Conversations
  • Home
  • Books
  • Sustainability
    • Climate Action
    • Jesus is Raised!
    • Integrity
    • Rubbish Challenge
    • Mental health
    • Consultancy
    • Policy
    • Carbon
    • Waste
    • Plastic
    • Safe-to-fail
  • Creation
    • Climate Theology
    • Awhi: Women in Creation Care
    • Awhi Mai Introduction
    • Maori & the environment
    • Ocean Deep Retreat
    • Life, the Universe, and God study
    • Flood Poementary
    • Earth Day
    • Wellbeing and Climate Change
    • Heaven and Earth
    • Prayers
    • Worship resources
    • Eco Church Story
    • 12 Motivations for EcoMission
    • Motivation and Calling
    • Eco Mission
    • Science
  • Kōrero
    • Moderator's Korowai
    • Covenant & Treaty
    • Bilingual Bible & Creation Prayers
    • Bilingual & Te Reo
    • Erana's Korowai
  • Worship
    • Easter >
      • Lent: Journey in Psalms
      • Maundy Thursday
      • Good Friday
      • Easter Day
      • Passover meal
    • Matariki
    • Bilingual & Te Reo
    • Pentecost
    • Advent & Christmas >
      • Advent
      • Christmas
      • Nativity Plays
      • Te Reo: Kirihimete
      • Whakapapa: Wayne TeKaawa
    • Hold the World Gently
    • Kids & all-age worship
    • Call to Worship
    • Confession
    • Communion
    • Blessings
    • Baptism
    • Weddings
    • Funerals
    • Night Prayer
    • Trinity
    • Quiet
    • More Worship Resources >
      • Creeds
      • Lords Prayer variations
      • Little Linking Bits
      • Celtic Prayers
      • Harvest
      • Healing
      • Commissioning
      • A new ministry
      • Journal Reflection resource for Lent
      • Liturgy of the Elements
      • Spirit who defies defining
      • Pet Blessing
      • Psalms in Worship
      • Ephesians worship resources
    • Poem-Prayers >
      • Pictures in my home
      • Slow things
      • Does the sea love me?
      • Drop
      • Tipped out
      • Silence
      • The Swallowed Sword
      • More of You
      • Sometimes
      • Jerusalem Dawning
      • Hopewell Psalm
      • The Visitor's Psalm
      • The Seagull’s Psalm
      • Leunig
  • Psalms
    • Psalms 1-10 >
      • Psalm 1: The Two Ways
      • Psalm 2: Wrath on a hill
      • Psalm 3: The Shield around me
      • Psalm 4: I rest in you
      • Psalm 5: Coming Home
      • Psalm 6: Worn with weeping
      • Psalm 7: The fury of my enemies
      • Psalm 8: Out of the mouths of babes
      • Psalm 9: The weeds and the wheat
      • Psalm 10: Why, Lord, why??
    • Psalms 11-20 >
      • Psalm 11: The XBox Psalm
      • Psalm 12: As in the days of Noah
      • Psalm 13: How long??
      • Psalm 14: All fall short
      • Psalm 15: Be Do-ers of The Word
      • Psalm 16: Fullness of Joy
      • Psalm 17: Under attack
      • Psalm 18: Part A - In Christ
      • Psalm 18: Part B- The Volcano Psalm
      • Psalm 18: Part C- Jesus’ Resurrection Song
      • Psalm 18: Part D- The Superman Psalm
      • Psalm 19: Song of the Stars
      • Psalm 20: God bless you!
    • Psalms 21-30 >
      • Psalm 21: Honouring a godly leader
      • Psalm 22: The Crucifixion Psalm
      • Psalm 23: A Collection
      • Psalm 24: Lift up the Ancient Doors
      • Psalm 25: The Covenant Way
      • Psalm 26: True North
      • Psalm 27: Take courage, my heart!
      • Psalm 28: Are you listening?
      • Psalm 29: The Hurricane Psalm
      • Psalm 30: Joy in the morning
    • Psalms 31-40 >
      • Psalm 31: Strength in exhaustion
      • Psalm 32: The Horse-Trainer's Psalm
      • Psalm 33: Rejoice today!
      • Psalm 34: Always Praising!
      • Psalm 35: Trapped and slandered
      • Psalm 36: Far-Reaching Love
      • Psalm 37: Keep Calm and Carry On
      • Psalm 38: The Burn-out Psalm
      • Psalm 39: A crisis of purpose
      • Psalm 40: The Mud Psalm
    • Psalm 41-50 >
      • Psalm 41: Bad friends
      • Psalm 42: As a deer
      • Psalm 43: A walk of faith
      • Psalm 44: A formal complaint
      • Psalm 45: The Royal Wedding
      • Psalm 46: We will not fear!
      • Psalm 47: A Shout of Praise
      • Psalm 48: Hymn to Jerusalem
      • Psalm 49: Death and Taxes
      • Psalm 50: True Worship
    • Psalms 51-60 >
      • Psalm 51: Standing under the shower of Confession
      • Psalm 52: God sees through
      • Psalm 53: No God?
      • Psalm 54: Help me now as you’ve helped me before
      • Psalm 55: Betrayed by your best friend
      • Psalm 56: The Worrywort’s Psalm
      • Psalm 57: Wake up the day
      • Psalm 58: The Snake Psalm
      • Psalm 59: Safe in the Tower
      • Psalm 60: The Earthquake Psalm
    • Psalms 61-70 >
      • Psalm 61: Can you hear me, God?
      • Psalm 62: Wait in Silence
      • Psalm 63: Hide and Seek
      • Psalm 64: It's not OK!
      • Psalm 65: He’s got the whole world in his hands!
      • Psalm 66: Come and hear!
      • Psalm 67: All you peoples praise!
      • Psalm 68: Gifts for his people
      • Psalm 69: The Mud Psalm
      • Psalm 70: Hurry up!
    • Psalms 71-80 >
      • Psalm 71: All our lives long
      • Psalm 72: Long live the King!
      • Psalm 73: The Jealous Psalm
      • Psalm 74: Destruction and persecution
      • Psalm 75: The pillars of the earth
      • Psalm 76: Weapons of war
      • Psalm 77: The Sleepless Psalm
      • Psalm 78: Tell our story to our children
      • Psalm 79: The terrible prison
      • Psalm 80: God’s shining smile
    • Psalms 81-90 >
      • Psalm 81: Honey from the rock
      • Psalm 82: The Judge’s Judgment
      • Psalm 83: The enemies of Israel
      • Psalm 84: How lovely is your house
      • Psalm 85: See what God is doing!
      • Psalm 86: An undivided heart
      • Psalm 87: The Census Psalm
      • Psalm 88: The Rejection Psalm
      • Psalm 89: The Chosen One
      • Psalm 90: A puff of dust
    • Psalms 91-100 >
      • Psalm 91: An Invitation to Deeper Prayer
      • Psalm 92: Saying thanks at bedtime
      • Psalm 93: Water rising
      • Psalm 94: Praying for a world in trouble
      • Psalm 95: Come let us sing for joy
      • Psalm 96: Words run out
      • Psalm 97: Rejoice, the Lord is King!
      • Psalm 98: Sing along a new song
      • Psalm 99: If you shake us
      • Psalm 100: The joyful parade
    • Psalms 101-110 >
      • Psalm 101: Call me loyal
      • Psalm 102: The time has come!
      • Psalm 103: Bless the Lord, O my soul
      • Psalm 104: Psalm for Aotearoa
      • Psalms 105, 106 & 107: History Psalms
      • Psalm 108: A wake-up call
      • Psalm 109: SO ANGRY!!
      • Psalm 110: All about Jesus
    • Psalm 111-120 >
      • Psalm 111: Praise the Lord, now and forever!
      • Psalm 112: Welcome to the good life!
      • Psalm 113: From the rising of the sun
      • Psalm 114: Skipping mountains
      • Psalm 115: Toy gods
      • Psalm 116: Death could not hold me down
      • Psalm 117: The Shortest Psalm
      • Psalm 118: Pointing to the risen Lord
      • Psalm 119: The Longest Psalm
      • Psalm 120: Speaking peace at home
    • Psalm 121-130 >
      • Psalm 121: The Bodyguard
      • Psalm 122: The Peace of Jerusalem
      • Psalm 123: Asking for help
      • Psalm 124: Like a mouse
      • Psalm 125: Good Balance
      • Psalm 126: A harvest of joy
      • Psalm 127: The Lord builds the house
      • Psalm 128: Live long and prosper
      • Psalm 129: Attacked and whipped
      • Psalm 130: The Dawn Psalm
    • Psalms 131-140 >
      • Psalm 131: Calm and Quiet
      • Psalm 132: The Forever King
      • Psalm 133: Living in Unity
      • Psalm 134: A circle of blessing
      • Psalm 135: Come on, people, praise!
      • Psalm 136: Endless love
      • Psalm 137: By the rivers of Babylon
      • Psalm 138: Thank you for your love!
      • Psalm 139: The Omniscience Psalm
      • Psalm 140: Our God saves
    • Psalms 141-150 >
      • Psalm 141: The Goody-good’s Psalm
      • Psalm 142: Brought Low
      • Psalm 143: A Psalm for Easter Saturday
      • Psalm 144: Blessed are God’s People
      • Psalm 145: We will tell your praise
      • Psalm 146: God at Work
      • Psalm 147: The Winter Psalm
      • Psalm 148: Calling all creation!
      • Psalm 149: The Double Edged Sword
      • Psalm 150: Kiwi Praise!?
    • About Psalms >
      • Jesus and Psalms
      • Violence in Psalms
      • History Psalms, a discussion of 105 & 106
      • Brueggeman on Psalms
    • Psalms in Worship
    • Advent & Christmas Psalms
    • Lectionary Psalms
  • Word
    • Christmas
    • Te Reo Māori and faith
    • Listen!
    • Nurture the Holy Spirit
    • The Bible >
      • Making Sense of the Bible
      • People and Stories >
        • Sodom & Lot's lot
        • Hagar & Sarah
        • Three Wise Men
        • Martha and Mary
        • Samuel & David
        • Bit Parts
        • James who??
        • Joseph
        • Peter's Wife
        • Bible Love stories
      • John
      • Acts
      • Easter
      • Dramatic readings
    • God
    • Jesus
    • Life
    • Church
    • Spirituality
    • Identity
    • End Times
    • Israel >
      • Israel: Tough questions
      • Israel: Stories in Place
      • Theological Alleyways
      • Lovely Ladies
  • Ministry
    • Climate aware pastoral care
    • Moving On
    • Ethics
    • Fatigue
    • Spirit ministry
    • Pastoral Preaching
    • Maori Ministry
    • When the shit hits the fan
    • This Sacred Moment
    • Poems on ministry
    • Leadership resources
    • Promoting church
    • Musings
    • Pandemic >
      • Short of Breath Theological reflection
      • Stress
      • Alone Together
      • Pangolins and the Fall
      • Mental Health factors
      • Church response
      • Psalm 91: An Invitation to Deeper Prayer
      • Quiet
      • Solitude
    • Burning Bush
  • Supervision
    • Decolonising Supervision
    • Should I sack my supervisor??
    • Supervision FAQs
    • Supervision with Silvia
    • Why supervision?
    • What to bring to supervision?
    • Methods in supervision
    • Ethics in supervision
    • Pastoral Supervision
    • Qualifications
  • Counselling
    • Counselling with Silvia
    • Non-Anxious Living
    • Relationship Repair Kit
    • Skills for Conversations
    • Poems on therapy
  • Love
    • Love Poems >
      • How to say 'I love you'?
      • The Fabric of Love
      • Be at home in my heart
      • Falling
      • Out of thin air
      • After the waves
      • Mid-life Menagerie
      • How are you?
      • Vacuum
      • Marriage Maths
    • Marriage >
      • Wedding Vows
      • Anniversaries
      • Ethics & Commitment
      • Expectations
      • Desire
      • Emotional Needs
    • Personality
    • Listening
    • Creativity
    • Laughter
    • Trauma/Recovery
    • Stress
    • Motherhood and Spirituality
    • Growing: Human & faith development
    • Dementia
    • Grief >
      • Experience of grief
      • Making sense of death
      • A Grieving of Poems
    • The hardest thing: youth suicide
  • Song
    • All Creation Sing
    • Worship songs
    • Fun songs
    • Prayer Songs
  • Lahore
  • About
    • Contact
    • Family History
    • Pumpkins on the road
    • Trip >
      • Hong Kong & Freising
      • Italy
      • Israel
      • England
      • San Francisco
      • Ben's page

Getting to know God ...
​

... as GOD-WITH-US

If it is true that God is always with us, in what ways is this true?
What difference does the presence of God make?
 I’ve been pondering this for myself, and I have come up with three answers to this question. Three ways I picture this in my mind.


God is with us: a) like music is around us, b) in a constant conversation, and c) through signs of God at work.
Esp for Christmas (Immanuel!)
Picture

... as TRINITY of one substance

If a child asked you what God is made of, how might you have a go at answering the question?
… go on, give it a go. What is God? What is God made of?
I’m going to have a go this morning. In 10 minutes. Wish me luck.


So what's with the 3-in-1 or is is 1-in-3? This sermon explains how God is one being, one substance, with 3 ways of communicating with us.

... as a spring of LIVING WATER

In John 4, Jesus met a woman in Samaria at a well, and he asked her for a drink. She could have just quietly done as he asked, but she was bold, she spoke her mind, she asked questions. She teased him: So, she said, you’re a high and mighty Jew eh, but you still need water and I have the bucket. Well, well, fancy that.
And he responds by telling her about a different kind of water. She might have the bucket and access to the well water, but he can provide the very Spirit of the living God. Living water.
Living water is good, sweet, flowing water.
The Spirit of Jesus is alive with spiritual power. It is the essence of life itself. It flows from the very heart of God.
 
One of the highlights of my trip to Israel was visiting this well ...


​This sermon has a powerpoint to go with it:
Photo gallery of Jacobs Well (powerpoint)

... through HUNCHES

two stories, two people whose lives were touched by God, two people with hunches, two people who stood up ... The old woman who was hunched over, bent, burdened, oppressed, who was set free by God at the touch and word of Jesus, free to stand tall. And the young man, Jeremiah, who found the courage and the wisdom to listen to his own hunches - in the pictures in his mind, in an inner determination to stand up 

... as CELTIC KNOT: 'The Strong Name of the Trinity'

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

(Prayer of St Patrick)

What kind of God don't you believe in? We have a thing or two to learn from the ancient Celts about how to believe in God. Theirs is an intimate God, a safe God:
I lie down this night with Spirit
And Spirit will lie down with me.
The Three of my love
will be lying down with me.

Theirs is a God of mystery and unity more than rational logic. The Three in One and One in Three is "deeply embedded in daily life" 

(Jan Richardson: ​www.paintedprayerbook.com)

John 16:12-15                     
Romans 5:1-5

This sermon is an invitation to reflect on the model of God you grew up with, and to allow space for the closeness and mysteriousness and loving power of the Trinity to flow more in your life.
It also comes with a print-out of Celtic prayers and Celtic Knot pictures (which are great to colour in!)
Download Celtic Trinity Prayers

... as FATHER: 'Living the Father's Love'
Luke 10:21-28
2 John 1:6

How do you see God? When someone says ‘Heavenly Father’ what comes to mind? How do I honestly feel about God the Father? What masks is he wearing? What emotion shows on his face? How does God the Father feel about me?

This sermon is a personal reflection about my own Dad and my relationship with him, as well as exploring how Jesus related to his 'Father in Heaven'. How can we grow more into this closeness?

... as GLORY: 'Lord of Glory'
Exodus 19:16 – 20:3
Luke 9:28-36

Can we relate to the idea of 'glory' in our practical 'de-sacralised' world? 

BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS ...
 The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil

... as LIGHT: 'Light of the World'
Acts 9
John 21:1-14​

How is Jesus the Light of the World? How is God like light?

This sermon goes with a dramatic reading of Paul's encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, written for 5 people. Download Dramatic Reading of Acts 9 
Also links in Peter's encounter with the risen Jesus by the lake at dawn.

" ... experiences of God’s light breaking into a place of darkness. Light burst forth, light burst through, into the mind and heart and soul. What happened  for Peter and Paul was not just a warm fuzzy moment when they felt loved and affirmed. The inbreaking of light from heaven was confronting, demanding. We are loved not just for our own sake but for the saving of the world!"

 ... as FIRE: the Spark of Pentecost
Psalm 104:24-35
Acts 2:1-21
NZ Anglican Prayer Book, Night Prayer:
"The blessing of God, the eternal goodwill of God, the shalom of God,

the wildness and the warmth of God,

be among us and between us, now and always."

Christian theology says two quite contradictory opposite things about the Spirit of God, both deeply involved with this metaphor of God as fire. The first claim is that God has made everything, is in everything, and sustains everything ... all matter, all life. We don't do things by halves - this is the biggest claim that can ever be made, that our God is universal, bigger than the universe, containing the universe, but more than that - the claim that the universe itself can only exist at every level of its existence because of the spirit of God.
The second claim is quite different. This claim is that God's Spirit works in very particular ways in particular people in particular places. ... for it is the spirit of Jesus who chooses ordinary people like you and me to bring to new life with the fire of his love.


This sermon takes you deep inside the impossibilities of the atom, as well as seeking the unique characteristics of the spirit of Jesus at work.

... as MUSIC: "perfect spiritual music"
Psalm 146
... perhaps God is also like music … 'Sing to the Lord a new song', writes the Psalmist. To sing is a primeval, instinctual response to the divine … and maybe our own singing is simply an echo of God’s song. Maybe the very being of God is itself music, a harmony deeper than the universe. Maybe all creation is sustained by the beat and rhythm of God, tunes vibrating at frequencies too slow or too fast for the human ear, but which we can sense with our souls.
Maybe God is like music. Maybe God is song.

The Names of God
This is a helpful summary of the names of God in the Bible and what they mean.
From 'GotQuestions.org'

Where is God??
I asked the children and the adults on Sunday this question. How would you answer it? The Cashmere folks answered with
a) God is everywhere
b) God is in our hearts
c) God is love and in our relating ... which as I said are all excellent true answers, but not the one I had in mind ...

OK kids I have a tough question for you today. And it is a question that has lots of right answers, but I have one particular answer in my mind and I am going to keep on asking for possible answers until I get the answer that is in my mind. So it’s a bit tricky. Are you ready? Here it is
Where is God?
A clue – how does the Lord’s prayer start: Our Father in heaven.
So one possible answer to the question ‘where is God?’ is:
God is in heaven.

Which obviously leads us to the next question – where on earth is heaven? Or maybe heaven is not on earth at all. And people have been up into the sky so we know it’s not up there. So where is it?
The answer I always give to this is that heaven is another dimension. Our bodies and everything we can see and touch is in the physical dimension and heaven is in the spiritual dimension.
 
Heaven is where God is, where God has no limits, where God’s power and beauty and grace and love is all there is.
Once upon a time it used to be that the human world was cut off from God’s heaven – like there was a massive wall in the road. But God sent Jesus to us from heaven, and Jesus’s main job was to break down the wall between us people and heaven … but this was easier said than done. In fact, the only way he could get this job done was to give his life, to die on the cross. It was that difficult. And because Jesus gave everything he had for us, God was able to burst through the wall between earth and heaven, and Jesus is alive both in heaven and on earth at the same time. It’s the greatest most amazing miracle of all time.
And it means that we can know heaven in our lives, just a little bit … and we believe that at the end of our lives here on earth we will step through the wall, easy as anything, into heaven, and there we will see God face to face and live for ever in his power and beauty and love. 
​

Seated at the Right Hand of the Father

One of the main claims made in our Bibles and in our Creeds about Jesus is that he is seated at the right hand of God. Not that God has hands, not even a right hand, literally - so that is this word-picture trying to tell us about Jesus and God and where does the Spirit fit in? In this sermon I explore the common understanding of this metaphor as a ThroneRoom, and argue that Jesus might have preferred the metaphor as a dinner party!

I’m still bothered about the throne thing. It just does not work for me very well as a metaphor. I can picture God the Father telling Jesus what to do and Jesus telling the Spirit what to do in a kind of military chain of command … and it just does not feel right to me. How about you?
And you know why it does not feel right to have a throne-room metaphor for the Trinity? Mainly because that simply was not how Jesus described the kingdom of heaven. 
Picture

Glimpsing the Glory of God

Isaiah 6:1-10
Mark 9:2-9
Includes a shared journey through 6 steps, including Communion, being open to God's presence in a fresh way.

What place is there in our culture for 'otherworldly' spiritual ideas like glory and holiness? Are they barriers for non-Christians to engage with the faith? Or are they powerful and important points of resonance with basic human needs?

Images for God
in the Old and New Testaments
Picture
Picture
www.conversations.net.nz
Written by Silvia Purdie 

Resources for life and faith
Proudly powered by Weebly