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Some thoughts as we begin the Season of Creation hearing Matthew 18

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Last Tuesday was ‘The Feast of Creation in Christ’, an Eastern Orthodox gift . This has long marked the beginning of their new liturgical year, commemorating the great mystery that everything was created through Christ . In 1989 the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I offered this day to the wider church as a Day of Prayer for Creation. The World Council of Churches has since extended this celebration to October 4th, the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi in what is now known as The Season of Creation. This ecumenical season calls us as followers of Christ worldwide to reflect on our common role as caretakers of God’s creation, to see that our wellbeing is interwoven with its wellbeing, and to unite in prayer and action to care for our common home. The theme for 2026 is "Living Water"  and is inspired by Ezekiel’s vision of a life-giving river flowing from God , urging us to focus on ecological healing, hope, and the deep interdependence of humanity and nature.   Thi...
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Jesus the Liberator - a Reflection for 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

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One of the names given to Jesus at time is Jesus our Liberator. This is a sermon/reflection based on the gospel reading ( Matthew 16:21-28 )  for this Sunday - 22nd in Ordinary Time where I put that reading back in the whole gospel.    W hat we are liberated from and what we might be liberated into The Sermon     1.      Matt’s Jesus Story Previously on Matt’s Jesus Story Jesus is born in Bethlehem -         City of David -         Of the line of David o    King and liberator Family forced to flee to Egypt in face Herod the Great’s paranoia -         Where God liberated the people from slavery through Moses When they return at Herod the Great’s death Take no chances and go to small village in Galilee -Nazareth -         Jesus grows up   Much later Baptised by John Baptise...
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Some subversive women, Peter sort of getting it, and other thoughts for the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

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I often use three questions to help shape our response to God: Whose are we? Who are we? What is ours to do? Our readings this week help us with these questions. In Exodus and the story of Moses placed in an ark, we meet God working through subversive and disobedient women taking significant risks for this Hebrew boy. While the Pharaoh is un-named, which reduces his legacy to tyrant, the two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, are immortalized as those who protect life. God acts through all these women, including Pharaoh's own daughter, to completely outsmart Pharaoh and collapse his system from the inside out. What image of God might this offer us? Matthew 16 marks a major turning point in this gospel. Caesarea Philippi is on a major trade route to Damascus. Near a headwater of the Jordan River, Greeks had built a temple to Pan three hundred years earlier and it became a centre for Roman and Greek worship, idolizing Herodian and Roman wealth and power. Herod rebuilt it to honour Caesar...
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