Sun and temple and Alpha
13 November 2016
As we come to the end of the liturgical year, the darker tone of the readings this week match well the international mood after the results of the presidential election in the US. The images are rich and evocative, and require us to unpack them a little. We begin with the image of the sun -…
Living Simply 4 – Today Matters
6 November 2016
Season of Growth, Series, Year C
In the Gospel today (Luke 20:27-38), a group of Sadducees (the only mention in the Gospel of Luke) come to Jesus with a question, involving a bizarre scenario about seven unfortunate brothers and their common childless wife. Although the context of the resurrection of the dead is presumed, Jesus doesn’t complete the argument, leaving it…
Little Zacchaeus
30 October 2016
Radio Program, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
Before I begin this gospel reflection, there is one thing that you should know about me: I am not height challenged – in fact I am much more likely to be asked to move out of the way so that others standing in a crowd behind me are able to see the action. So the…
Living Simply 3
23 October 2016
Season of Growth, Series, Year C
In order to be able to live simply, sometimes a bit of perspective is going to be helpful – so we need to go on a journey today into the vastness of the universe – which scientists just last week announced was even bigger than previously known. Gospel reflection Unless we are in the legal…
Living Simply 2
15 October 2016
Season of Growth, Series, Year C
“In a few hundred years, when the history of our time will be written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time – literally – substantial and…
Living Simply 1
9 October 2016
Season of Growth, Series, Year C
When you look at the Gospels and the ministry of Jesus, there are many things that strike you. But one thing that is not present is any sense of Jesus being distracted and worried about so many things all happening at once. Somehow he manages to keep this focus on the thing that is happening…
Fanning the flame of faith
2 October 2016
Is there anything better than a blazing log fire on a cold winter’s morning? Clearly the answer is no – but what is better is if someone else gets the fire going for you – especially when you are a little child and you have no clue as to how to get a fire going….
Being Good Stewards
18 September 2016
The parable that Jesus tells today (Luke 16:1-13) is a very odd kind of story – one that has perplexed people across the generations. Does he really praise the astuteness of the steward for doing something at least immoral, if not illegal, in the final stages of his term as the steward for the rich man?…
Lost & Found
11 September 2016
We read the whole of the fifteenth chapter of Luke’s gospel today – which begins with this description of the annoyance of the religious types that Jesus was mixing with the wrong kinds of people – the tax collectors and sinners. In response, Jesus offers these three beautiful parables – the last two of which…
Towers, Armies and Mission
4 September 2016
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
Jesus is somewhat uncharacteristic today as he tries to win friends and influence the crowds by declaring that they will not be worthy to be his followers and disciples unless we hate the most significant people in our lives, including ourselves, take up our cross – which means to prepare to die – and give…
A tale of two mountains
28 August 2016
Bible, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
The wonderful reading from Hebrews 12 today (second reading) may pass us by, because it presumes that we have a good understanding of the rest of the book, as well as Jewish history, geography, scripture and the Jerusalem temple. It probably doesn’t help that the name of the first mountain is not even given in…
Are you saved?
21 August 2016
The Gospel today begins with our first reminder since the end of chapter nine, that Jesus is continuing to teach and minister along the road towards his suffering and death in the city of Jerusalem. Someone asks a question: Will there only be a few who are saved? Now that is a good question, if ever…
Jarred awake
13 August 2016
Radio Program, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
If your image of Jesus is of Mr Nice Guy, always meek and mild, then the Gospel today will come as a massive shock. In the Gospel, from Luke chapter 12, verses 49-53, there doesn’t seem to be a hint of gentle Jesus, or even nice Jesus, but instead a wholesale picture of family feuding…
Treasures of standing ready
6 August 2016
Only faith… We have a selection from the magnificent reflection on faith that is Hebrews chapter 11. Today we hear the stories of Abraham and Sarah, who trusted in a God who they barely knew to set out for a land that they did not know, among a people that they did not know, trusting…
Building Bigger Barns
31 July 2016
One of the interesting characteristics of the Hebrew language is that it has a relatively small vocabulary – especially in comparison to English. It is also a very concrete, practical language, with very few words that are merely conceptual. So when it comes time to try and describe something that is more abstract, Hebrew has…
Prayer 101 – 2 Beginning to Pray
24 July 2016
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Series, Teaching, Year C
We are invited deeply into relationship with a God who as a good father wants to give good gifts to all of his children – and especially the gift of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was a little child, as was the tradition at the time, his mother Mary would have taught him how to…
Prayer 101 – Learning to Pray
17 July 2016
Season of Growth, Series, Year C
In today’s gospel, we see Jesus arriving at the house of Martha, who in good near eastern tradition is very attentive to the hospitality of Jesus. But when Martha’s sister Mary is able to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to him while he taught, Martha remains distracted by all the serving. Mary…
Discipleship 4 – Moved by compassion
9 July 2016
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
Arriving at the fourth part of this series on being disciples of Jesus, we are given the provocative question by a lawyer – what must I do to inherit the life of the age to come? True to form, Jesus does not provide a direct answer, but instead asks a question – what does the…
Discipleship 3 – Moments of Conversion
3 July 2016
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Series, Teaching, Year C
Jesus today sends out the larger group of his followers to become disciples – those who have learnt from the master and now share in his mission to proclaim that the kingdom of God has drawn near. It is this passage of scripture (Luke 10:1-9) that was the inspiration for the new logo for the…
Discipleship 2 – Following Jesus
25 June 2016
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Series, Teaching, Year C
Discipleship 2. Called to follow Jesus Jesus sets his face resolutely towards Jerusalem (Luke 9:51) The kingdom of God: We are called to follow A time of Social unrest • Violence by Roman soldiers • High taxation • Tensions within the Jewish community • The Jewish people had returned from exile God would become King…
Discipleship 1 – Who is Jesus?
19 June 2016
Discipleship, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year C
Discipleship: The path to knowing and following Jesus The question Today in the Gospel (Luke 9:18-24), Jesus asks these 2 questions: Who do the crowds say that I am? Who do you say that I am? Peter answers: The anointed of God How do we answer this question? How would you describe your lived relationship…
Oily Mercy – revisiting the mercy movement
11 June 2016
When I read this Gospel, from Luke chapter 7, verses 36-50, of the anointing of Jesus by a sinful woman, two very vivid images come to mind, evoked by two songs. The first is the old song ‘Beautiful to Me’ by Don Francisco, which in his style is a powerful retelling of this story, told from…
Compassion raises the dead
5 June 2016
Season of Growth, Solemnity, Year C
This seventh chapter of the Gospel of Luke begins with two stories of healing: the first is the healing of the Centurion’s slave; the second is our gospel story today – the raising from the dead of the son of a widow in the town of Nain. In the first story the healing comes at the…
Feeding the hungry
29 May 2016
Discipleship, Solemnity, Teaching
One of the things that might first strike us about the readings that are presented to us for our reflection on this Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, is that we are not given the account of the last supper from the Gospel of Luke. Instead we are given the only account in…
The Trinity and Whole Thinking
22 May 2016
One of the great difficulties that we face in the western church in attempting to appreciate the gift and mystery of the Holy Trinity is the fact that so much of our thinking and even our whole conceptual framework is formed by Greek thinking and the three laws of Greek logic as given to us…
Hope of New Creation 4 – Building for the kingdom at Pentecost
15 May 2016
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Series, Solemnity, Teaching
One of the things that strikes me about the celebration of Pentecost, are its Jewish roots. When the disciples met in the upper room on that day, they almost certainly would have reflected upon the passages of Exodus 19 and 20 which detail the events around the arrival of the Hebrew nation at Mount Sinai,…
Hope of New Creation 3 – Heaven and Paradise
8 May 2016
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Series, Teaching
On this feast of the Ascension, we ponder the event of Jesus ascending into heaven as told in the Lukan literature – the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. The other synoptic Gospels do not record the event at all, and John only hints at it by telling Mary of Magdala that…
Hope of New Creation 2 – Purgatory and Hell
1 May 2016
Moving into the second week of this series, we need to look at the question of what happens in the moment of death and the personal judgement that each person receives before God. What are the possible options regarding our judgement, what are the possible destinations, and how long does the process of purification take…
Hope of New Creation 1 – A new heaven and a new earth
26 April 2016
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Series, Teaching
With Revelation 21 being the second reading for the next two weeks moving into Ascension and Pentecost, it seemed like the appropriate time to begin a new teaching series on the Hope of New Creation. So over the next four weeks, we will explore the nature of Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, Paradise, Resurrection and the Last…
Shepherd as radical disciple
17 April 2016
Discipleship, Easter, Seasons, Teaching
The image of the shepherd as a symbol for God’s leadership and pastoral care of his people occurs at various places across the Hebrew scriptures, most famously in the Shepherd Psalm, number 23. It has also taken a significant hold on the Christian imagination. Some of the most popular pictures of Jesus are those that…