Seventh Sunday of Easter – 13th May 2018

Happy Mother’s Day
to
all our mothers
and
those who have a mothering role

The Ascension highlights some of the challenges facing us in our understanding of Scripture. Are we to understand the ‘ascension’ literally? Did Jesus stand there on a hill and then start going up, up and away into the clouds? The difficulty some people have is that if you allow the ascension to be understood in a symbolic way, where do you draw the line with other stories in the New Testaments, e.g. did Jesus actually walk on water during his lifetime? What miracles can we accept as actual events, which are to be understood in a symbolic way? There is a huge gap in our Church between the learning of scripture scholars and that of most people at church on Sundays. People who try to bridge the gap often find themselves under attack from others whose faith is being disturbed.

There is an enormous challenge facing us here if we are to bridge that gap, and the challenge is requiring most of us to be open to new ways of understanding and appreciating Scripture. These new ways are not to be dismissed as suspicious, trendy, liberal or dangerous. We are deadline here with truth, with new learning and understanding and scholarship in the name of the Church. Resisting the challenge facing us with ignorance and a refusal to be open to new insight and learning is doing our Church a lot of damage.

Reflections for Sundays
God Is With Us
Michael Morwood MSC