Description: In the person of Jesus, God took human form and dwelt among us … giving us an insight into the potential of human nature, the possibility of human nobility and the prospect of human holiness.
Description: While retirement usually marks the end of paid employment, the work we undertake to provide for our material needs is, of course, only one facet of our lives. So I asked myself the two-part question: what is a successful career but, more fundamentally, what is a successful life … and should we think of ‘success’ as a relevant or useful measure of human living?
Description: If today’s gospel statistics are any indication, 90 percent of us live life at skin level. That is, we live on the surface. It is a “what you see is what you get” attitude. We assume (or at least act as though) there is nothing else in life than what can be seen, heard and smelt.
Description: Do we love God more than we love family or friends? If so, there is a potential division in our families … a division that might make some people feeling diminished and others rejected. Or do we see this division as one of identity?
Description: Everyone who hears the words of Jesus, both then and now, is invited to consider his identity, reflect on his questions, weigh his claims and respond to his invitation. This is also true for Carter as he grows up in a world of colliding convictions and declining consensus.
Description: As someone who has written and published a few books, including a couple of biographies and a partial autobiography, I am always conscious of giving the reader a reason to turn the page … and to anticipate what is coming. St John does this marvellously in his biography of Jesus.
Description: There are few parts of scripture more intriguing and more compelling than John 18:38 … the words are not even those of Jesus … and it is not an answer but a question: “what is truth?”
Description: Sunday by Sunday throughout Advent the themes of weekly worship are faith, hope, love … St Paul says these are the gifts to seek in the time of expectant interim between the comings of Christ, when the guarantees of stability and permanence are gone and all is in question. Let me concentrate today on faith and some of its alleged opposites.
Description: For the church to be alive, we are told that it is the responsibility of the church to speak in the language of the stranger, the language of the visitor coming into the house, rather than for the stranger to be expected to speak in a language that the church expects and knows.
Description: When I spoke with Kerry for the final time at Clare Holland House not far from here, I spoke about the weather, the state of the pasture and the season ahead. Kerry nodded when I spoke about the prospect of good cattle prices this year … and said, apropos nothing: "I want to go home." It was a poignant moment. I looked at him and there was nothing I could say in reply. Home. It is a place, like no other, anywhere in the world. For some, it is wherever they lay their hat; for others it can only be one place, a special location, where there is safety and security, reassurance and re-creation, point and purpose – and when that location is where we experience love and kindness from family and friends, it is where we will always long to be.