Weekly Bible Reflection

HAPPY THANKSGIVING hroughout this week, ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ will echo across the land from New York to San Francisco. The principle of ‘Thanksgiving’ has its origins in a non-sectarian expression of ‘thanks’ to a loving, merciful and generous God....

FORGIVENESS he Lord’s Prayer is a prayer so many of us have known since childhood. Because it is so familiar to us, do we see what a big, exciting prayer it actually is? A prayer for the honour of God’s name and the triumph of his cause; looking to...

ANGER ISSUES n Albert Camus’ play, Caligula, the Emperor Caligula said: “This world has no importance and whoever recognizes that wins his freedom. And that's just it—I hate you because you are bound. I alone am free. Rejoice, for you finally have...

IN A WORLD OF NO ACCOUNTABILITY e live in a culture where attitudes and behavior are increasingly shaped by political correctness. If we don’t conform we are marginalized. It is an outcome of society's rejection of  God. The Greek philosopher...

POLITICAL OUTSIDER n a thought provoking op-ed article in The New York Times (October 27, 2015), David Brooks asks what ‘A Sensible Version of Donald Trump’ might ‘sound like’. He asks the question because Donald Trump, like Dr. Ben Carson, has not...

SHINE n an op-ed article in yesterday’s New York Times, David Brooks wrote of the way that ‘great powers’ have allowed ‘the global order to fray’ because of the loss of conviction and meaning. He concludes by asserting the primary problem is mental...

LIGHT OF GOD'S TRUTH p until the 1970s there was an agreed morality in the West, grounded in the Judaeo-Christian ethic. As I indicated last week, this was the foundation for what developed, from the time of Alfred the Great, as the ‘Common Law’ of...

CULTURE SAYS 'WHATEVER WORKS'? he title of Woody Allen’s 2009 movie, ‘Whatever Works’ captures the mood of post-modern ethics. Starting with the presupposition that great thinkers like Jesus or Karl Marx were great teachers, the movie contends that...

PERSECUTED lessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be...

PEACE wo millennia ago angels sang “peace and goodwill to all” at the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:14). But the world hasn’t got any better. Indeed, while peace is something we all long for, it is one thing the world does not have. The reality is that...

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Some years ago, to promote Christ Church New York City, we advertised our service times and locations and our website with words drawn from Psalm 24 on small bottles of hand sanitizer: ‘Clean hands… Pure heart’....

n Sunday, July 25, 1993, a year before Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa, a man with an AK-47 and another with grenades embedded with nails, entered evening worship at St James’ Anglican Church, Cape Town. Eleven people were...

GOD'S MERCY   he 2011 movie, The Eagle of the Ninth portrays the way the Romans glorified justice, courage, discipline, and power.  Where mercy was shown, it was mocked. In the mind of the Romans, mercy was a sign of weakness. Roman leaders...

good meal is always very satisfying. It is particularly delightful when we are able to enjoy the food we like, presented in a way that tantalizes our senses. And, most of all, we are truly satisfied when we are replete without being overfull....

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...

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...

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 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...