Weekly Bible Reflection

BREXIT Last Friday we all awoke to the news that a majority in the United Kingdom had voted to leave the European Union. It was totally unexpected. The news has been received with joy, shock, anger, and anxiety. It has caused concern at almost every level, political,...

ow often we encounter the words, The most important person is You!  Early last century the Scottish theologian, James Denney commented: In himself every man and woman is in a sense the most important person in the world and it always needs much...

CHALLENGES WE FACE TODAY ‘What is the biggest challenge we face today?’ It’s an age-old question, but it is being asked again with increasing frequency. And responses include: ‘terrorism’, ‘the economy’, ‘security’, ‘climate change’. It is one thing to identify the...

n an article in The New York Times (June 7, 2016), ‘Let’s Have a Better Culture War’, David Brooks remarks that we need ‘a new traditionalism’ in the way we look at current issues. Commenting that ‘we are not primarily physical creatures,’ he says,...

n an article, ‘Big and Little Loves’ in The New York Times yesterday (May 31), David Brooks began by noting that philosophers since the time of ancient Greece ‘have distinguished between the beautiful and the sublime. Beauty, ‘ he notes, ‘is what...

uch ink has been spilled in the writing of many books on why America is where it is today. According to a new book by Yuval Levin, The Fractured Republic, reviewed by Martin Swain in The Wall Street Journal, yesterday (May 24), both sides of the...

n his article in The New York Times yesterday (May 17, 2016), David Brooks asked the question, ‘What is the central challenge facing our era? My answer would be: social isolation’, he wrote. My answer would be: ‘Isolation from God’. TS Eliot once...

or the most part, we long to see a day of revival of faith in Jesus Christ in our community and across the nation. ‘Could it happen,’ we ask? This Sunday is Pentecost, or Whit Sunday in the Christian calendar. Pentecost is the Jewish festival that...

MOTHER'S DAY This Sunday, May 8, is Mother’s Day. It’s an important day in that it reminds us of the love and extraordinary sacrifices mothers can make for their children. Since the 1960s there have been significant changes in the way women see themselves: having now...

AGENDAS This year significant decisions will be made at the polls in three different countries – In the United Kingdom: to exit or not to exit the European Common Market; In Australia: following a double-dissolution, election of representatives to both Houses of...

t is said that there are two certainties in life – death and taxes. Ironically both subjects tend to be off limits at dinner parties. Our death is something we don’t want to talk about, let alone think about. Woody Allen once quipped: “It’s not...

ddressing the question, ‘How can we make politics better?’ in an opinion article in The New York Times yesterday (April 12), David Brooks observed: ‘…It’s increasingly clear that the roots of political dysfunction lie deep in society. If there’s...

ur culture resists the idea of Jesus’ physical resurrection. Most of the recent Easter cards reflect this. While there are motifs of new life, new birth, and even renewal, rarely is the word ‘resurrection’ mentioned. Theologians don’t always help,...

REFRESH The resurrection of Jesus Christ is often lightly dismissed these days because most people have not taken the time to investigate it. For example, writing about the silence of the New Atheists on the subject of Jesus’ resurrection, Dr. John Lennox, professor...

MERCY AND HOPE In an article last week in The New York Times (March 15, 2106), David Brooks wrote of the way a ‘shame culture’ is replacing a ‘guilt culture’. ‘In a guilt culture’, he writes, ‘people sometimes feel they do bad things; in a shame culture social...

MONEY MATTERS It is sometimes said that the Bible teaches that money is evil. That is not so. The Bible tells us it is the love of money that is the problem. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that we should view money as our servant, something to be used for service. ...

here is no such thing as the perfect church. We might long for it, but we won’t find it this side of heaven. The reality is that churches can experience tensions and disagreements amongst their members. Yet church is important. Jesus said, ‘I will...

or many, church is an irrelevant institution filled with self-righteous hypocrites. The Letters of Paul the Apostle paint a very different picture of church – a picture of vitality, community and  growth. We see this for example in Paul’s...