As we come toward the end of our Easter season, the final Sunday before Pentecost we celebrate the Ascension – we remember the occasion on which Jesus finally left this earth and ascended to heaven. Or do we? Is that really the point of the Ascension? All those paintings of Jesus drifting up through the […]
We have many relationships in our lives – with family, friends, colleagues at work; and with maybe a hairdresser, a tax preparer, a doctor. Most of us I suspect don’t have a close or ongoing relationship with a lawyer, certainly not the type that represents you in court. The sort of relationship with an advocate
(This week is a little more technical than previously. I hope you still find it helpful.) In John’s gospel, his account of events after the Resurrection is very brief. He includes the empty tomb and the meeting with Mary Magdalene, a very brief account of the coming of the Holy Spirit (with none of the
The disciples received the Holy Spirit and started their new life with the Risen Lord. And how did they behave? One might expect them to keep their heads down and avoid getting into trouble. That’s certainly what they’d been doing up until then. But in fact they immediately went out and started speaking out with
We know how each of the Gospels differs from the others, in often quite major ways. Each of the evangelists tells of salvation from their own perspective and for their anticipated audience, with their own particular preconceptions and expectations. It is perhaps striking that nowhere are these differences more apparent than at the end of
We are used to hearing about the gift of faith and the gift of new life, that are given to us by the death and resurrection of Jesus. This idea of “gift” is one of the many metaphors that Paul and others use to express how things are different following Jesus’ time on earth. It
Easter happened silently. There was no sound. No one realized anything was happening, no one at all, except for the One who had just united heaven and earth. There were no angels sounding trumpets around the skies, no thunderbolts, no earthquakes (in John’s Gospel. Matthew is more keen on the special effects). Later in the
Emptiness. The Good Friday service is always the strangest in the year. It’s the only day of the year when mass is not celebrated. The church is empty; empty of all decoration, empty of nearly all music except the most sorrowful, almost empty of people who are a little more like ghosts coming quietly and
Many centuries ago, about 3500 years, some families gathered together one evening. They were about to start a journey. They had only the vaguest idea where they were going. They were poor and oppressed where they lived, but at least they knew where that was. It had the familiarity of routine, even if it was