Monday Missive - Father Dave's Blog

Live without Fear!

By Father Dave / Monday Missive / Leave a Comment / June 21, 2024

“O ye of little faith”, Jesus says to His disciples when they shake with fear. We normally think of doubt as the opposite of faith, but Jesus’ words suggest that for Him the opposite of faith was fear, and that if you genuinely have faith, you won’t be afraid of anything. Is it really possible to live without fear and, if it is possible, do we really want to live that way? Doesn’t fear play a positive role in keeping us safe? Think this through with me.

About Father Dave Smith

Preacher, Pugilist, Activist, Father of four

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Jesus’ most Boring Parable

By Father Dave / Monday Missive / Leave a Comment / June 15, 2024

We do the work. We plant the seeds. We water. We tend. We do whatever we need to do, and we wait. “But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” (Mark 4:29)

About Father Dave Smith

Preacher, Pugilist, Activist, Father of four

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The Unforgiveable Sin!

By Father Dave / Monday Missive / Leave a Comment / June 8, 2024

Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin

About Father Dave Smith

Preacher, Pugilist, Activist, Father of four

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It’s a Spiritual War!

By Father Dave / Monday Missive / Leave a Comment / June 1, 2024

Jesus has no credentials, and he was not a member of any of their parties or organisations. Jesus was not a Pharisee or a Sadducee or a Herodian or … anything. He was just Jesus, and yet he was making all the official representatives of God and the State look stupid. No wonder they wanted to kill him!

About Father Dave Smith

Preacher, Pugilist, Activist, Father of four

It’s a Spiritual War! Read More »

Whosoever believes!

By Father Dave / Monday Missive / Leave a Comment / May 25, 2024

Saint Athanasius did complicate things. I believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, and I believe it was an important step forward in helping us understand how we can authentically speak about God. Even so, I don’t believe embracing the faith is as difficult as the Athanasian Creed suggests.

About Father Dave Smith

Preacher, Pugilist, Activist, Father of four

Whosoever believes! Read More »

The Violence begins at Home

By Father Dave / Monday Missive / Leave a Comment / May 17, 2024

Change will always generate friction. What Jesus warns us in this week’s Gospel reading is that we can expect this opposition to begin from within our own ranks. That has certainly been my experience. I’ve never had any problems with ‘ioudaios’ (which was John’s tribe). Those who have done me damage have almost all been white Anglican Christians (my tribe). That’s how it works

About Father Dave Smith

Preacher, Pugilist, Activist, Father of four

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It's never too late to stand up for Palestine

Get a Life!

By Father Dave / Monday Missive / Leave a Comment / May 10, 2024

one thing I’ve found that all of us who struggle have in common is that none of us have a lot of confidence in ourselves, nor a lot of hope for the future. I can see Saint John here taking each of us by the hand and saying, “Hey, if you have the Son of God, you have eternal life! That’s enough. You’ve made it! The Son is all you need.”

About Father Dave Smith

Preacher, Pugilist, Activist, Father of four

Get a Life! Read More »

My Enemy is my Guest

By Father Dave / Monday Missive / Leave a Comment / May 4, 2024

“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” (Acts 10:47) Greetings, Fighter, You’ll have to forgive me if our opening verse today looks a lot like last week’s. Our stories from the Acts of the Apostles are following the explosive growth of the early Christian community and

About Father Dave Smith

Preacher, Pugilist, Activist, Father of four

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If they move, Baptise them!

By Father Dave / Monday Missive / 2 Comments / April 27, 2024

“If they move, baptise them. If they don’t, bury them.” That’s been my policy for the last 35 years when it comes to admitting people into our spiritual community. What? Shouldn’t we have some standards? If we allow the riff-raff in, what will become of us? Perhaps that’s where the church went wrong? Perhaps I need to be more discriminating?

About Father Dave Smith

Preacher, Pugilist, Activist, Father of four

If they move, Baptise them! Read More »

Good Shepherding

By Father Dave / Monday Missive / Leave a Comment / April 19, 2024

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11) Greetings, Fighter, It’s Shepherding Sunday again this weekend – that day when we sing everybody’s favourite Psalm. Even those of us who know nothing about sheep or shepherding can manage to bleat out a verse of ”The Lord’s my shepherd”, so let’s

About Father Dave Smith

Preacher, Pugilist, Activist, Father of four

Good Shepherding Read More »