Category: Reflection
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prayer, obedience, and growth
Biblical Text: Mark 6.44-52 Today’s lectionary reading comes from Mark’s Gospel, a text that barely pauses to take a breath as it describes Jesus’s ministry. Mark doesn’t give us any birth narrative, but starts with John the Baptist proclaiming Jesus, and then wham, Jesus is here. Baptised, tempted, and beginning his ministry. Miracle follows miracle,…
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epiphany? so what?
Biblical Text: Matthew 2.1-12 It’s a familiar story that we hear in our Gospel reading today. Visitors from the East see a star in the sky, they travel a long way bringing gifts, to a baby, one they proclaim the “King of the Jews.” Were they kings? Probably not. Magi were astronomers and astrologers who…
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knock knock…
Biblical Text: Luke 11v1-13 We talk a lot about prayer as Christians, so I want to take a moment to consider one of Jesus’s brief mentions of prayer in the Gospels, specifically Luke 11. It’s worth noting that although prayer is clearly important for Jesus – he teaches his disciples to pray, he goes away…
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worthless slaves?
‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later…
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take nothing…
Biblical Text: Luke 9.1-6 Sometimes it can be hard to know what to make of a gospel passage. What does this brief story in the life of Jesus say to us in the 21st century? Jesus’ sending out of the twelve in Luke comes just after he has healed a woman from her bleeding and…
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on news, silence, and love…
If you’ve come here hoping to find someone eulogising Charlie Kirk, you’ve come to the wrong place. But equally, if you’ve come hoping to find him demonised instead, you’ll be disappointed. I never met to or spoke with Kirk, but I imagine if we had we would have found much on which to disagree. Our politics,…
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choose life
Biblical Texts: Deuteronomy 30v15-20; Psalm 1; Luke 14v25-33; Philemon 1-21 You may remember when the first Matrix film came out. At the time it was groundbreaking. A movie with an intriguing plot coupled with mind-bending special effects, the legacy of which we still see in films today. But aside from the effects, one part of…
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persisting in prayer…
Biblical Texts: Genesis 18v20-32, Luke 11v1-13 Jesus prays. That might seem like an odd statement, but throughout Luke’s gospel, he tells us repeatedly that Jesus withdraws from everything that’s going on, and he prays. We don’t know how long it took, but after a while his disciples asked him to teach them to do the…
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not hearers only…
Biblical Text: Matthew 13v1-9, 18-23 A couple of years ago, while we were still living in Durham, I joined a thousand or so others, and ran a 5k through the city. If you’d been near the finish, you might have caught a glimpse of me, trying to stay upright as I careened down the hill…
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stepping into the light…
Bible Passage: John 3:16-21 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” John 3:16 is perhaps the most well known Bible verse. And with good reason too. It’s a succinct summary of the gospel message. But…