We live with a nagging sense that we never have enough. We never have enough hours in the day, stuff in our house, or money in the bank. We always need a bit more. Contentment is always just beyond our reach. But it’s a false promise. Money and stuff can’t give us security and satisfaction in our hearts. Most of Jesus’ teaching about money do not come as a rule, but as warnings or statements of reality. He didn’t give us guidelines about how much is too much – I think He understood that each of our hearts has a different capacity for greed. Jesus understood that money and possessions can become a form of rival god and move us away from Kingdom.

Do you truly have faith in God if He has to operate on your terms? Instead of having faith in God, you actually have faith in your own hope or understanding about Him. We can’t allow our trust in our understanding disguise itself as trust in God because as soon as He operates outside our understanding, we assume that He has failed. Sometimes when doubt or disappointment has taken root in our hearts, we can’t even see the provision of God right in front of us.

The service is modelled around a 12th century Good Friday tradition called the Tenebrae, which means the service of shadows. This will be a responsive reflection on Christ’s last moments, His abandonment by His disciples and will end with His last words on the cross. As we progress through the night, candles will be extinguished to illustrate the loneliness and the darkness that faced Jesus’ soul as His followers abandoned Him and as He faced becoming the sacrifice for our sins.

It’s okay to be wrong about some elements of our faith, because right thinking doesn’t save us. What saves us is our trust in God who stands outside the realm of human understanding and reason… We don’t want to trust our beliefs rather than trusting God…

Sin is ultimately a lack of love, either for God or for your neighbour. Augustine borrowed this thought from Jesus, who when He was asked what the most important law was, answered: Mt. 22:37-40, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Or as Augustine summarizes, “The essence of sin is disordered love.”

If humanity, because of the shame of sin, is inclined to run away from God instead of towards Him… And if some people are never given a fair shake on whether to listen and obey or reject Him… It is necessary for us to trust that a JUST JUDGE will alone decide whether someone is worthy of eternal life or worthy of judgement.

In medieval art, Jesus’ descent to the dead was called the “Harrowing of Hell.” It was often pictured in art as Jesus breaking through the doors of hell dragging Adam and Eve with Him…

Jesus lived within this honour-shame culture, but instead of conforming to its expectations, He redefined honour, shame, and status in His Kingdom. His teachings and actions challenged traditional honour systems and offered a new way of seeing human worth… One based on God's grace rather than societal recognition.

For the Early Church, the comma between the birth and death of Jesus in the Apostle’s Creed wasn’t an oversight - it was assumed that the Church was laid on the foundation of the life and teaching of Jesus. However, that same assumption can't be made over the past 2000 years of church history. The church has, at many times, abandoned the simple teaching and ethics of Jesus and has exchanged it for theological or philosophical truth about Jesus. For us it is wise to focus on the comma and repeatedly return to the life and teaching of Jesus to keep us centred on what matters.

"There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God, and counterclaimed by Satan." - C.S. Lewis