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Clay Nelson © 7 April 2019

Sometimes a sermon just won’t behave. It refuses to accept its fifteen minutes of fame are over and go quietly into that dark night with a whimper. Last week’s sermon insists on being chewed on and savoured but never swallowed. It prefers to haunt the recesses of my mind demanding, not closure so I can move on unchanged, but discomfort, daring me to move forward into a deeper understanding of who I am. I want to scream at it to go to its room, “bang the door if you like, but go.” I need some respite from all the uncomfortable questions the tragedy in Christchurch has wrought like a snow globe vigorously shaken. “Too bad,” the cheeky sermon taunts me. “You will have no peace of mind until I give you a piece of mine.” And so, it goes. I relent. Last week’s sermon has reclimbed the pulpit, to tell us, “Ahem, let us do go on.”

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Clay Nelson © 31 March 2019

When I was about six (that would’ve been about 1955) something happened that had a profound effect on me. We were visiting for the summer with my grandparents. One evening at the dinner table, my grandfather (born in 1895) went into a tirade about anyone who was not a white straight person, using every reprehensible, but common smear to describe each. Since I had not learned what that hate language even meant yet, I was not shocked. What shocked me was the fury my mother (born in 1925) directed at her father. She made it perfectly clear he was never to use such language in front of her children again. I doubt if it changed his 19th century views, but it left an indelible mark on me.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Clay Nelson © 10 March 2019

Last Friday was International Women’s Day. What better example of persistence is there than women resisting the dehumanising evils of patriarchy for over 5000 years?

As an example, I offer Senator Elizabeth Warren, a senator from Massachusetts who is currently seeking the Democratic nomination for president. Two years ago, she was a fervent opponent of President Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Opening Words include Fate vs free will by A Thomas Hawkins

Clay Nelson © 3 March 2019

When recently selecting topics for my March talks I was intrigued by historian Yuval Harari’s subtitle to Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, the sequel to his book Homo Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. The downside is I would have to read it first in a hurry. I wasn’t disappointed as it ticked my boxes for a good read: it was well written, it was entertaining, I learned lots of things, and it made me think critically. What I wasn’t prepared for were the chilling possibilities he laid out for the future of human beings. To my mind it makes 1984 and Animal Farm larks in the park suitable for bedtime reading to children.