A new commandment; love one another From the very beginning of his public ministry, Jesus challenged everyone’s expectations of what sort of Messiah he would be. He would not conform to the image of a political king who would overthrow the Roman empire and start a new regime. The Kingdom of God that he would...

Jesus, The Good Shepherd  For those of us who live in cities and housing estates of one kind or another, we  more than likely don’t see a lot of shepherds or indeed sheep! So how are we to make sense of the language and images in the gospel this Sunday? Jesus was a master story-teller...

Jesus cooks breakfast on the sea shore!  Sometimes we might be tempted to believe that those who knew Jesus personally in the gospels; the disciples, apostles or even the later saints had everything figured and sorted out. But the gospel today would suggest otherwise. After spending three years with him as he preached and healed,...

Doubting or Believing Thomas?  With all the initial joy and energy of the Resurrection passing; we are now faced with a dose of reality: fear, confusion and doubt. Not everyone believed that Jesus had truly risen from the dead. After all, they had seen him being condemned, beaten and crucified. They had witnessed him die...

The People in darkness have seen a great light! We began our Lenten journey with Jesus in the desert.  We did our best to pray for each and with each other as we travelled with him during those forty days. On Palm Sunday we greeted him joyfully as we waved our palms and cried, ‘Hosanna,...

Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday The drama and action of Holy Week begins In every detective novel and thriller, there is the final chapter where things come to a dramatic conclusion; the situation is resolved either for better or worse. This Sunday, we begin Holy Week, the final week of Jesus’ earthly life. This is...

Loved and forgiven… We are all very aware of the phrase, ‘people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.’ What does this actually mean? Well, if you’re standing in a glass house and you throw a stone, you are definitely going to break a window and end up doing some harm to yourself! What does this...

  The Patient and Forgiving Parent  We may have heard the phrase familiarity breeds contempt.  This simply means that we can take for granted and become casual and even indifferent to what we are used to. This applies as much to scripture as it does to anything else. When we come across a gospel or...

God who never gives up on us… Jesus was a great story teller! He spoke to the people in ways that they were familiar with and understood. He spoke about farming, shepherds, wine, fishing and sowing seeds. Jesus spoke the language of the people of his time. Today, in our gospel is no different. Bad...

A Place of Revelation  In the gospel this Sunday, Jesus takes a small group of his followers and friends away from the noise market place and walks with them up the mountain. In scripture, both the Old and New Testament, the mountain is very important and significant; it is the place of revelation. The mountain...