Reflections for Lent

Our Gospel reading as we start our Lenten season is a familiar one (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18). Jesus is warning us that if our pious practices are intended to raise our status with those around us then they are worse than useless. We are better off to keep our penitence hidden and purely between us and […]

”It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Even if your knowledge of Charles Dickens stops at the Muppets’ Christmas Carol (one of my favorites, I confess) you might also have heard that quote. It’s the opening words of a Tale of Two Cities (the cities being Paris and London). The

Jeremiah is known as the prophet of doom and gloom – and there is plenty of doom and gloom in his writing. It was not an easy time for the Israelites. But it’s not all doom and gloom – in today’s reading we hear Jeremiah foretelling a new start, another covenant: I will place my

The Book of Chronicles gives us a grand sweep of history, with the many times the people of God messed up, and in today’s reading ending with a restart coming from completely outside their control, driven by a foreign emperor. Following this Paul and John bring that same storyline closer to us as individuals –

Today we hear John’s account of Jesus throwing the traders out of the Temple area. We probably associate this incident with Jesus’ final arrival in Jerusalem shortly before his death. The other evangelists do indeed position it at that time. But John treats it differently – he sees a different significance in this event. John

This week of Lent has a somewhat strange and otherworldly character. The world of Abraham is so far distant that child sacrifice was considered acceptable and not surprising. The shock for Abraham was not that he should be asked to sacrifice a child, but that this child was his only one. The child was given

The god of the Israelites was different. First off there was only one – this was really strange. Right through to the time of Jesus everyone else thought that was just weird. Why would you have only one god? Surely you’d be better off with many gods, that would cover your bases much more effectively.

We arrive at this Lent from a place we couldn’t have imagined a year ago. Some were aware that a new virus might cause problems. Within a few weeks we were unable to gather, and Easter was a strange shadow of our normal celebration. But even then I doubt many realized the extent of the

Here we stand at the entrance to Holy Week, on a Sunday which doesn’t even seem to know what it should be called! Palm Sunday? Passion Sunday?  Officially it’s “Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion” – not sure that helps a lot really. There is a sense of waiting, of confusion, of fear, of hope,

So here we are in a Lent we could never have imagined. As I look at the readings for this weekend I’m faced with two contradictory feelings. One is a feeling of comfort from the familiarity; something secure, something calming amidst the uncertainty and confusion. The other is frustration; how come nothing is different, we