Life Beyond the Grave: The Sign with Lazarus as Prop
Why did Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead?
Rama Ramanathan
A Delicious Irony in the Story of Jesus and the Man Born Blind
His disciples were with him as he left. They saw a beggar. They put to him a question which bothered them, just like it bothers us. They asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
The Samaritan Woman and Jesus: When Mockery Turns to Faith
I can see why they built a church to commemorate her. I can hear the preacher’s words at the dedication service of the church, 1,700 years ago.
Born again? Nicodemus, Mr Trump, and the Cross of Christ
What should be the response of Christians to those whose favourite verse is “an eye for an eye”? Are they Christians?
The First Sunday of Lent and ashes among red packets
Most of the homes are filled with ang pow, red packets with gifts of money; and oranges, which signify wealth. Talk of death is forbidden. Yet,
The Transfiguration: Listening to the Beloved Son in a World of Empires
Why did Matthew tell us of the transfiguration? Why does he frame it as Jesus’ response to the depression his disciples fell into when they learned about the crucifixions in their own futures? Why does he tell us about Peter’s tent-construction proposal? Why was God so “political” in the way he addressed Jesus?
Did Jesus really say some people are fit only to be trampled upon?
This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder Matthew 5:13-20. The English Standard Version supplies the heading “Salt and Light” to verses 13-16, and the heading “Christ Came to Fulfil the Law” to verses 17-20. Last week, I discussed the earlier verses in today’s chapter, the first words in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus …
Did Jesus really say some people are fit only to be trampled upon? Read More »
Salt, Light, and Mercy: Jesus’ Blueprint for a New Society
Why did Jesus begin with blessings? And why did he label as “blessings,” things which we surely don’t want?
In a time of great oppression, whom did Jesus call to repent?
In the first months of my discipleship, a man called Mr Purdie asked me why I chose to follow Jesus. I said I somehow …
Baptism: Intimacy with the Father, Strange Solidarity with People
Jesus joined sinners in solidarity. Not to commit sin together with them. But to reveal sin as the cause of so much trouble in our world, and to reveal and to act out God’s solution to it – a solution which required his death on the altar of a Roman cross in Jerusalem, the Holy City.