Pilgrim

  Of Gods and Humans   What if we tend to misunderstand the Bible?  Does it matter?  Does it matter if Angels really sang to shepherds or that Mary really was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus?  How was Jesus both God and Man?    Join me on a thought experiment for the next few minutes.   First though, these are just my thoughts and as such are as much prone to error as any other human.   Assume for a moment that Mary (probably Miriam anyway) was a teenage bride.  Most girls married between 12-16 years of age.   Let’s assume that Joseph wasn’t an old man but was also a young virulent boy/man.  16-18 years or so.   If Jesus was unplanned, but what we actually see in the Gospels is a stubborn love that both Miriam and Joseph refuse to accept there is anything “wrong” in this, that there are no stables or innkeepers, instead an upper room in a family home, no angels or shepherds, no standing star – how would this aff...

 The world must seem a scary place at the moment.  Russia is a growing threat, the current leadership in USA appears to be unreliable, there is an increase in hatred and violence all over the world.  People are threatened by the impacts of Climate change, migration levels and financial inequity.   I was talking with a good friend yesterday and we got onto the topic of how crazy things are and they mentioned something that their daughter had said.  Essentially, they were asking a valid question of why did God allow the Bondi Beach shooting to happen.  It is a question that has been asked before of course over time.  But it remains a good question and one that on the surface would appear to be difficult to answer.  Certainly, the God who is all powerful and all seeing and yet stands by while innocent people are killed is definitely not a god who I would bow down to, or even accept.     It got me thinking of how I would answer tha...

When you read the Bible, what do you hear?   Do you hear the words of an angry and jealous God in what we call the Old Testament?   Do you hear a God biding his time until a day of Wrath and Judgement? Does God seem different to you, in our so-called New Testament?   If that’s the case, could it be that we have been led to believe in an interpretation that in fact sells itself short and leaves us confused and possible disenchanted?   There are lots of questions here, because I strongly believe we are in a time when we should be asking ourselves questions, as a church, as a family, as a community, as a country. The Gospel means “Good news”.   In the early days and years of the church, the message was clearly interpreted as Good News by the poor and scary to those in power.   When we preach the Gospel today, is that still the same?   Why doesn’t it seem to have the same power as back then?   Why would most people equate the Gospel with “B...

We have considered this morning already that God might well be a God of surprises, and that we have to keep our wits about us. Sometimes surprises by the way can come in the weirdest manner.   Only last Saturday, we went to the supermarket in the morning and were regailed with a very tinny version of Hark the Herald Angels sing!   My first thoughts were NO! This is too early.. followed closely by No! They are mullering one of my favourite Carols.   Perhaps, however,   our less than welcome surprise may have caused someone else to ask what the song is about and perhaps even to find out about the “new born King”. And yet all too easily we fall into a trap of complacency and think we know all about advent and Christmas; assuming there is nothing more it can tell us, nothing more that can surprise us How often will you hear things like Christmas is all about family; it’s all about the children.   Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without……you can insert whate...