Reflections

“The quieter you pray, the further you go.” It happened on the show ‘The antiques roadshow. Someone had proudly brought in a chair, a family heirloom. It had a few knocks and scratches but it was clearly loved and had been enjoyed by many bottoms over the decades. The chair had an inscription carved across...Continue reading→

Fear … our new opiate Mr Marx used to say that ‘Religion was the opiate of the people.’ That is, religion is a facile drug used to calm and placate us when the going got a bit boisterous. He would argue that Religion gave us illusory happiness, a bit like smoking something you shouldn’t or...Continue reading→

Compassion enfleshed. Today’s gospel is thrilling and action-packed. There is a lot going on. While Jesus travels, he teaches, proclaims, and heals and that’s just the ministry we’re told about. Whew! That’s enough you would have thought but no... Matthew tells us that there is more to do. Jesus sees the crowds, feels compassion and...Continue reading→

The sweetness of doing nothing It was a simple line really. Something I heard in passing from the lips of Julia Roberts in the film Eat, love, pray. It’s also a book by Sophie Minchilli. The words have kind of lingered close to me ever since. The sweetness of doing nothing. On the surface of it,...Continue reading→

The first edition of the 10 commandments. In last week’s homily I hinted that God had to have two goes at writing the 10 commandments. The first lot met a catastrophic end and this is how they came to be destroyed. Moses goes up the mountain to get the 10 commandments and leaves Aaron his...Continue reading→

Of Kate and Doug In the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, we chanced upon a bamboo plantation. Pretty much every trunk had some names, dates and love hearts carved into it. One of them proudly announced that Kate and Doug were absolutely smitten with each other. Well… at least they were on 1/2/18. That was five years...Continue reading→

The folk who choose our readings Sunday do not choose them by random. There is a goodly amount of thought that goes into this process. When you look closely you can often spot the theme. For example today it is all about God revealing himself and we also discover that there is work to be...Continue reading→

Of bubbles and bombs. In the Botanical Gardens of Adelaide, we chanced upon some white chairs neatly arranged and a table set just to one side. This was obviously the setting for a wedding. It was a quieter area, out of the way a bit. Around the corner, there was a large marquee with people...Continue reading→

Of Two Masterchefs And so they came to our place. Two Masterchefs who unobtrusively simply worked gently together in our kitchen to prepare a different sort of meal for us. The plotting of this meal had begun long before with the purchase of exotic ingredients. Then there was much chopping and dicing and preparation. The...Continue reading→

Pentecost - The God of the Surprise. We worship a God who surprises us. Who, when we reflect as always surprised us and continues to do so. In the second reading from Acts the Holy Spirit comes like a wind and a flame and the disciples' lives are transformed. You would be surprised at their...Continue reading→

Of Gossip and Eavesdropping 21/5 As a child, I have a very vivid memory of toddling down the hallway to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. My parents were in the lounge room and they didn’t hear me but I could hear them talking. I knew that I wasn’t supposed to...Continue reading→

It all happens at the kitchen sink. One of the most significant places in the whole home is the kitchen sink. There, with hot water and detergent, several vital things are happening simultaneously First, the dishes are washed. You can’t just let them pile up and fester into gunky science experiments. There’s a whole O.H.&...Continue reading→

Of a long-distance relationship. Most of us are living in some kind of long-distance relationship. All our friends and family don’t just happen to live conveniently down the road in our community. Today's gospel has to do with living in a sort of long-distance relationship. In order to put the reading into a helpful contextI...Continue reading→

My questions of Anzac Day So we gathered around the cenotaph against a spectacular backdrop of golden and russet autumn leaves and to the murmuring hum of the local community. The wreaths were laid, the last post rang out and prayers were offered. In an unexpected and humbling gesture, I was asked if I would...Continue reading→

Three cheers for our rubbish bin people. Thursday is bin day. The truck(s) arrive very early in the morning so the bins have to go out before bedtime on Wednesday. It’s a cathartic feeling to hear the truck rumble and know that all my rubbish is being taken away never to be seen again. It...Continue reading→

The tale of three men. A Reflection for the Coronation of King Charles The first two men are in today's gospel. They are Pilate and Jesus. One a ruler and the other a slave One a master and the other a  servant One a king and the other a subject But which is which? Who is...Continue reading→

Question: Who are you? …. Answer: You are living stones and you are priests. In today's second lesson, Peter is encouraging the early Christians in their spiritual life. He does this by telling them to get rid of the not-so-nice stuff and then empowers them by telling them who they truly are. First, let’s do...Continue reading→

Tread gently It was one of those things that I had the privilege to relearn. Someone far more adroit and perceptive than I pointed out that in the gospel stories we are only ever just given a quick snapshot of a person's life. We are not told what happens before or after the encounter with...Continue reading→

A Curse or a Blessing? In the Outlander series, Claire Randall is a time traveller. She is able to go back to the battle of Culloden to find her true love Jamie Fraser but also their nemesis Jack Randall. She is of course accused of being a witch and because Jack is such a nasty,...Continue reading→

The gift of Emmaus a reflection for Easter 3 Today’s gospel is about seeing God as he truly is. It is what we all long for – “To see God as he is”. Here on this earth we never reach full maturity, but we can certainly give it a 'good innings!' The story of the...Continue reading→