How a fourth century thinker helps us challenge the meaningless universe of (post-)modernity. Was love the answer all along?
Tag: Jesus
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No-one comes to the Father, except through me” Did he mean something like “if you want to get to the Father, you have to get through me first? Is Jesus standing in the way, preventing people from getting to God, like a soothsayer on a bridge asking impossible questions? Or is “the way” more like being the Mandalorian, where “this is the way” refers to a whole way of life? What do Jesus, Monty Python, and the Mandalorian have to do with one another? And was it absolutely necessary to bring Wittgenstein into it?
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Do not be afraid
A Sermon for Easter Day – Year A – Matthew 28:1-10 It is a bit of a commonplace among some science-y types that humans are insignificant in comparison to the universe and all the many things in it. They love to point out how small humans are, how a brief a human life is, in […]
A Sermon for Palm Sunday / Liturgy of the Palms Year A – Matthew 21:1-11 Martial arts expert, Hollywood actor, and internet favourite Chuck Norris died last week, which feels strangely timely for the topic of Palm Sunday. I know that sounds like a bit of a long stretch, but I promise you that there […]
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Springs Gushing Up to Eternal Life
“So, I see you are something of a prophet. Well then, riddle me this. Where does God want us to worship?” Top quality banter? Maybe. But to ask where we are to worship is to ask how we are to do it, which is to ask the most important question of all: who, or what, do we worship? Because, as Bob Dylan put it – everyone serves something.
Also, one of my favourite topics: ancient religions groups that are alive today, and was the Woman at the Well really a bit of a “loose woman”? Or was she the aunty of half the village, who’d lived through some tough times and was well worth listening to?
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You Must Be Born from Above
What does it mean to be “born again”? What is that stuff about the Moses and the serpent on a pole? And what does “for God so loved the world” really mean? And, finally, what does all this mean for us in the everyday reality of our lives?
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Vulnerability and Triumph
What does the story of Jesus temptation in the wilderness have to do with me? Did Jesus mog Satan into submission? Or is there something for both “the universe was made for me” and “I am nothing but dust and ashes” people?
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The Good News of the Transfiguration
How do we live? This is the fundamental question. Our lives are a cascade of objects and events, joy and sorrow, all conducted in front of the backdrop of a world which just continues on as usual no matter what is going on in our own lives. What do we make of if all? Is it ever possible to say of our lives “this is my life, I want no other?”
I was once asked to sum up the gospel in a sentence. I said this: Jesus is Lord. Why is this so controversial? Did you react a bit when I wrote it? It certainly caused quite a stir amongst the nice, well-meaning Christians in my group. Is this not very stark? Surely the idea of […]
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Emmaus Road
Easter feels a long time ago. The weariness of the lockdown wears on and on and, I don’t know about you, but it’s grinding me down. For instance, one of the highlights of my week last week was to sit in my car in the carpark of a local McDonalds eating a Sausage and Egg […]
Alister Pate 