Caro reads this passage verse by verse with a curiosity and an appreciation of the masterpiece of the Gospel of John.

We read the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey and consider how it was an act of political street theatre. A subversive way that Jesus models a different kind of power. Caro then invites us to keep imagining ways we can live the alternate way of Jesus, and we look at the lives of three different followers of Jesus to see how they lived out the upside down kingdom of God.

In this episode, Oran looks at Moral Influence Atonement theory, one of the 7 prime theories acknowledged by the church over the course of Christianity. Within this message, Oran briefly looks at the history and purpose of Moral Influence Theory, and discusses the resurgence in its relevance in today's day and age.

Becca shares out of James Cone’s book how through the horrific period of lynchings in America’s history, Black Christians saw in their own suffering Christ crucified with them. Becca connects this perspective with all those who have been oppressed and brutalised through history, especially here in our own context, the past and present injustices done to Indigenous Australians.

Music: 'He was Numbered Among the Lawless' Steve Schallert

Caro looks at a quote from Plato written 300 years before Christ which said that if ever a truly righteous man was to walk the earth, he would be deemed unrighteous then tortured and killed. Caro uses this to reflect on humanity’s tendency to always stuff things up, and the cross as God’s response: forgiveness, grace, love and mercy.

Oran chats about how hospitality and community are expressions of God’s kingdom and how we attempt to live them out at Central. We then wrestle together with how introversion, church trauma, burn out and Covid have affected how we practice these.

Carol talks some more of our values at Central, more specifically around how we hold our theology and how we work for justice.

Through February, we’re going to be looking at some values we hold dear at Central and Caro begins by looking at our value of developing a deep and robust spiritual life. At Central we believe that each of us is responsible for our own spiritual life and that involves sending our roots down deep into the rich depths of our faith tradition and opening wide to become places of refuge and life for others.

We look at the gospel text for this Sunday, the baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3 and Caro shares some reflections on what the baptism of Jesus might reveal to us about the nature of God, and she invites us to remember our own baptism and the way God first wooed our hearts.

Caro looks at the life of Mary and the ways in which we can see wisdom for the spiritual life and how Jesus regularly does unexpected things that invite Mary to change and grow.