ORDINARY MIRACLES

Thank you, Jesus, for ordinary miracles, thanks for seasons and birds in a line.
We keep wanting escape to another place — you say this place is just fine.

Thank you, Jesus, for average humanity, thanks for making the people I know. When we're tired of our humble reality, come and drop in, say hello.

Some say you're up in the sky, in a cloud, but you put your feet on the ground.
Help us to love what we are,
being human — colour, action, sound!

Thank you, Jesus, you startle the centuries: stepping into our bloody affairs.
Your solution to so much calamity —
up on the hill in the air.

Thank you, Jesus, that life is a mystery; any moment's adrenalin time.
Lead us into the way to prosperity — you are the treasure we find.


Britpop — represented especially by groups like Oasis and Blur — was big when I wrote this. I was trying to write songs that would communicate with the younger crowd, thinking especially of our long-running student service at St Stephen’s. I was also preoccupied, in a more conscious way than previously, with what I perceive as escapist religion. Whether it be in traditional or modern dress, it always seems to be popular. One of the central pillars of Christianity is the incarnation of God as Jesus and the implications that follow. So although we may see God in extravagant religious experiences — and people continue to do so — Jesus reveals a God who is found in ‘ordinary miracles’.


 

ALWS 5/10/23

To say I've been inactive on my website is a serious understatement! I've written nothing here since early 2021. 

So, does this mean the world has stopped for us, that nothing is happening?
A major event for us in 2022 was moving house in October. We had been in Modbury Heights since July 1993.Now we're back in Klemzig.

In May we travelled to the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia, seeing work supported by Australian Lutheran World Service. Dorothy and I are Ambassadors for the ALWS programme, Lives You Touch. We are encouraging people to leave money in their will for the work of ALWS. We committed to leave a third of our will many years ago and hope many others can touch lives in this way.
Since then we have visited Box Hill & Loxton with Jonathan & Julie Krause as part of the Asante presentations, promoting the cause of ALWS. Still to come this year are Asante events in Toowoomba & Rochedale (Nov 26 & 27) and Perth (Dec 10)

Looking forward to seeing many people on these occasions.