Good News

In this reading from Luke, Jesus and the disciples are traveling through a village of the Samaritans, where people didn’t care much for Jesus. His insulted disciples ask Jesus, ‘should we smite them for you?’ Jesus doesn’t just say no, he rebukes them. This is not at all what Jesus wants from his followers. This…

‘Before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law.’ Just because it’s a law, doesn’t mean we do it! Killing for example – taking a human life – is both morally and legally wrong. ‘Thou shall not kill’ is a commandment, and murder is illegal in every land. Yet this doesn’t stop us…

Christians believe in the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One of the best definitions of the Trinity is that it’s a ‘holy love triangle’. It’s a unique part of our faith – God is revealed as one God in three persons. Why is this so important? We’re part of a dynamic faith. And…

The Feast of Pentecost in the Christian calendar is the day the Holy Spirit rushes in over the gathered disciples. People speaking different languages suddenly understand one another. Some were amazed. Some sneered and literally accused the disciples of being drunk. But regardless of divisive feelings, those gathered found common ground. We are living in…

the Good News: we have spiritual power. In our Acts reading this week, Paul and Silas cast a spirit out of a girl and pray in jail till the walls come down around them! They have spiritual power. Fresh from Pentecost, filled with the Holy Spirit, they seem to perform supernatural feats. In our Gospel…

We’re reading from the Book of Revelation in the Easter season. It makes me wonder how much we think about the first and the last words of the Bible. The first ones are very well known: ‘In the beginning…’, Genesis 1:1. But I’m not sure we know the end as well: ‘the grace of the…

In the Acts of the Apostles we read a story of Peter having a vision and when she sees all sorts of food and hears God’s voice saying, ‘Get up Peter kill and eat.’ As someone has been a vegetarian for about 40 years this is not seem like good news to me at first…

Miracles are definitely Good News! In the Acts of the Apostles, Tabitha (also known as Dorcas) has died an her friends are mourning. Peter goes up to where she has been laid, he prays, and she rises from the dead! It’s a very early church miracle. And it’s easy to believe that these things only…

We read the story of Paul (then called Saul) encountering Jesus and being struck blind, then completely amending his life. We don’t all have such dramatic conversion stories! Saul was also a major persecutor of the early Christians. In fact, he was on his way to round up more Christians when he had this life-changing…

The Sunday after Easter is when we always read the story of ‘doubting Thomas’. Thomas refuses to believe that the other disciples saw the risen Jesus until he can see Jesus himself, and touch his wounds. Jesus grants this request. We often frame this story as one that says it’s ok to doubt. But I…