This Sunday the lectionary gospel is Jesus at a dinner in the house of a well-to-do Pharisee. As I was preparing for preaching and leading worship this weekend, I did a quick paraphrase of the passage to help my thinking. I thought I'd share it in case it was helpful for others.Luke 14:1,7-14Paraphrase by Malcolm GordonOn the day of holy rest, Jesus went for dinner at a guys house who was a big deal in...
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The Lectionary gospel text this week is from Luke 10:1-11, 16-20. In it we read that Jesus was making his way to Jerusalem. In the preceding chapter Luke describes Jesus' mood as resolute. He then sends 70 of his followers ahead of him, with very specific instructions. As I drew some meditative sketches about this scene, I was struck Christ's care for his followers. He had discerned that the time was right, so deliberately and carefully he sent...
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Over the past five weeks I have been writing somewhat of an extended book review of Henri Nouwen's 'The Return of the Prodigal Son - A Story of Homecoming'. Through it I have explored the story Jesus told in Luke 15 and Rembrandt van Rijn's depiction of the story's human landscape. At the risk of spoiling Nouwen's conclusion, or worse, not being able to do it justice, I offer my own reflection on what I've...
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The Lectionary text this week takes us to Acts 11:1-18. Here we are invited to listen in on how Jewish Christians in the early church dealt with the very vexing question of Non-Jewish believers. We are invited to consider how much wider the mission of God was than they could imagine or even contain. See here the interplay between Peter, the other believers and the Spirit of God. See how God met the man Cornelius...
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