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God’s Honour

What a difference there is between God’s values and those that dominate most of our human social systems! People we hold in high esteem are often dispicable in God’s eyes, and those we overlook may be the most honoured in eternity. Well, that is what Luke wants us to realize, and he repeats his point… Continue reading God’s Honour

Safety or Joy?

In this Sunday’s gospel reading, from Luke 13, Jesus makes a point of healing a woman whose chronic illness has become an accepted part of her faith community’s life. No one feels her pain anymore, no-one expects God to improve her lot. Jesus chooses to challenge this status-quo thinking on the sabbath, a day devoted… Continue reading Safety or Joy?

Carrot and Stick

The gospel reading for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, from Luke 12, has two distinct elements. The first is an extraordinary encouragement given to Jesus’ disciples to invest their lives and resources in the mission of proclaiming and embodying God’s reign on earth. Jesus gives them a paradoxical image of God as a bridgegroom… Continue reading Carrot and Stick

Rich and Foolish?

In the gospel reading for this coming Sunday, the 18th in Ordinary Time, Luke gives us Jesus’ parable of the Rich Fool. It raises several probing questins for us all. What does it mean to be “rich toward God”? Why was God so ticked off with this guy who thought he had just got lucky?… Continue reading Rich and Foolish?

Praying with Jesus

“Lord, teach us to pray” his disciples asked after seeing Jesus’ prayer life in action. To be effective in the mission he was sending them on would require them to be able to enter the prayerful, spiritual dimension that empowered his own ministry. Two millenia later the same principle still applies. You can listen to… Continue reading Praying with Jesus

A Training Day with Jesus

When we read Luke’s Martha-and-Mary story on its own terms, we may be surprised at how much it has to tell us about how we carry out the mission to which he calls us… especially about the way in which tasks we take on gladly may become drudgery if we forget why we began them… Continue reading A Training Day with Jesus

Entering the Life of God

This Sunday’s gospel reading contains the story commonly known as “The Good Samaritan”. Perhaps it should be called “The God-like Samaritan”, which is equivalent to “the saintly heretic” or perhaps “the purehearted mongrel”. However we might frame the paradoxal element in this story, at the heart of it is the universal human longing for a… Continue reading Entering the Life of God

Four Principles of Mission

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading from Luke 10, we may find four vital principles underlying the Christian mission as Luke understood it in his day. Just in case you don’t have 18 minutes to listen to what I have to say, here they are as bullet points…. * Vulnerability. We must take a low-key approach… Continue reading Four Principles of Mission

Getting Jesus Wrong

We don’t own Jesus! No matter how sincere we are about being his disciples, it is much too easy to take him up the wrong way. Mainly this consists of trying to fit something he has said into a framework of understanding that will leave us feeling comfortable, that will fit into our normal social… Continue reading Getting Jesus Wrong

Confronting the Legions

Sometimes in this great mission we are on as Jesus’disciples it seems as if the forces we are up against are just too alien and too powerful, whether we see them as political or spiritual entities. They are in charge of how things are done, and they are immovable. Until they meet Jesus, that is… Continue reading Confronting the Legions