Episodes

Glen Scrivener’s book, The Air We Breathe (2022) compellingly explores ways Christianity has shaped the moral values of the West. It is a book for those who believe and those who don’t know what to believe. It alerts us afresh to the question of God and, if he exists, what he is like. Of course, there are always those who tell us that there is no God – as did Nietzsche in the 19th century and scientists today like Richard Dawkins – although, interestingly, Dawkins says that he is a ‘cultural Ch...

In 1966 Frederick Buechner, American pastor and theologian published, The Magnificent Defeat. He commented: “We all want to be certain, we all want proof, but the kind of proof we tend to want – scientifically and philosophically demonstrable proof that would silence all doubts once and for all – would not in the long run, I think, answer the fearful depths of our need at all. For what we need to know is not just that God exists, but that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-to-day ...

In God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? Dr. John Lennox, emeritus Professor of Mathematics Oxford University, writes, “To the majority of those who have reflected deeply and written about the origin and nature of the universe, it has seemed that it points beyond itself to a source which is non-physical and of great intelligence and power”. Transcendent Power. Yet in today’s world where influential voices sometimes angrily dismiss such a possibility, it is easy to overlook the transcendent ...

In God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? Dr. John Lennox, emeritus Professor of Mathematics Oxford University, writes, “To the majority of those who have reflected deeply and written about the origin and nature of the universe, it has seemed that it points beyond itself to a source which is non-physical and of great intelligence and power”. Transcendent Power. Yet in today’s world where influential voices sometimes angrily dismiss such a possibility, it is easy to overlook the transcendent ...

Easter Day that we celebrate this Sunday, is a gala day as we remember Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. His resurrection underscores the validity of the Christian faith. Without it, we are lost. That said, our joy with Jesus’s resurrection raises interesting questions: Why isn’t an empty tomb the symbol of Christianity? Why is the symbol a cross? In today’s age when feelings and political correctness trump facts it would surely make much more sense if we focused on the themes of the new life ...

In today’s world, God is not so much dead as cancelled. He is not to be spoken about. If he does exist, there’s nothing good to say about him: he is grim and uncaring. How different this is from what the Bible actually says about God. Consider the most well- known words in the Bible: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). They occur in the context of a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus, ...

Aspects of Christianity can seem far-fetched to our 21st century minds. The miraculous elements can make it feel like the story of Santa Claus or fairies at the bottom of the garden. But before we dismiss the supernatural events of the Bible as fiction, it’s worth remembering GK Chesterton’s words about truth and fiction: ‘Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it’. I make these comments because today we turn to ...

At a time of economic challenges and inflation, how easy it is to be consumed with anxiety about money and possessions. As his Sermon on the Mount moves on, Jesus exhorts us to view life and the material world from a bigger perspective. In Matthew chapter 6, verse 19 he says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven… For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Jes...

Human relationships on the personal and international level must rate as the greatest challenge for the world’s future. The invasion of Ukraine four years ago last month, the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023 together with the heightened divisions marked by hatred and anger in many countries, all reveal an unspoken issue that confronts us: humanity is flawed. The Russian author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once commented, If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evi...

“This world has no importance and whoever recognizes that wins his freedom. And that’s just it—I hate you because you are bound. I alone am free. Rejoice, for you finally have an emperor to teach you freedom…” So speaks the Emperor Caligula, in Albert Camus’ play of the same name. But did Caligula represent true freedom? History records he used his power in self-indulgent extravagance, no matter how cruel or disgusting. He did whatever he pleased. Many reckon that freedom is the ability to do ...

In his Screwtape Letters CS Lewis says that there are two equal and opposite errors that people fall into regarding the dark powers. One mistake is to disbelieve in their existence; the other is to believe in them to excess. Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent that continues through to the day before Easter Day. Many use the season to re-start their Bible reading, reflection and prayer, for the Lord Jesus challenges us to grow in the riches of his love as the Holy Spirit...

Loud voices today insist there is no God, leaving us adrift on the ocean of life without an agreed moral compass. Persuasive voices appeal to our basic, albeit unthinking instincts, while the profounder, wiser voices that speak to the depths of our souls are drowned out. Into this world of confusion and noise, anger and division, Jesus’s timeless words to all his followers in his Sermon on the Mount stand out: “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13, 1...

Great leaders are often remembered for their speeches as well as their accomplishments – George Washington for his Inaugural address as President, Abraham Lincoln for his iconic Gettysburg Address, Winston Churchill for his 1940 speech, “We shall fight on the beaches”, and Martin Luther King for his Washington Speech, “I have a dream”. Today we turn to the introduction of Jesus’s memorable Sermon on the Mount which begins with his Beatitudes. We find the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of St ...

In this first month of the new calendar year, we’re looking at Ecclesiastes, one of the wisdom books of the Bible. The wisdom books stand apart from the main narrative of the Bible, asking questions about our experiences of life. Jobasks how do we make sense of suffering, especially the suffering of the seemingly innocent. The Song of Songs explores God’s gift of the joys of love and sex. Proverbs provides a framework for street-smart and successful godly living. Ecclesiastes asks, ‘What’s the ...

Another year has passed, and now another has begun. With the rapid and seemingly endless passing of the years and seasons, and with our experiences of life, how do we make sense of it all? Back in the 1960s The Byrds and Pete Seeger with the song Turn, Turn, Turn brought the world’s attention to the words of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3. The chapter begins by focusing on the bookends of life: A time to be born, a time to die… It moves on to creative and destructive events: A time to plant, and a ti...

Much in life today is politicized. So much so, that anyone who reflects on life will ask, ‘What’s it all about?’ The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the wisdom books of the Bible. It is a strange book and it’s rather surprising to find it in the Bible. It doesn’t seem to fit into the Bible’s story-line. In chapter 1 verses 2 and 3, we read: Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. Ecclesiastes is quite depressing. Yet, as it unfolds it raises questions for us all...

An op-ed on Christmas Eve in The Australian (12/24/18), referenced a lecture by Dr. George Weigel. The article noted that Weigel “argues that Christianity, including the values highlighted at Christmas, has an important role to play in revitalizing democratic, market-oriented societies … These are struggling on both sides of the Atlantic and elsewhere, including Australia, producing unrest, instability and disillusionment.” “If free politics and free economies are to produce a genuine human fl...

Catastrophic events such as occurred on Sunday, December 14 at Bondi in Sydney, give us pause and challenge us to see life with new eyes. Many are now looking for their leaders to chart a course to preserve life and secure livelihoods. Throughout the ages people have expressed their desire for good and just leaders. Plato wrote about this theme with the notion of a philosopher king in his Republic. In recent times JRR Tolkien addressed the longing people have for a trustworthy leader in Lord of...

The appalling and deadly attack against Jewish people celebrating the beginning of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach on Sunday, December 14 raises many questions – not least the question of ‘Why?’ Why, in this age of so much scientific and technical achievement, is there still bitterness and anger, hatred and murder in the world? Why do events such as this happen? Humanly speaking, the responses are complex and many, but when all is said and done, there is a deeper issue at stake – flawed humanity. Despi...

Last Sunday afternoon, when many churches were beginning the celebration of the birth of Jesus, at least fifteen Jewish people were killed by gunmen and some twenty-nine injured at a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach, Sydney. A great anti-Semitic evil was perpetrated. How much we need to pray for all who lost loved ones and for the Jewish people. How important it is that we support and care for Jewish people we know. It is also important that we pray that God will direct the leaders of the nations,...

Once again, I’ve been intrigued by the promotion of Advent calendars, online and in large retail stores. The calendars are becoming a pre-Christmas accompaniment, advertising wine, coffee pods and chocolate and, of course, the calendars themselves. Back in November 2016, Ysenda Maxtone Graham drew attention in The Spectator UK to the season of Advent. She spoke of Advent as ‘a season of death, judgment, heaven and hell’ (November 26, 2016). ‘I relish the frisson of gloom,’ she wrote, the ‘fore...

Inscribed on a clock-case in Chester Cathedral, England, is a poem, Time’s Paces, attributed to Henry Twells. It reads: ‘When as a child I laughed and wept, Time CREPT; When as a youth I waxed more bold, Time STROLLED. When I became a full-grown man, Time RAN. When older still I daily grew, Time FLEW. Soon I shall find, in passing on, Time GONE. We do everything we can to deny the passing of time. We pay attention to the skillful marketing of products that can supposedly delay the ravages of th...

Uncertain times challenge us with the bigger questions of life and whether a good and caring God exists. Come with me to Jesus’s words in Matthew chapter 5, verse 17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill.” These are remarkable claims. The Law, the Prophets and the Writings is the title in the Jewish world for our Old Testament. In speaking of the law and the prophets, Jesus was referring to the Scriptures at that time. Wha...

Hallelujah is a wonderful word! It’s a compilation of two Hebrew words: Hallel which means praise and Jah which is a contraction of God’s name, Jehovah or Yahweh. Hallelujah is an exhortation: ‘Praise the Lord’. It’s the word that forms the bookends of the last five psalms. Hallelujah challenges us to ask, who is God that we would want to praise him? We can only truly worship God when we know something about him. In his conversation with a woman at a well in Samaria that we find in John’s Gospe...