The Messy Middle | Scripture For Real Life

This week's lectionary reading gave me just one verse. One! But Ezekiel 33:11 has turned out to be a surprisingly moving exploration of sin, shame, repentance and the extraordinary love of God.

The people of Israel are overwhelmed by their wrongdoing, trapped in its consequences and struggling to see a way forward. And God's response sounds to me less like a threat and more like the impassioned plea of a father who desperately wants his children to live.

In this episode, I'm questioning the Christian culture surrounding sin, exploring repentance as a change of direction, and considering how justice, mercy and accountability work together.

Because sometimes recognising that something needs to change is the easy part. Believing that change is actually possible is quite another.

Welcome to The Messy Middle.

What do taxes, Roman emperors, political leaders and our obsession with being busy have in common?

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

In Matthew 22:15–22, the Pharisees and Herodians try to trap Jesus with a question about paying taxes to Caesar. But his response raises questions that go far beyond money and politics.

If Caesar's image is stamped on a coin, and humanity is made in God's image, what does that tell us about who we belong to?

This week, I'm exploring the difference between earthly responsibility and worship, the uncomfortable ways idolatry can creep into modern life, and how we can participate fully in the world without allowing it to define us.

Because if everything ultimately belongs to God, what exactly are we supposed to give to Caesar?

Join me in The Messy Middle as we wrestle with scripture, question our assumptions and remember that we don't have to have all the answers.

Scripture: Matthew 22:15–22

Isaiah 25 is a song of thanksgiving written right into the middle of a messy world.

It speaks of refuge, shelter, tears, death, salvation and a banquet prepared for all people. Not just the polished people. Not the respectable ones. Not the ones who seem to have faith all figured out.

All people.

In this episode, I’m reflecting on what it means to be thankful in the mess without pretending the mess is good, why God’s table leaves no room for the hierarchies we create, and how this beautiful piece of poetry reaches forward to Jesus, resurrection and the promise that one day every tear will be wiped away.

You do not have to earn your seat.

You are invited.

Based on Isaiah 25:1–9.

Remember the seagulls from Finding Nemo? Mine! Mine! Mine! It turns out they’re a surprisingly accurate representation of the human condition.

In this episode of The Messy Middle, we’re exploring the Parable of the Wicked Tenants and what happens when we start treating the things God has entrusted to us as though they belong to us.

From our treatment of creation to church culture, religious gatekeeping, material possessions and our own inner Pharisees, we’re asking some uncomfortable questions about stewardship, entitlement and the things we hold a little too tightly.

Because it’s easy to point fingers at the religious leaders in Jesus’ parable, but how often do we find ourselves behaving like the landlords of a vineyard we were only ever asked to tend?

Perhaps following Jesus means being less concerned with protecting our stuff and more concerned with the condition of our hearts.

The vineyard was never ours. But how we tend it? That’s on us.

📖 This week’s reading: Matthew 21:33–46

What does fear sound like when it comes from a place of scarcity?

In Exodus 17, the Israelites have already seen God provide — and yet when the season changes and there is no water, fear becomes the loudest voice in the room.

In this episode of The Messy Middle, I’m reflecting on doubt, trust, desert seasons, Christian judgement, and the difference between hearing someone’s fear as rebellion and meeting it with compassion.

Because yesterday’s manna does not quench today’s thirst.

And maybe faith is not always having complete certainty. Maybe sometimes it is continuing to ask, “Are you still here?” while trusting that God is holding, guiding, loving and calling us even when we cannot see it clearly.

What happens when God’s generosity doesn’t follow the rules we would have written?

In Matthew 20:1–16, Jesus tells a story that challenges our ideas about fairness, effort, deserving and worth. We live in a world that is constantly measuring us by what we produce, achieve and contribute — and sometimes those same scoreboards creep into faith too.

This episode is about grace, comparison, good works, and the strange, topsy-turvy values of the kingdom of God.

Because salvation is not a wage.

Love is not earned.

Worth is not productivity.

And love has no leaderboard.

The Messy Middle is a space for the parts of faith that don’t always fit neatly into a caption, a soundbite or a simple answer.

What do we do with the parts of our story that were genuinely bad?

In Genesis 50, Joseph looks back at everything his brothers did to him and says: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.”

But that does not mean the harm was secretly good.

In this episode of The Messy Middle, I’m reflecting on Joseph’s story, the danger of turning pain into a Christian cliché, and the difference between saying “God needed this to happen” and believing that even the worst parts of our lives are not beyond redemption.

Sometimes the silver lining is obvious.

Sometimes it is barely there.

Sometimes all we can say is: I don’t know what this becomes yet.

The bad thing was still bad. But it did not get the final word.

Genesis 50:15–21

What do you do when someone you love has hurt you? Do you say something, let it go, set a boundary, try again… and what happens when they still won’t listen?

In this episode of The Messy Middle, I’m reading Matthew 18:15–20 and thinking about conflict, accountability, forgiveness and the very human mess of trying to repair relationships.

We’ll look at why Jesus tells us to go to someone privately first, what “you have regained that one” might reveal about the real goal of confrontation, why Matthew writing about “tax collectors” is slightly ironic, and what “where two or three are gathered” looks like when you read it in the middle of a passage about broken relationships.

Because loving someone doesn’t always mean pretending everything is fine, forgiveness doesn’t always restore trust, and sometimes reconciliation simply isn’t something we can achieve on our own.

But Jesus never promises to keep us out of those uncomfortable messy middles. He promises to be there with us in them.

Who even am I to do this?

It’s the question Moses asks when God calls him from the burning bush—and, if I’m honest, it’s a question I ask every time I sit down with a Bible and a microphone.

In this episode of The Messy Middle, we’re reading Exodus 3:1–15 and reflecting on holy ground in ordinary places, the God who calls us by name while knowing our entire history, and what happens when our “Who am I?” meets God’s “I AM.”

God doesn’t answer Moses with a motivational speech or convince him that he’s secretly more impressive than he thinks. He simply says, “I will be with you.”

Perhaps we don’t need to feel completely qualified before we show up. Perhaps we just need to remember who is going with us.

The Messy Middle is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Substack.

This week in The Messy Middle, we’re reading Romans 12:1–8 and thinking about what it actually means to offer our lives to God.

Not some future, more polished version of ourselves. Not the person we think we should be. The life we have now.

We talk about transformation, individuality, discipleship, the body of Christ, different gifts, and what it might look like to be Jesus’ hands and feet in ordinary life.

Because becoming more like Christ doesn’t mean becoming less like yourself. And being part of one body doesn’t mean you have to be everything.

Sometimes we look at our lives and think, “This is all I’ve got.”

Maybe the invitation is to hear that differently.

This is all you’ve got.

So what are you going to do with it?