The Kingdom of Heaven is like…… Jesus mostly talked about the Kingdom of Heaven in the form of parables. In their uninterpreted form, they provide us with the best raw material in the bible for understanding Jesus’s ministry and agenda. But parable, as a form of communication, is not unique to Jesus. His are powerfully…
One of my favourite poets is the late Seamus Heaney, and one of my favourite poems is Digging. As poetry, it does many things: it brings to life a hint of nostalgia from childhood memories, it reminds me of the dogged graft of labourers from a previous generation, and then it reminds me to be…
Greta Thunberg So many options for this week’s article and it was a toss-up between Greta Thunberg’s speech at the UN, Boris Johnson’s unlawful ‘cancelling’ of Parliament in the UK, impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, or Scott Morrison’s absence from the UN climate summit. Then I realised that all 4 are all connected – especially…
One of the big philosophical questions that physics threw up when I was about 14, is ‘what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object’? I remember the discussion, and we all concluded that perpetual stalemate was the answer. However, our rather whacky physics teacher demonstrated that this was a flawed paradox, because something…
One of the interesting things about talk-back radio shows is that you get a pretty good glimpse of the kind of community that we live in. The other morning Freedom of Speech came up and I was surprised by just how many people rang in (all male by the way) who felt it was important…
My fascination with history (especially that of the Roman Empire) began as a young child growing up in Cambridge. I was surrounded by so much history. One favourite historical ‘excursion’ was walking along one of Britain’s earliest Roman roads constructed around 200 AD. It is still known as the Old Roman Rd, and it connects…
I still bump into ‘Christian’ folk who want to assert that the bible is a faith story which begins with Genesis and ends with Revelation, and should be read like a novel. That it contains no contradictions and has within it all we need for our faith. What follows such an assertion is often a…
I was walking on Monday afternoon, when a little Noisy Miner bird fell out of the sky and landed on the road just ahead of me. It had died in flight. Not a sound. Not a final chirp (I love the song they make). I stepped into the road, picked it up and gently laid…
I get what’s left of my hair cut at a little barber shop tucked into the back of a $2 variety gift shop in Balaclava. The barber charges a flat fee of $10. Full head of hair or bald, the price is the same. He’s an immigrant from Russia who speaks many languages. The other…
I was struggling to find a clear topic this week. Just as I settled upon one idea, another would come along and like a dodgem car, nudge it out of the way. I won’t bore you ( or intrigue you ) with the possibilities; they were numerous. But none ‘attached’ themselves to me with anything…