Imagine someone asks you this: “My spouse belittles me, hits me, and forces me to do what I don’t want to do. How many times should I forgive them? As many as seven times?” I wonder how you would answer that question. Over the centuries, the answer from many in the church has been, “Keep on forgiving. Keep on going back.” The reason is because Jesus himself seemed to preach unending forgiveness. "If someone sins against many, how many times should I forgive them?" asks the di

There is a beautiful theme running through the Bible, and it is to do with what is small. What is insignificant. What is overlooked, what is weak, what is un-beautiful. What is rejected. And the theme goes likes this: God takes the too-small or too-whatever thing that humans dismiss, and makes something of it. In fact, the thing that is rejected becomes the very thing through which God’s story is able to unfurl. The barren woman becomes the mother to a nation. The man with

I love The Servant Song, which I sang for the first time in high school. It’s a song about being sisters and brothers towards each other, and sharing in the life journey. I thought of The Servant Song this week, because it’s NAIDOC Week. Now there are some times when we are asked to bring our tears, our lamentations, as we sit with the suffering of others. The Day of Mourning (the Sunday before 26 January) and Sorry Day are times like that. But NAIDOC Week is a bit different.