Weekly Bible Reflection
Never Give Up…
Because cities are sometimes synonymous with evil and corruption, poverty and injustice, we tend to overlook the significance of the City of Zion or the heavenly Jerusalem of which the Bible speaks. In Isaiah 60 we read: Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the...
Meaning…?
Ernest Becker in his 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning, The Denial of Death, a book that continues to command respect, focuses on a human paradox: death is a reality, but we deny it. In our attempt to achieve immortality, he says, we all adopt what he calls...
God’s Wisdom…
There are many things in life that baffle and trouble us. If God is almighty and all loving, why does he allow pain and suffering, evil and injustice to run riot through the world? Why does God allow us as individuals to go through so many of the things we do? If we...
Surprise…!
An op-ed in The Australian on Christmas Eve (12/24/18) referenced a recent lecture by the American scholar George Weigel who ‘argues that Christianity, including the values highlighted at Christmas, has an important role to play in revitalizing democratic,...
Generosity…
People love the decorations and lights of Christmas – especially in cities like New York. They might even enjoy Handel’s Messiah or a Service of Lessons and Carols. But how often do we hear: ‘We know it isn’t true.’ Why then, if it is not true, do we continue to give...
Eternity…
Eternity. Some years ago I made reference to the Sydney-born Arthur Stace. Born in poverty to alcoholic parents, he had little education and became a petty criminal, an alcoholic and homeless. In the aftermath of World War II, he joined the lines outside a church that...
Hallelujah
With concerns abounding over governments in the western world – concerns that spring from divisions in the wider community and divisions and disloyalty in the body politic – we might wonder what the future might hold. Psalm 146:3 says: Put not your trust in princes,...
Thanksgiving
Tomorrow Americans everywhere celebrate Thanksgiving. The first official Thanksgiving, held in December 1777, followed a Congressional Proclamation that in part reads: “That with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their...
Certainty
It is often said that there are two certainties in life – death and taxes. Psalm 90 speaks of a far greater certainty that Western society is rapidly overlooking – the everlasting God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains...
Identity
It seems that many today in the West are searching for identity – be it in terms of race or ethnicity, gender or orientation. And an outcome of this quest can be guilt and fear, deceit and anger. In our changing ‘identity-seeking’ world, it is easy to feel the...
Exultant Sweetness . . .
Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher wrote: ‘Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is just to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish...
Insignificant . . . ?
In our social media driven world that gives voice to ‘my’ feelings one question surfaces: ‘Who or what are we?’ Shakespeare’s Hamlet put it this way: What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and...
Apprehension . . .
In his Everlasting Man, GK Chesterton comments: ‘three or four times at least in the history of Christendom the whole soul seemed to have gone out of Christianity, and almost every man in his heart expected its end’. He remarks on a pattern, ‘the creed (of...
Promises
Our world is not getting any better. Indeed our Western world seems to be increasingly wrecking itself on the rocks of unadulterated selfishness. Where do we turn for hope? The Book of Psalms reminds us that in the midst of the day-to-day realities of life, our only...
Happiness . . .
Happiness is something we look for in life. But how can we find it? For happiness is elusive. One moment we can feel happy, blessed by God, but the next moment the feeling has gone. Like moonlight it has slipped through our fingers. Some consider that having a good...
Strength . . .
Seventeen years ago yesterday (September 11, 2001), Judith and I were living in Downtown Manhattan in close proximity to the Twin Towers. The second of the terrorist planes flew above us at a high-pitched scream before a mighty explosion as it crashed into the South...
Psalmody . . .
One of the striking features of Thomas Cranmer’s, Book of Common Prayer is the use of the Bible, and in particular the Songs of the Bible. At the heart of the orders of service for Morning and Evening Prayer is not just a pattern for the reading through the whole of...
Abundantly Far More . . .
Earlier this month I drew attention to Dr. Greg Sheridan’s observation in his new book, God is Good for You (Allen&Unwin:2018), namely that ‘Liberalism (today) remains in furious rebellion against Christianity, its parent and its source. A certain panic at the...