Jesus goes home
8 July 2018
Ready for some bible trivia? We read in the gospel of Matthew 2:23 that Jesus made his home in a town called Nazareth. This was to fulfil we’re told what “the prophets” had spoken, that “He will be a Nazarene.” Yet, the small village that Jesus grew up in, Nazareth, did not even exist during the period…
Don’t be afraid – just have faith
1 July 2018
Do you remember the exact moment when you fell asleep last night? I’m not sure that I do, but I do know that the feeling of slowly drifting off to sleep is rather wonderful. In the Gospel today we have these two healing stories that the author Mark binds together so closely that you need…
Wild Man
24 June 2018
John the Baptist is a great figure. His birth around six months before the birth of Jesus is worthy of celebration. John is an enigmatic figure – yet worthy of honour. He is a wild man with a deep passion for the way of God and a desire to see the kingdom of God break…
Seeds and Growth
17 June 2018
As Jesus has wandered around Galilee preaching about the Kingdom of God, he has been receiving very mixed responses and reactions. In the light of this, he begins to teach the crowds in parables about growth. The two that we have today are very similar and closely linked to the everyday experience of the people…
Strong Friends
9 June 2018
You know that things are not going well when everyone is so busy and that so many people gathered that Jesus and his disciples could not find time to eat. But perhaps it is a bit of a stretch to jump to the conclusion that the wider family of Jesus does – ‘he’s out of…
Living Festival
2 June 2018
Season of Growth, Solemnity, Year B
Think back to the last time that you celebrated with friends or family some significant occasion. Was it a special birthday, an engagement party, graduation or wedding? The desire to mark such a special occasion with a meal is a deeply human and spiritual instinct. So much happens when we gather together and are bound more…
Gathered and Sent
27 May 2018
Season of Growth, Solemnity, Year B
The Church gathers the community together today and reminds us of the mission that we receive through our belief in the Trinitarian God. Like the disciples who had scattered during the passion of Jesus, we are gathered to worship – even if some distazo – the word that Matthew uses to describe the doubt of…
One Holy Nation
20 May 2018
Today is the feast of Pentecost. A powerful, but strange collection of images surround us. Tongues of fire; strange languages; Cretans; mighty winds; thunder; lightning; holy Spirit gifts; smoke … and more. The word Pentecost comes from the Greek language, where it simply means the ‘fiftieth’ day. It is the name for a Jewish feast, which in…
Ascension as Presence
14 May 2018
Our Gospel today for the Ascension of the Lord, is taken from what is called the longer ending to Mark’s gospel. Verses 9-20 of Mark 16 were added by another scribe or author who didn’t like the abrupt original ending of the gospel in verse 8. This author wants us to know certain things about…
Choice Love
6 May 2018
Sometimes there are passages of scripture that continue to leap out of the pages of the bible (or as is usually the case for me – to jump off the screen). This section of John’s Gospel is one of those – and it has been for some thirty years. You may have had some kind…
Remain
29 April 2018
The image of the vine was very significant across the history of Israel. It is used as a symbol of all that was good about Israel – the fruitfulness and capacity to enjoy life in all its fullness – but also of all that had gone wrong across her history. For example in Psalm 80,…
The Story understood
15 April 2018
Jesus appears to the disciples today, joined by the two disciples who have been transformed by their journey to the village of Emmaus (Luke 24). He appears as quickly and easily inside the locked room as he disappeared as they recognised him in the breaking of the bread. Just as Jesus had explained to Cleopas…
Faith and Community (Divine Mercy)
7 April 2018
Doubt. Belief. Fear. Peace. Joy. Sending. Breath. Spirit. Sins forgiven. So much happens when the young church is gathered and huddled behind locked doors trying to make sense of all that has happened over these days. All of this happens on that same day, the evening of the first day of the week – Sunday….
Empty tomb and Hineni
1 April 2018
The ending of the Gospel of Mark is very intriguing. There are no stirring words, no great commission, no story of faith to motivate belief and response. Only a rather dark and foreboding conclusion: And the women came out and ran away from the tomb because they were frightened out of their wits; and they…
Empty tomb and exile ended
1 April 2018
The ending of the Gospel of Mark is very intriguing. There are no stirring words, no great commission, no story of faith to motivate belief and response. Only a rather dark and foreboding conclusion: And the women came out and ran away from the tomb because they were frightened out of their wits; and they…
It is finished
1 April 2018
The Commemoration of the Passion of Jesus in the Gospel of John is very different to the other gospels. Although it is brutal and heart-breaking, Jesus is always in control of his destiny and he exerts a regal air over all that he interacts with. In contrast to the Gospel of Mark that we heard…
Called in service and eucharistic love (Holy Thursday)
1 April 2018
One of the great privileges of having a month in Jerusalem last year was visiting many of the places that are associated with the final days in the life of Jesus. Stepping on the same ground that Jesus had walked over, prayed in, wept in, offered his laments and called his disbelieving disciples deeper into…
Passion and Lament
25 March 2018
Wow. That was pretty intense. To read about all of that violence and hatred and to think that all of this happened to Jesus – of all people. Even people that really don’t know much about Jesus know that he was a great guy. He was innocent, and did all he could to love and…
Lamentations 3 – Anger and Hope
18 March 2018
Today we arrive at the centre and many would say the climax of the Book of Lamentations (Eka) – and the intensity of the grief and lamenting increases. A new character takes the stage with a new, more complex, and more interwoven story to tell. The voices of the Narrator and Daughter Zion vanish, to…
Lamentations 2 – Being Angry with God
11 March 2018
On this Laetare Sunday with its wonderful readings that focus our attention upon the rich, saving love of God, it is tempting to dwell with them for some time. But we will continue to reflect on this long-neglected book of Scripture, the book of Lamentations, which in Hebrew is called “Eka” – the Book of…
Learning to lament in a culture of denial – part 1
4 March 2018
We live in a world that loves being distracted. We so often suffer or grieve without knowing how to do it appropriately. When you attend a funeral in a western country, everything is very controlled and proper. Sometimes people will begin to sob with little control – but that is the exception. In other cultures,…
The Akedah Sacrifice of Isaac
25 February 2018
The bible is sometimes called the greatest love story ever told. But the word love is not used in the story of creation, or the flood, or any other story until this story today – often regarded as one of the finest examples of a short story in all or Western literature. In 19 short…
Wilderness
18 February 2018
We begin this new season of Lent by journeying with Jesus into the wilderness of temptation. The gospel today begins with Jesus being driven immediately into the wilderness of Israel – perhaps into the Judean desert, or into the southern desert of the Negev. Immediately refers to happening straight after the baptism of Jesus. It…
Isolation and Healing
11 February 2018
Jesus Heals a Man with Leprosy A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” Instantly the leprosy disappeared,…
Choose Good
3 February 2018
One of the great dangers of modern life is our obsession with proving how valuable we are. This is seen in the busyness with which we surround ourselves. Being “so busy” becomes this strange and perverted badge of honour. Even though Jesus may well have been extremely busy – and we see it very clearly…
Education Mass – darkness transformed by Jesus’s authority
29 January 2018
As we begin a new education year today, it is interesting that the readings of the day provide significant guidance. The first reading (from 2 Samuel 15-16) provides the odd description of David discovering that his son Absolom has now won over the majority of the people and was gathering troops against the King –…
Amazed and astonished at Authority
28 January 2018
Over the last few weeks during the readings from the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, we have heard of the first teaching and preaching of Jesus in his call to repentance because of the breaking in of the kingdom of God. Last Sunday we heard the call of the first four disciples. Today, Mark…
Call and Response
21 January 2018
Last Sunday we were invited by Jesus in the Gospel of John to “Come and See” and this week when we resume in the Gospel of Mark and hear the first words of Jesus in this Gospel, we are invited to “repent and believe the Good News” and to join with Jesus as he walks…
Come and See
14 January 2018
The first Gospel that we hear as we plunge back into the season of the year with Mark in year B is not from the Gospel of Mark, but from the first chapter of the Gospel of John (John 1:35-42). The Gospel opens with John seeing Jesus walking by and John declares to two of…
Mystery revealed
7 January 2018
The key to understanding what this feast day of the Epiphany is all about is not so much in the specific details of these strange visitors from the East coming to offer gifts and worship to the newborn king of Israel, but in the bigger picture of what these magi represent. We heard last Sunday…