Episodes

“Prepare ye the way of the Lord …” are the opening words of the Broadway musical Godspell, that was released in 1971. The lyrics pick up the theme of John the Baptist’s preaching some two millennia ago as he prepared people for the coming of God’s promised Messiah or King. All four Gospels record John’s ministry. John the Baptist was a great preacher. He drew thousands from the cities and towns to the wilderness region near the Jordan River. He may have been a member of the Qumran community whi...

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Lord Acton wrote in his correspondence with Bishop Creighton in England in 1887. Reflecting on the moral issues in writing a history of the Inquisition, Lord Acton considered that all people, including political and spiritual leaders, should be held to the same moral standard. The problem, as Lord Acton observed, is that leaders are inclined to use their powers corruptly. Especially is this true of despotic rulers who are not held...

‘Thanksgiving’ in America is one of the delights Judith and I experienced when we moved to New York in 2001. Despite the evil events of September 11, 2001 people at our first Thanksgiving Dinner expressed their thanks for the way the Lord had used the events of 9/11 to build their trust in him. When we think about it, thanksgiving is a theme that permeates the Bible – especially the Psalms. And while we do live in an uncertain world, there is still much for which to be thankful. Come with me t...

Jesus’s physical resurrection from the dead is fundamental to the Christian faith. Without it, as Paul the Apostle says in First Corinthians, chapter 15, our faith is meaningless: we would have no assurance of our broken relationship with God being restored and no hope of eternal life that God holds out to us. Some years ago, Ken Handley, a retired Justice of the Court of Appeal in New South Wales, Australia, wrote: “Most people who reject the resurrection do so with a closed mind without looki...

Back in 1995 Joan Osborne came and went with the hit, What if God Was One of Us? On the surface it asked the seemingly impossible question about seeing God face to face in human form. What would we do if we knew his name, saw his face, and his glory? It’s a song that challenges us to think about our own worldview. It’s asking how we would respond if we were personally confronted with the seemingly impossible – seeing God face to face, as one of us. It’s a question that the Jesus Story we read i...

In his Pensées Blaise Pascal, the 17th century French mathematician and philosopher wrote, “Everyone seeks happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end…” John the Gospel writer tells us of a woman at a well in Samaria two thousand years ago who would have agreed. Like us, she longed for happiness, but it had eluded her. Five failed marriages testified to that. Thinking that love, sex and marriage would give her life meaning and happiness...

‘Do you want to live forever?’ was the question leading into an article, ‘From Here to Eternity’ in The Weekend Australian magazine (May 27-28, 2023). ‘Coming back from the dead, then living as an immortal?’ the article began. ‘It sounds like science fiction, but the pioneers behind this wild venture are true believers’. The article took up personal stories of a small number who believe in the science of freezing their body at death and holding it in ‘cryonic suspension’ until a future time whe...

The subject of death is not something we usually discuss. It’s too personal and confronting. Yet it’s the ultimate certainty we all face. It’s why literature, film and philosophy so often dwell on the themes of our mortality. But it’s rare that anyone claims they can do anything about it. Death is the inevitable end for everyone. In John chapter 10 we learn that life had been heating up for Jesus in Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders had attempted to stone him for his apparent blasphemy (10:31). So...

In March 1973, Pink Floyd introduced the line, ‘The dark side of the moon’. The album enjoyed great success addressing dark questions about life. The theme of darkness surfaced again with the 2013 movie, Gravity where Sandra Bullock is left untethered in space. The visceral terror of darkness and helplessness is palpable. Many today experience the black hole of depression – feeling that the light of life has been sucked out of them. With the sixth of the seven signs that we find in the Gospel ...

Jean Paul Sartre, the French existentialist, anticipated the sense of aloneness people today are experiencing when he wrote, ‘That God does not exist, I cannot deny; That my whole being cries out for God, I cannot forget’. I am not suggesting that we need to invent a god to calm our anxious thoughts. Rather, we need to be open to learning about the most remarkable man who ever lived. Yes, it means making time in our busy lives to read and review our view of the world. It’s much simpler to foll...

There are many troubling issues around us today – the cost of living, the divisions in society, opioid and alcohol abuse, homelessness and the rising power and influence of autocratic leaders. Many long for leaders of integrity in the West who will promote impartial justice and peace, healing and hope. At the time of Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish people were under Roman rule and there was enormous antipathy towards the Roman government. Significantly the protest against Rome was motivated by th...

HG Wells, historian and author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds once commented: ‘I am an historian. I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history’. Many agree that Jesus was a great man, perhaps the greatest teacher who has ever lived. Who would want to quarrel with his ethic, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’? Furthermore, th...

Christian faith is regularly considered to be ‘a leap in the dark’. Let’s think about this. Daily we take countless steps of faith – faith that the food we eat and the water we drink won’t harm us; the traffic will stop when we step out at a marked crosswalk or zebra crossing and the flight we board will land safely at the destination for which we were ticketed. We step out in faith in accord with the evidence and experiences we have. In his Pensées, the 17th C French mathematician and philosop...

In his book, God and Stephen Hawking (2011), Dr. John Lennox notes a current objection to miracles that says: ‘Now we know the laws of nature, miracles are impossible’. To which Dr. Lennox responds: ‘From a theistic perspective, the laws of nature predict what is bound to happen if God does not intervene… To argue that the laws of nature make it impossible for us to believe in the existence of God and the likelihood of his intervention in the universe is plainly false’. Indeed, God’s people und...

In the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001, leading new atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Richard Dennett and the late Christopher Hitchens challenged the authenticity of religion. In 2007 The Sydney Morning Herald reported Richard Dawkins saying, ‘The time has come for people of reason to say: enough is enough. Religious faith discourages independent thought. It’s divisive and it’s dangerous’. Indeed, in January 2009, the atheist society in England ran a campaign on Londo...

King Lear, one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, tells the story of a king who voluntarily set aside his titles and property in favor of two of his three daughters, only to find himself reduced to poverty and homelessness because they reject him. “Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,” King Lear sighs. “How sharper than the serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.” While some parents might identify with these sentiments let me ask, how often do we express our gratitude to the LORD?...

In a world where there is so much uncertainty and tumult we need wise, cool and clear minds amongst God’s people, and prayer for leaders. Let me take the second point first. Prayer for Leaders. In his First Letter to Timothy, chapter 2, Paul the Apostle writes: I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it ...

In April 2017, The Spectator (UK) carried an article by Douglas Murray who asked, ‘Who Will Protect Nigeria’s Northern Christians?’ Murray pointed out that the Fulani (militia) are watching everything closely from the surrounding mountains. Every week, their progress across the northern states of Plateau and Kaduna continues. Every week, more massacres – another village burned, its church razed, its inhabitants slaughtered, raped or chased away… ‘For the outside world, what is happening to the ...

‘Who Am I?’ That is the question so many are asking today. Shakespeare’s Hamlet observed: What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! (Hamlet, II.ii) Psalm 8 ponders the wonder of humanity when it asks in verse 4: What is humanity that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? Significantly this question, found at the very center of th...

So, the opening of the Paris Olympics has included a scene that seems to parody Leonardo da Vinci’s depiction of the Last Supper. While the organizers deny this intention, the context of the scene implies the ridiculing of Christianity. It’s rather ironic, given that the Games are said to unify the nations. Not that we should be surprised by the mocking of Christianity. The Roman and Jewish elite mocked Jesus when he was arrested and as he died on a cross on a hill outside Jerusalem. Scenes li...

Have you ever been resentful of people whose lives seem successful? They’ve achieved recognition, they have beautiful children, and take exotic vacations. The very thought of them strips any sense of happiness from you. Now there’s nothing wrong with being successful, having a great family or taking vacations. The question is how do we value them? Do they represent what life is all about for us or is there more to life? Today we come to a second Reflection on Psalm 1. The Psalm is important fo...

Happiness is something we long for. But how can we achieve it? It’s elusive: one moment we can be feeling happy, but the next we’re not. Like moonlight it has slipped through our fingers. In fact ‘happiness’ can’t be a goal in the strict sense of the word. For a goal is something that is within our power to achieve. Happiness isn’t like that. There are too many variables outside our control. We can think that being successful, having a good family and friends, material assets and comfort, will...

How can we weather the challenges of our messy and conflicted world? Come with me to Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 through 21 where we find one of the great prayers of the Bible. The curtain over Paul the Apostle is drawn aside and we are given a glimpse of him at prayer. I kneel before the Father, he begins, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. Genesis chapter 1 tells us that God created us in his image and it is therefore true to say that all humanity has its father...

A question we rarely think about is this: ‘What does Jesus expect of everyone who believes?’ A third part of the prayer Jesus prayed on the night of his arrest provides a vital part of the answer. In John chapter 17, verse 21 we read: “I ask … that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me”. The all in this verse suggests that he is including everyone who comes to believe in him, as well as his dis...