace, for Jesus, is not just about an interior kind of calm (although this may well be included), but it is about a wider posture of openness to one another... even going as far as to say we must love our enemies. He also challenges unjust and exclusionary systems because sees peace as something we need to experience together. This is an idea that comes to shape many of the early Christian writings and the nature of communities that form around the way of Jesus. They are not just about some kind of "vertical" relationship with God being put right... they are about how our relatedness to each other in community might be transformed.

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In the final reflection in this series, we explore what repentance looks like in the context of the story of Jesus and the invitation to follow the way of the upside-down kingdom. Repentance is not to be used as a tool with which to add weight and further suffering to those who are already vulnerable, marginalised or traumatised. For Jesus, his biggest confrontation and challenge was always toward those with the most power and privilege. Repentance is much more about a personal and communal process of seeing the ways we might engage in harmful practices, and the commitment to move away from this and toward the way of love.

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The good news of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus includes big claims about what God is like. Rather than a God who is distant and unconcerned, or worse - angry and ready to smite - the God revealed in Jesus is one who is shown to be present in our embodied reality, including our suffering and pain, and who freely offers forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. God is in solidarity with us, even to the point of death. And this reveals a God who is truly good, who can be trusted, and who invites us to be and do the same for one another.

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If we ground the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection in the life of Jesus, the story, history and context - what we find is an invitation to make sense of the meaning of language like sin and salvation through this story rather than as abstract or individualistic theological ideas. Rather than being saved from eternal punishment or torment, salvation in the story of Jesus is all about following in his way, entering into his vision of the kingdom of God, being embraced by God rather than held at a distance, turning from harm, abuse and violence and finding a God who enters into our pain and suffering and yet offers us new life.

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The story of the gospels tells us that Jesus' vision of the kingdom of God, one that resisted using power over people but centred the vulnerable and suffering instead, was not received well by those who held the power (whether that be religious or political). In this reflection we look at the 2 big prophetic acts that Jesus enacts in the days leading up to his execution, and how this emphasises the motives of those who sought to eliminate Jesus from the conversation. Understanding this story is necessary for us to then go on to make sense of the meaning of Easter and how it might relate to us in the here and now.

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This is the first in a series of reflections examining the story of Jesus and the meaning of his life, death and resurrection. There can be a tendency to reduce Jesus down to a magical figure who comes down from heaven to die for us so that we can go to heaven one day in the future, but there is so much more going on in the story. In this first video we look at the context surrounding the life and ministry of Jesus and the ways in which Jesus begins to offer a ‘prophetic imagination’, an alternative way of seeing the world in which those with power do not have the final say, and where there is room made for the suffering, the vulnerable and those on the edges.

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In this final reflection in this series on Wholiness, we explore how wholiness should transform the way we see and treat one another, and the kinds of communities we build together.

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To be human is to be an embodied creature and yet we can often have complicated relationships with our own bodies. Sometimes our religious traditions have given us negative attitudes toward our own bodies - seeing the body as the site of temptation or sin, seeing emotions as something to be suppressed, seeing sexuality as something to be suspicious of, or simply denying the ways our bodies tell us so much about what is going on for us at any given point in time. So a spirituality of wholiness must help us to move toward a more positive view of embodiment and our spiritual practices should help us move toward integration and wholeness, rather than reinforcing an unncessary splitting between what is spiritual and what is physical.

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Our society is defined by a kind of restlessness, and its a kind of restlessness that leaves us in a constant state of some kind of fatigue; the hyperactivity of 21st century Western life, the unlimited choices many of us experience, the explicit and implicit messages we receive about keeping up, about making it, about proving our worth through the things we produce and consume. So what does a spirituality of wholiness offer us in the midst of this? How and why does rest matter to our sense of self, to our relationships, and to the sense of our place in the world?

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In this episode we explore how wholiness is related to the self. Sometimes religion can be sold to us as needing a kind of self-rejection or the suppression of our selves – because then God can be sold to us as the cure. But our suggestion is spirituality at its best will help us become ‘more ourselves’ rather than less. This is not just good vibes religion – it is a deeply counter cultural narrative that invites us to begin with embracing the self rather than amplifying the inner critic. We also look at how this is not just an individualistic spirituality – to know (and to love) the self requires a grounding in the context of our relationships and connections with others, with those who have gone before us, and with the ground beneath our feet.

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In this reflection we explore the idea that all humans image the divine. This has implications for universal human dignity and value, for the affirming of our humanness as a good and beautiful thing, and for seeing the interconnectedness of all things - a call toward harmony and wholiness.

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In July this year we co-hosted a seminar titled “What the Hell” - a re-examining of the origins and impact of the Christian belief in hell and divine judgement. Our beliefs about these things are often at the centre of our views about God and the purpose of life, and have a profound impact on the way we live and act in the world. In this seminar we ask the hard questions, examine the original context of the scriptural texts, discuss the variety of perspectives within the Christian tradition, and offer what we believe is a hopeful and life-giving way forward.

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“Jesus died and rose again to save us from our sins.” It’s a statement around which the Easter weekend often circles, but what does it mean? Perhaps Easter is not simply about how we secure our ticket on the train to heaven when we die, but there is something deeper going on inside the story that has to do with the disruption of power, ego, and control, and pushes us to reimagine love, humanness, the cosmos and our images of the divine. A story that has something to say to all of us, regardless of our affiliations, beliefs and ideologies.

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The seasons of Advent and Christmas centre around a biblical story full of intrigue and magic. It is so wide and full that every year we can find ourselves within its narrative in new and fresh ways; do we identify with the vulnerable nature of Mary’s experience, or the solidarity she has with her cousin Elizabeth? Does the story of Simeon capture our heart with hope and promise? Do we long to be overwhelmed like the shepherds were?

We have narrated the Christmas story in a fresh way for the benefit of our tamariki, but also invite everyone to enjoy the magic of the timeless and life changing tale regardless of their age and stage in life.

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