Weekly Bible Reflection
RIGHTEOUSNESS
ighteousness, like holiness, doesn’t easily resonate with even the best of us. When discussing spiritual matters we tend to talk about growing spiritually or about spiritual experiences. We avoid speaking of righteousness per se. Yet into our lives...
MEEKNESS IN THE BIBLE
ontinuing with Jesus’ Beatitudes we read: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). We may be offended when we first read this. To say someone is meek implies they are weak or wishy-washy, timid or indecisive. Does...
COMFORT
ast week’s news in Sydney, Australia, carried the story of a 17-year-old being investigated for promoting Islamic extremism amongst other students at his school. An editorial in The Weekend Australian newspaper (July 25-26) notes that this...
THOSE WHO MOURN
THOSE WHO MOURN he world loves to laugh. Comedians will always have an audience. People don’t like kill-joys who ruin the party. Yet Jesus says, “” (Matt 5:4). He doesn’t mean that his people are always to be gloomy or morose. Still less is he...
POOR IN SPIRIT
ave you ever noticed on television documentaries about the past, the sighs of interest, even pleasure, that people express? It might be a program about a long-forgotten people or an ancient city. It might be the revelation of the value of a work of...
JESUS’ BEATITUDES
e don’t remember great leaders simply for who they were or what they did, but also for the things they said. George Washington’s Inaugural speech as president and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, come to mind. So does Winston Churchill’s...
CHRISTIAN RESPONSE
CHRISTIAN RESPONSE ow should we respond to the cultural changes in Western society exemplified, for example, by the decision this week regarding marriage handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States? While delighting many, it is a decision...
PENTECOST: LOVE
n his recent book, The Road to Character, David Brooks observes, For many people, religious and nonreligious, love provides a glimpse of some realm beyond the edge of what we know. It also in a more practical sense enlarges the heart. The act of...
PENTECOST: JOY
here are times in our relatively comfortable world when we are surprised by an unexpected turn of events – it may be a sudden fall in the stock market, loss of a job, a divorce, a heart attack, or the death of a loved one. And then there are...
PENTECOST: FEARLESS
n an interview in October 2011 (Guardian) the musician, Jarvis Crocker said, “I think basically becoming famous has taken the place of going to heaven in modern society, hasn’t it? That’s the place where your dreams will come true. It’s an act of...
NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD
ast Thursday (May 28) The Wall Street Journal reviewed The Soul of the Marionette by John Gray, an emeritus professor at the London School of Economics. The reviewer, Thomas Meaney, comments that Mr. Gray ‘has been at odds with the easy assumptions...
GOD IS PASSIONATE
he author, Roald Dahl in, My Uncle Oswald, once wrote, I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with...
EASTER: PENTECOST
s there anything that can really make us different – that can shake us out of our apathy and anxiety, that can inject enthusiasm and joy into our lives? The poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Every great and commanding movement in the annals of...
CHANGE
ost of us long for a better world –a world free from conflict and war, lying and cheating, corruption and injustice. We long for a world where there is justice and peace. But the reality is that in various ways and to various degrees, we become...
REAL GOD
esterday’s New York Times (May 5, 2015) carried an article by Nicholas Wade, ‘A New Order to Life’s Origins’. The article focuses on a hypothesis of Dr John Sutherland, a chemist at the University of Cambridge, England, that life on earth has its...
EASTER: GOODNESS
riting in the New York Times yesterday (April 28), David Brooks asked, ‘Can bad people be good leaders – people who, by implication, have power?’ “People who are dishonest, unkind and inconsiderate have trouble attracting and retaining good people...
EASTER: HOPE
ccasionally op-ed pieces attempt to bridge the divide between the culture and faith. In 1998, Hugh McKay, a Sydney commentator opined: ‘The historical, literal truth about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus has little connection with the...
EASTER: FEEDING
ack in 1985 Christianity Today carried an article by Marshall Shelley entitled: The Problem of Battered Pastors”. He observed: “the modern preacher has to make as many visits as a country doctor, shake as many hands as a politician, prepare as many...