News (Page 176)

‘Here are my hands’

Jesus said, ‘Here are my hands’, as he sat with his friends around the supper table. He took the bread in his hands, and tore the loaf apart, and handed it gently to all of them, urging them to eat, to be part of his body. In his hands he held the cup of blood…

Getting the timing right

Luke 13: 31 – 35 A few years ago, we visited New Zealand and Australia, and our hotels, in both Dunedin, NZ, and Manley, Australia, were right opposite surfing beaches. I am not a surfer, although I have done a bit of body boarding in my time, but I do know that if a surfer…

Lectionary Reflections – Sunday 9th April 2023

Easter Day                                                     Year A                                                 9th April 2023 Lectionary readings: Jeremiah 31 v1-6,      Psalm 118 v1-2, 14-24;      Colossians 3 v1-4;      Matthew 18 v1-10. God keeps his promises. The prophet Jeremiah was active before and during the time of the Babylonian invasion. Jeremiah wrote, Some time ago, the Lord appeared to me and told me to…

Palm Sunday Paradox

Jesus always showed the other side of the question, and turned hard held values on their head. Paradoxically, with Jesus, it wasn’t a case of what you see, is what you get, more a case of, ‘do you get what you see’? Is it surprising though that we don’t always get what Jesus means? The…

A clear picture?

A shortened version of a message I read on Facebook goes like this: “A young woman watched her new neighbour hang out her washing and she complained to her husband that the clothes were not properly washed as they looked dirty. She considered telling her neighbour and was even going to offer her some washing…

Parades

When our sports team wins a cup or our country wins a battle, we arrange a victory parade. The open topped bus is driven slowly through the town, with the smiling heroes on top waving to their adoring fans. It’s a tradition that seems to have started in Roman times, when, on the day of…

Waiting for Repairs

For what feels like years we have been waiting for repairs to be carried out to remake the footpath beside the river just along the road from our house. In very heavy rain a couple of Boxing Days ago, the erosion of soil, made worse by high water levels led to a partial collapse of…