New Creation
Life, death, hands, feet, bodies and couches
6 November 2010
Now that our journey with Jesus to Jerusalem has finally reached its climax in the triumphant entry into the city, the tension only continues to increase. Likewise, as the liturgical year rapidly draws to a close, the church this week offers readings that invite us to reflect on what happens to us – and very…
Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem
29 August 2010
In the liturgy of this 22nd Sunday (Year C), we are given an insight into exactly what is really happening when we gather for the Eucharist, with this magnificent reading from the book of Hebrews. All that we see around us, as rich and as beautiful as it usually is, is only a glimpse of…
The same power
16 May 2010
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
Ascension Sunday (Year C) | Eph 1:15-23; Luke 24:46-53; Acts 1:1-11 I had my washed car yesterday – at one of those automatic car washes. When the weather is a bit warmer, I like taking it through the do-it-yourself section, so that I can play with the power hoses! It is amazing the difference that…
Everything is spiritual in the city of God
2 May 2010
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
Fifth Sunday in Easter (Year C). Sometimes we get caught in the idea that there are spiritual moments in our lives (when we are in Church; praying; reading Scripture; listening to music or whenever) and all the rest is just secular and to some extent doesn’t count. But that’s not the story of the Scriptures….
Every nation, tribe, people and tongue
25 April 2010
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
Fourth Sunday in Easter (Year C) – Commemoration of Anzac Day. In the reading from the book of Revelation, John the Divine has this vision of an immense crowd – impossible to count – of people from every nation, tribe, people and language who have all been through the persecution / tribulation and have had…
What resurrection means for the world (Easter Sunday)
4 April 2010
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
We celebrate that moment in human history when the stone was rolled away. A sign and symbol of the separation that exists between life and death. A grave-robber had come – but it was God the Father who had acted in human history to defeat death. Death is our greatest fear and worry – human…
Building the kingdom with Christ the King
21 November 2009
New Creation, Season of Growth, Solemnity, Teaching, Year B
Sunday 34 in the Season of the Year – Feast of Christ the King (B) Sometimes, especially when we live in a Constitutional Monarchy like we do in Australia, and we have strong democratic beliefs – and perhaps even more so if we are republicans – the idea of celebrating Christ as King can seem…
View from a high place
12 July 2009
15th Sunday – Year B – The view from on high (Ephesians 1:3-14) I am going on holidays in the middle of August to the United States. I haven’t been there before, so I have been looking around at various maps, trying to work out my itinerary. I have been using Google Maps to work…
Not dead but asleep
28 June 2009
Sunday 13B (Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24; Mark 5:21-34) Our first reading today begins with that rather curious line – ‘death was not God’s doing.’ It points to what is in fact the teaching of the Church about death. When we read in the account of creation, in Genesis 1-3, we get the sense that in the…
The resurrection body
26 April 2009
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
Easter 3 (Year B) In Luke’s Gospel (24:35-48) we see the disciples gathered together, sharing stories of their encounters with the risen Lord – but still without the foggiest idea what it all means. One wonders whether we have a much better idea, even after 20 centuries of theological and spiritual reflection. Jesus seems to…
Hope of New Creation 5
31 March 2009
The final session in this 5-week course. Building for the kingdom of God – we look at putting the great hope that new creation theology offers us into practice by looking at the areas of justice, beauty and evangelisation. (25’17”) Play MP3
Hope of New Creation – 4 (part 2)
26 March 2009
In the second part of the fourth session, we turn to consider the nature of Paradise (or heaven) and how we can begin to understand how a loving God allows the existence of a place that is beyond hope and beyond pity – hell. (12’19”) Play MP3
Hope of New Creation – 4 (part 1)
26 March 2009
In this first part of the fourth session, we consider the vexed question of Purgatory, drawing from the insights of Pope Benedict in his 2007 encyclical Spe Salvi. (12’49”) Play MP3
Hope of New Creation 3 (part 2)
20 March 2009
The third session of the Hope of New Creation. In the second part of this session we look at the nature of the redemption of our bodies. (15’06”) Play MP3
Hope of New Creation 3 (part 1)
18 March 2009
The third session of the Hope of New Creation. In this first part, we look at the Ascension of Jesus and what this mystery might mean for us – about absence and presence. Then we consider the Second Coming of Jesus and the often misunderstood idea of the ‘Rapture’. (14’31”) Play MP3
Hope of New Creation 2 (part 2)
13 March 2009
Day 2 in the Hope of New Creation series. Today we look at life after death in the first century and consider how the early Christians modified the understanding of resurrection that was already present in second-Temple Judaism. Then we turn to the Gospels and examine a number of hypotheses that have been offered as…
Hope of New Creation 2 (part 1)
13 March 2009
Day 2 in the Hope of New Creation series. Today we look at life after death in the first century and consider how the early Christians modified the understanding of resurrection that was already present in second-Temple Judaism. Then we turn to the Gospels and examine a number of hypotheses that have been offered as…
The Hope of New Creation
8 March 2009
What on earth are we doing for heaven’s sake? What is the significance of the resurrection of Jesus for our lives today. What happens when we die? What do we hope for after death? Is heaven the ultimate destination, our final ‘home’? Often our vision of heaven, the way that we imagine it, looks so…
Chaos and Covenant
1 March 2009
Lent, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
Lent – Sunday 1B. Understanding the world-view of the People of God is crucial to understanding the Scriptures. We imagine that we understand how the world works, having a post-Enlightenment, post-Industrial Revolution and post-modern world-view. Yet, perhaps we are beginning to see that the world and the environment is not quite as easy to control…
Baptism of the Lord
11 January 2009
In the ministry of John the Baptist, the son of the priest Zechariah, we see the ritual washing (the mikvah) take on a new significance, as a sign of God’s new work of creation. Now the presence of God will not be confined to the temple – the curtain in the temple that separated the…
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