Justice

Reflecting on Love, Grief, Loss, and Justice: A Journey Through Poetry, Prophecy, and Gospel Today’s sermon was a deep dive into the themes of love, grief, loss, and justice, as portrayed in love poetry, the writings of the prophet Isaiah, the psalm, and the gospel.  Love Poetry and the Prophet Isaiah: A Tale of Grief…

We are all very familiar with the Christmas story and the Christmas Gospel that we just read from the Luke 2. But in some ways the story is even more familiar than we think – and yet still radically different. For we all know stories that begin about the rich and famous. Our newspapers and…

We are all very familiar with the Christmas story and the Christmas Gospel that we just read from the Luke 2. But in some ways the story is even more familiar than we think – and yet still radically different. For we all know stories that begin about the rich and famous. Our newspapers and…

Sunday 26 in Year C First Reading ‡ Amos 6:1.4-7You who give yourself to licentiousness and revelry will be exiled.Responsorial ‡ Psalm 145:6-10Praise the Lord, my soul!Second Reading ‡ 1 Timothy 6:11-16Obey the commandments until the coming of the Lord.Gospel ‡ Luke 16:19-31During your life good things came your way just as bad things came…

Sunday 25, Year C First Reading ‡ Amos 8:4-7 The Lord God spoke against those who buy the poor for money. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 112:1-2.4-8 Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor. Second Reading ‡ 1 Timothy 2:1-8 Let prayers be offered to God for everyone; he wants all people to be saved. Gospel…

Sunday 23 in Year C As a child – I really didn’t think about slavery. Later, after studying a little history, I thought slavery no longer existed – but I was wrong! In fact – although estimates and exact definitions vary – there are more slaves in total now than in any period of human…

One of the great challenges in understanding a parable like the Good Samaritan is recapturing the original impact it would have had to those who first heard Jesus tell this short story. The first problem is that we are over familiar with the basic story. The second is that the word Samaritan has lost its…

We have been on a pilgrimage with the Gospel of Matthew this year & arrive at this scene marking the conclusion of the public ministry of Jesus. We are presented with Jesus the king announcing a final blessing upon all of those who have been a blessing for others throughout their life. They receive the…

In the forty or so parables that Jesus tells in the first three Gospels there are lots of twists and surprises along the way – but perhaps none is quite as perplexing as the one that we find in the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the unjust steward. It is…

The vision that the letter to the Hebrews paints today is certainly expansive. It is an image of the new creation where everyone is welcome and treated as a first-born son and citizen. After attending a forum at the University of Wollongong this week (in 2013) on Refugees, it became even more apparent how far…

‡ Week one – Overview 1.    What it isn’t Mercy is not: Condoning what they did. If they did something that was wrong, then that is not okay. Waiting for them to apologise or repent for what they did or make amends. This may never come, so stop holding onto a likely dream. Ignoring justice…

Bad sheep and good goats Justice is something that we learn very early as children. We have this strong instinct for when something doesn’t just seem to be fair. Perhaps as a result, justice is one of the most profound longings of the human race. When there is no justice, then…

The writings of the prophet Isaiah continue to echo across the centuries to provide a challenge for us; they were certainly well-known at the time of Jesus and seem to provide the background for the teaching that Jesus gives us in the second part of the sermon on the mount. The call for Israel was…

One of the styles of biblical literature that causes great misunderstanding is apocalyptic. This is not helped by the many, perhaps more fundamentalist interpreters who attempt to find literal meaning in the events of the present world, when the only direct literal meaning concerns events at the time the texts were written. In this case,…

In the forty or so parables that Jesus tells in the first three Gospels there are lots of twists and surprises along the way – but perhaps none is quite as perplexing as the one that we find in the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the unjust steward. It is…

The vision that the letter to the Hebrews paints today is certainly expansive. It is an image of the new creation where everyone is welcome and treated as a first-born son and citizen. After attending a forum at the University of Wollongong this week on Refugees, it became even more apparent how far removed this…

The scene that is described in the first reading, from Nehemiah 8 is certainly most extraordinary. Hearing that after almost a century since King Cyrus had allowed the people of God to return from Exile to the promised land, Ezra the priest and Nehemiah the civic official in the Persian court organise to return with…

The parable that Jesus tells today, from the beginning of Matthew 20, about a landowner hiring workers for his vineyard throughout the day – some who begin work at 6am and work for 12 hours for the agreed standard wage, and then various other groups who are employed at 9am, 12pm, 3pm and 5pm -…

The book of Leviticus doesn’t get much of a run within the lectionary readings – just two weekday readings and a single reading during the Sunday cycle in Year A and Year B. Since there were none during the leactionary readings before the Second Vatican Council, this is a vast improvement. Nevertheless, Leviticus still has…

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…

Welcome to the third day – the day when everything is different because of that day – which John calls the first day of the new week, when the tomb was empty. On Friday we waited in silence and we mourned and lamented. We so often live our whole lives on Friday. We are shocked…

If justice and injustice were in the flesh, what would they say to us? Which voice would commend, which would rebuke — and whose voice would be most familiar?The Voice of Justice from The Justice Conference on Vimeo.See more: http://www.thejusticeconference.com/

Sunday 24 (Year C) – Luke 15:1-32 I heard during the week of an Australian policeman who has been working for many years in the highlands of Papua New Guinea with the local tribes people there. For many generations their custom has been to seek vengeance for any slight or injury through violence, and consequently…

We have in today’s Gospel one of only two times in the parables of Jesus when he describes some action committed by a person that it deserves only one judgement – death. Like the other story (the rich man and Lazarus, also in the gospel of Luke, 16:19-31) the cause of this terrible judgement is…

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…

Christmas 2009 – a revolutionary ChristmasChristmas often brings out the very best in us; but of course it can also bring out the very worst. If we are honest, we can probably admit that at times all we want to do is gag at the very mention of it. Sometimes we tell the story of…

Third Sunday of Advent (C) – Luke 3:10-18. When you look through the teachings of Jesus, a number of themes emerge – love, prayer, money and faith. But as you consider the teachings of Jesus according to these categories, it quickly becomes apparent that Jesus talks about money and possessions far more than he talks…

Justice + Praise is the new album from EmmanuelWorship, the amazing Catholic band from Brisbane. This video clip explains some of the songs that will feature on the new album, to be released in June 2009…Justice and Praise