Corpus Christi

Today we offer thanksgiving for the institution of the Eucharist Urgent and important truths are often expressed in two words: new-improved, lean-mean, etc. The words have impact because they are engaging and brief. They grab our attention and focus it on the reality. Today’s feast, too, can be summarised in similar fashion: New Covenant, Corpus…

Trinity Sunday

Our scripture focus for Trinity Sunday is the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 28, verses 16–28 In the ultimate act of Matthew’s drama, Jesus meets his disciples in Galilee – the land of the Gentiles – gives them final instructions, and promises them the same empowering fellowship with the triune God that he has. But why…

Day of Pentecost

On this Day of Pentecost we read from The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 2The extraordinarily rich text from Acts demands consideration of the role of the Holy Spirit in the Church as our focus for this week. In this text and in the theology of Acts, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon…

Ascension Sunday

Our Scripture passage for this week is found in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 28 Dear friends in Christ, The ascension of Jesus astonishes. Though it happens at a particular place, near Bethany, it exceeds ordinary perception. Jesus blesses the disciples and is ‘carried up into heaven’ in but four Greek words. Indeed, the scriptures…

Sixth Sunday of Easter

The Gospel reading for this week is found in John 14: 15–21 Our Gospel passage for this Sunday opens with the emotional moment of Jesus trying to make something plain to his followers: all he asks of them is their embrace of the love he has lived among them as the goal for their own…

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Our Gospel passage this week comes from John, Chapter 14: 1–14 The lectionary readings for this Sunday are full of instructions for the disciples about how to live as Jesus taught without his physical presence in their midst, and serve as a good guide for us, his disciples, too. Our Gospel reading is part of…

Fourth Sunday in Easter

Our Gospel reading this week is found in John Chapter 10 One of the beloved images of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel is that of the attentive shepherd. Visual and musical presentations of the shepherding Saviour have long captured artistic imagination. Throughout this Gospel, John accumulates Old Testament metaphors for God and ascribes them to…

Third Sunday of Easter

Our Gospel passage this week is found in Luke Chapter 24, at verses 13–25. Three weeks into the Church’s great fifty-day celebration of Easter, we are reminded that Easter’s dawn is a kairos (Greek – ‘right’, ‘critical’) moment. Our first reading and Gospel reading can be defined in this context. The unfolding story in Acts…