A turning to the heart
2 September 2018
I am sure you have had the experience of telling a joke where the execution and timing have been rather good – and yet one or more of your friends in the group that surrounds you just don’t get the point. Perhaps you have also had the similar experience of hearing a joke and while…
Give thanks – for the Word become Flesh
26 August 2018
The Gospel this Sunday concludes our readings from John 6 where Jesus now addresses himself only to his disciples, rather than to the whole crowd. We hear that many of his disciples draw back and grumble and complain about the teaching of Jesus. Not because they could not understand what he is saying, but because…
Give thanks – Flesh and Blood
18 August 2018
The Gospel this Sunday once again from John 6 presents a most remarkable promise: anyone who eats his body and drinks his blood will live forever. Jesus will raise us up on the last day. One of the reasons that this is so remarkable is that one of the best known prohibitions in the Jewish…
Give thanks – for the rhythm of life
12 August 2018
The prophet Elijah should have been at the very peak of his game. He marched dramatically onto the pages of history at the beginning of I Kings 17 with a whole series of mighty deeds that he performs that already sets him apart from the ordinary run-of-the-mill followers of God. These deeds reach their crescendo…
God is always enough
5 August 2018
When you read the Gospel of John, you must always be aware of the broad canvas upon which John writes his Gospel. He is always mindful and aware of all that has gone on before in the past – the history of the people of God; and he is also aware of what may come…
Give Thanks
29 July 2018
Last Sunday Jesus and his disciples arrived by boat at what they thought was going to be a deserted place. Jesus is grieving the death of his cousin John. The disciples have returned from their mission of announcing the kingdom to the villages of Galilee. They are elated but exhausted. Instead, it is shortly before…
Crowds and Compassion
22 July 2018
The twelve “ones sent out” return from their successful mission, given in the Gospel last Sunday (see 6:7-13). Now, after an interlude during which the death of John the Baptist – slain for his faithful sharing in the mission of Jesus – has been reported (6:14-29), ‘the ones sent out’ return to Jesus (v. 30)…
Mission
14 July 2018
Ready for a huge challenge? Jesus is on a mission, and he wants his followers to join him. The Gospel of Mark began with the announcement that this is the Good News about King Jesus, the Son of God. When Jesus began his ministry in Galilee, he announced “The kingdom of God is near!” Jesus…
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…