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How do we discern the voice of Jesus amid the clamour of competing claims? (Easter Four. John 10:1-10.)   Sentence: “… and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” John 10:3   Collect: Creator God, you spoke and the world came into being. You sent your own son among us and he spoke in the language of the everyday words of healing and forgiveness. He listened to the cries from the margins of those often silenced. Help us to discern his voic

The mysterious and powerful story of the encounter on the Emmaus road captivates our imaginations, comforts us in times of uncertainty and struggle, and challenges us how to live a faithful life. (Easter Three. Luke 24:13-35.) Sentence: They said to each other: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” Luke 24:32   Collect: Loving Creator, Your beloved son returned to us and fell in step beside u

The risen Christ offers his disciples peace. And then immediately tells them that if they forgive anyone their sins are forgiven, if they retain anyone’s sins they are retained. It is worth noting that this is the newly risen Jesus who says this – the one who has much to forgive, including the feint hearted disciples in the room! (Easter Two. John 20:19-31.) I wonder if this means that when we pray for peace in the world, when we long for peace in our lives, that we are being

Christ is risen, he is risen indeed, Hallelujah! “We are a resurrection people and Hallelujah is our song”.  (Easter Day. Matthew 28:1-10.) One of the things we do come Easter, after a long and sober Lent, is we break out the hymns with Hallelujah in them! Hallelujah comes from the Hebrew and means God be praised! It is an expression of adoration and worship, of joyful celebration. It is sometimes a chorus of great and glorious certainty and sometimes, as Leonard Cohen remin

Every year we end up here, at the foot of the cross with all our sorrow, remorse, reluctance – all the myriad human responses to the death of Jesus, the one who was like us but more than. (Good Friday. John 18:1-19:42.)  Why, we ask ourselves, death, and death on a cross? What does death on a cross mean – for the world, then and now, and for us? How does such a death make things different or better amongst such a litany of sufferings going back in time, and we fear, forward i

By tradition Maundy Thursday is the beginning of the Three Great Days of Easter. And yet we begin in quiet and darkness, with humble rituals, and intimate actions that recall the last loving actions and teachings of Jesus with his disciples before the events of history took hold. This week, all around the world, many of the faithful of the Christian tradition, are hastening to make space and time for this ancient ritual mystery of suffering love and the victory of life. For m

Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week and the time we hear of our Lord’s passion for us and remember the last week of his human life: the culmination of his life of self-emptying love and obedience. We enter into Jerusalem with our Lord and progress toward the last meal, the garden, the cross and the tomb. (Palm Sunday. Matthew 21:1-11 and 26:14-46; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-18; Philippians 2:5-11) Sentence: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, tho

What a wonderful foretaste of the life that emerges in the midst of death – the hope that is stronger than fear and despair. (Lent Five. John 11:1-45;  Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; and Romans 8:6-11.) But these readings do not deny the depths of grief and loss that we endure. Rather resurrection emerges in the very midst of suffering. Sentence: “The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him

This week we are invited to explore how God sees us; how well or blindly we see; and how this process of being seen, of being exposed to the light, can transform us. (Lent Four. John 9:1-41; 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Psalm 23; and Ephesians 5:8-14.) Sentence: “ … for once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Walk as children of light for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.” Ephesians 5:8-9   Collect: Gracious God, Long ago your Son

We are a thirsty hungry people, hard to satisfy for long, and so many of us are prone to restless searching. One of the gifts of Lent is the invitation to sit, even in the midday sun, by a well and meet the one who offers more than we knew we needed or was possible. (Lent Three. John 4:5-42.)  Sentence: “Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I wi

There are many stories about Jesus physically healing those who are blind and there are also many teaching moments about spiritual blindness – often aimed at the disciples or in this case the learned Pharisee, Nicodemus. (Lent Two. John 3:1-17) Sentence: “Jesus answered him. ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ ” John 3:3   Collect: You who made everything and everyone and saw that it was good. Your beloved Son knew our fl

Lent always begins this way - with us accompanying Jesus into the wilderness. We come to witness his journey towards Jerusalem and the cross for us. And we come to learn how and where we too must travel through life and death into new life. Sentence: “Therefore just as one person’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one person’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.” Romans 5:18   Collect: Compassionate God, We step out on the path your Beloved S