Central Church Port Kembla

Because Covid is still disrupting ordinary life and our church gatherings in some ways, Caro created some short videos to communicate all kinds of church info for 2022 so that everybody could view or listen to it. This episode is the audio taken from those videos.

Caro carries on from last week, inviting us to look broader than the immediate so we can see the presence and activity of God in our lives, inviting us into faithful following and transformation.

Caro reflects on how her experience of lockdown caused her to be hyper-focused on the immediate, and how she came to realise the gift of discipleship is that we live with an awareness of the story God is writing in the world, and the story He is crafting in our lives – one with a beginning and a future that goes beyond all that we’re feeling, seeing and understanding in any given moment.

During lockdown Lynda has been prompted to think about her purpose...what is God doing in her life, and how she might outwork that in the world around her. Caro has a chat with Lynda about what she's been thinking, and together they reflect on how the ideas of 'calling' and 'purpose' have changed for them over the years, both personally and in church.

Caro leads us into some of the writings of Julian of Norwich and invites us into contemplation or a lectio divina of sorts. Contemplation starts at 15:40. Background music by Karl Verkade https://karlverkade.bandcamp.com/ Song used throughout episode is by David Benjamin Blower. You can hear more of his music at https://benjaminblower.bandcamp.com/ or https://davidbenjaminblower.com/ or wherever you stream music. Translation used of Julian of Norwich's work is by Mirabai Starr

Luke has a conversation with Linda and Ashleigh on how we live well leaning into lament and praise as we experience the highs and lows of life.

Oran shared some thoughts about our experience in lockdown and how we might connect that with the story of the Israelites in exile in Babylon.

This is a contemplation wrapped around Teresa of Avila's concept of our soul as an interior garden with God, the gardener at the centre. It finishes with a guided imaginative prayer exercise to create space for us to connect with God. Music by Chris De Souza https://desouzamusic.bandcamp.com/album/solastalgia and Karl Verkade https://karlverkade.bandcamp.com/album/bridge-ambient-pads-iii

Linda leads us in an examen based on a reflection originally created by Father Michael Sparough SJ.

Caro and Becca have a conversation with Irish poet Padraig O Tuama about the language and poetry of Genesis 1. Padraig is a poet, host of the Poetry Unbound podcast and has worked for many years in the area of reconciliation and conflict resolution.

Adam Gowen, our Wiradjuri friend, shares some thoughts on Genesis 1 drawing from his Indigneous heritage and learning.

Luke looks at the story of Zacchaeus through the lens of a spirituality of descent. Drawing on the insights of Meister Eckhart and others, Luke helps us to see the ways in which our culture and our egos celebrate achieving, success, and the insatiable thirst for more. All the ways we spend ‘climbing our trees’. He suggests that Jesus is always calling us down from our trees, and outlines what a spirituality of descent might look like in both our inner and outer world.

This week we read the encounter Jesus had with Zacchaeus through the lens of 12-step recovery programs, and specifically steps 8 and 9 which have to do with making amends.

In this episode Oran looks at the story of Zacchaeus through a narrative framework to discover more to this passage than just a Sunday School story.

Caro does a brief explanation of what the apophatic tradition is in theology and spirituality and then looks at how an apophatic reading of this text gives us space to face the unknown, the silence, the seeming absence and the mystery of God.

Becca shares how we can read this passage through the lens of mental health, drawing from her own experiences as well as John Swinton's book Finding Jesus in the storm: the spiritual lives of Christians with mental health challenges, she suggests how we can find hope that Jesus is still in our boat during any storms we're currently facing and beyond.

For the first sermon in our series on reading scripture through different lenses, Oran looks at the passage of Jesus calming the storm from a political view point.

This week Caro outlines what we’ll be focusing on as a church in our preaching this year.

In this episode Oran looks at the story of doubting Thomas and explores the role doubt has to play in our faith journey.

This week we look at the Cross through the lens of the scapegoat mechanism. Caro attempts to explain the imagery of the scapegoat in the Old Testament, unpack a little of Rene Girard's scapegoat theory as it related to human society, and then help us gaze at Jesus on the Cross and how he might be exposing and healing our compulsive need to pass blame.