‘Bad news is good news, good news is no news, and no news is bad news.’ I do not know who said this but it pops up on Google. I suppose it is a reflection on what ‘sells’ on the media. Bad news sells. Good news doesn’t. Maybe we can take a leaf from Google and apply it to Lent. The emphasis is on the ...
The first day, as Mark records it, of Jesus’ ministry ends in triumph. ‘The wholetown came crowding round the door.’ He was instantly famous and the disciplesknew it and bathed in his reflected glory. They wanted more. ‘Everyone islooking for you’, they said and they expected him to go on building up hisreputation.He could be ‘The Prophet of Capernaum’. He ...
What do you make of this? ‘Those with wives should live as though they hadnone.’ St Paul seems to be casting a shadow over married life (1 Cor 7: 29)! Yetthe context tells us something else. His theme is ‘our time is growing short.’ Wedo not have much time. He is talking of having the perspective of us living aprovisional ...
I knew a man who had a farm and towards the end of his life we were talkingabout what he had achieved. ‘I want to leave the place better than I found it,’ hesaid. I have often thought of that simple ambition. He had no desire to makeexcessive money or make a name for himself in the locality. He just ...
The parables describe obvious situations which are not difficult to interpret andmost people are either encouraged by them to keep going or shocked intoquestioning their own lives. But it can happen that they are twisted to fit acurrent way of thinking that is not obvious and which can distort them.The story of the ten bridesmaids or virgins is an example. ...
How quickly we have forgotten the lessons of lockdown. Planes no longer flew and we could hear the song of the bird. It was a war without weapons but with the soldiers on duty day and night spending themselves for the casualties with the same intensity and risk. Those closest to us became precious for we never knew; would they ...
This Sunday, we do not have a story about what Jesus did; it is simply what hesays. His words are introduced by Ezekiel’s idea of the prophet as a watchman.Many houses and institutions in Harare have watchmen or watch women. It is alonely – even dangerous task. It is akin to the shepherd who guards his flock bynight. It is ...
So it is election time. Someone threw a flyer over our gate. His priorities arewater, roads and refuse collection. Nothing very revolutionary there. Basicneeds. But basic needs not yet met. After all these years. Is the candidate‘blowing in the wind’? Is there any prospect of these basic things being done?Are we just ritually marking up one more election? We go ...
The discussion was about vaping. The presenter said it is a problem with youngpeople. They see it as a substitute for smoking – not harmful to health and yetgiving a kick like smoking. Besides, it is ‘cool’ and there is peer pressure to getinto it. But, she said, it is now known to be harmful though maybe not so muchas ...
What a spectacle it was! Millions watched the crowning of King Charles III and the question arises; why were they drawn to an event that belongs to a bygone age? What has such a ceremony to do with a Britain struggling with a faltering economy? Everyone has a different answer to the question; ‘What did you like about it?’ One ...
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