What a world this would be if we all people were able to find the grace to live out the parable of the labourers in the vineyard? Once again Jesus trips us up with a parable that first makes us laugh and think, ‘That’s Jesus for you’. Then comes the sting in the Read More... from Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost – 24th September...
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The reading from Matthew 18 contains two very hard thoughts. The first is to be able to forgive ‘seventy times seven’. That is virtually saying, always forgive! At the end of the passage, we read that if we do not forgive God will hand us over to be tortured! Could this be true? Read More... from Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost –...
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How strange we Christians sometimes are. In our heads we know that Christ is all on about love, forgiveness and grace. He lived in a time of immense oppression, so when he demands these values of his followers, it must have seemed almost unreasonable, but they are the values he lived by and the Read More... from Fourteenth Sunday after...
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The past few decades have been predominantly about the deconstruction of the faith in western Christianity. Many voices have contributed, calling to question the place of the Church in society or the truth of biblical teaching; or the moral and ethical principles that were once taken for granted. Truly, every Read More... from Thirteenth Sunday...
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The stories of prophets like Moses and Jeremiah put words and images to spiritual, transcendent encounters with the holy, that call people out of themselves to live for something more: more faith, more hope, more love. We may not recognize our own spiritual journeys in these larger-than- life tales, but the sense of feeling Read More... from...
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Is there a more confusing situation than the one between Jesus and the Canaanite woman whose daughter was in need of healing? There are so many parts to the story. First we have Jesus’ confession that he was sent only to the ‘lost sheep of the house of IsraeI’. Then we have the Read More... from Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost –...
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You have to like Peter. He hangs out with the best people. Given half a chance, he’ll have a go at anything. Even when he blunders into the worst mistakes, you still have to love and forgive him, even if you are Jesus. When Jesus walked on the water, he thought, ‘I’d like Read More... from Tenth Sunday after Pentecost – 13th August...
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This week the lectionary includes the story of Jacob wrestling with God and losing (yet also winning). This is paired with Jesus feeding the five thousand, a text many have wrestled with. Explanations of this miracle abound, ranging from ‘pure’ miracle to the miracle of sharing as others contributed to the needs of Read More... from Ninth...
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Disciple Thought The lectionary uses this final set of teachings on the Kingdom as a kind of capstone. The Kingdom may look small, but manifests as something huge (mustard seed); the Kingdom mixes in and gives life (yeast); the Kingdom is a treasure that is to be sought after (hidden in a field, Read More... from Eighth Sunday after Pentecost...
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Jesus uses another parable to help explain the Kingdom of Heaven. Like the other parables, there is this sense of constant reversal. The banquet attended by the poor, prostitutes and lepers; bread that is not unleavened Manna, but filled with yeast; a field with a seed, a tree and birds; a field filled with Read More... from Seventh Sunday...
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