Heaven
Resurrection Bodies
9 April 2023
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
First Reading ‡ Acts 10:34.36-43We have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 117:1-2.16-17.22-23This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. Second Reading (option 1) ‡ Colossians 3:1-4Look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is. Gospel ‡ John 20:1-9The…
Invitation to Paradise
20 November 2022
Season of Growth, Solemnity, Year C
The Solemnity of Jesus the Christ, the King of the Universe First Reading ‡ 2 Samuel 5:1-3 They anointed David king of Israel. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 121:1-5 Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord. Second Reading ‡ Colossians 1:12-20 He has taken us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Gospel ‡…
Resurrection Is (Easter Sunday)
17 April 2017
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching, Triduum
One of the limitations of celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus is that for so many people in the church, they still operate with a tri-part understanding of creation, even though they know that this is not the case in the physical universe or according to the laws of science and nature. So we still think…
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…
Ascended to be present
17 May 2015
When Jesus is described by the scriptures as ascending into heaven and clouds cover him to hide him from the eyes of the apostles who are standing and watching this spectacle dumbfounded, we are left clinging to a whole series of unhelpful categories to try to deal with this. So much of this is as…
Perfected in the paradise of purgatory (All Souls Day)
2 November 2014
When discussion turns to the last things – heaven, hell and purgatory – I am amazed how much of the discussion of such crucial questions in church circles is so muddy. We are talking about the destination for eternity – which most people know means a rather long time. In fact, we are more likely…
The Ascension, Jesus and Heaven in Western thought
1 June 2014
When we come to celebrate the Ascension of Jesus all manner of things can tend to get in the way. For a start, many people can overstate the literal details in the first reading today, from the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, what with all the information of Jesus being lifted up into…
Revealing New Creation
29 April 2013
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
Finally in the season of Easter we arrive at the end of the story with the final two chapters of the book of Revelation being the centrepiece of the liturgy this week and next (the second reading is in the middle/centre of the liturgy of the word). The vision that St John receives in Revelation…
Church rescued
21 April 2013
Bible, Easter, Seasons, Teaching
After these things I looked, and behold, a great crowd that no one was able to number, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes and with palm branches in their hands. Rev 7:9 [LEB] Two weeks ago I mentioned that our…
Heaven, Hell and God’s love
9 February 2013
Heaven, Hell and God’s love Presented over a two-day seminar, these workshops open up the theme of the place of the resurrection of Jesus in the life of Christians, considering what society teaches and understands about death and what happens after death. The seminar looks at the teaching of scripture and…
Coming to Mount Zion
7 February 2013
New Creation, Season of Growth, Teaching
In Hebrews 12 we arrive at what can be argued as the climax of the letter/document with a description of two mountains. The first, although unnamed, clearly refers to Mount Sinai and the place of the reception of the great covenant by Moses. The frightening scene is related powerfully – complete with a blazing fire,…
Life of the age to come
14 October 2012
This week we have commemorated the tenth anniversary of the tragic Bali bombings which commentators at the time and since have called Australia’s experience of 11 September 2001. Certainly those events that ushered in the so-called ‘age of terror’ have changed the way that we travel and our sense of security. In the universal church,…
Heaven, hell and God’s love
6 October 2012
This workshop was presented during the Ignite Conference 2012 – Awaken. It is in part a response to the book written by Rob Bell, called ‘Love Wins’ which was published in 2011. This is the description of the workshop: Rob Bell challenged the Church to rethink heaven and hell in his book Love Wins. This seminar…
Seated at the right hand of the Father
20 May 2012
The Feast of the Ascension can strike us a quite bizarre affair – especially to one who grew up on a diet of science-fiction and imagined that Jesus somehow managed to add flying and living outside of the atmosphere to his walking-on-water and multiplying food – as well as raising the dead and getting through…
Resurrected body
22 April 2012
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
One of the lovely things about the Gospel today (Luke 24:35-48) is that it deals with the nature of the resurrected body of Jesus and demonstrates that the disciples did not share the same drug-induced hypnotic experience, or simply remember the warm and fuzzy experiences of Jesus invoked by a vision of his ghost,…
The hope of the Lord’s coming
6 November 2011
New Creation, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year A
During the month of November, there is a tradition of remembering the dead and praying for them – particularly during the Eucharist. Our liturgy this Sunday provides an opportunity to reflect upon this practice in the light of the Lord’s coming and the judgement. When Paul writes his earliest letter, to the Thessalonians, he still…
Heaven and earth together
5 June 2011
The feast of the Ascension can be one of those feast days that seems utterly bizarre and irrelevant – it is so mythological and pre-scientific to border of pointless. Or if we can reclaim it somehow in our understanding of its place in the life of Jesus, we can still be left wondering what this…
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…
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…
The Acts of King Jesus
24 May 2009
Ascension of the Lord (Year B). Acts 1:1-11 Many movies that we watch are sequels – the follow up to an earlier story. One of the things we notice at the moment is there are movies that now take us back to the origins to tell us what happened ‘in the beginning’ (Star Wars, Star…
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