Some stories have the power to take us beyond words and break us open to new awareness. We call such stories parables because the telling sits on layers of deeper meaning, much of which cannot be put into language. Not all parables are in sacred scripture, but they can become sacred with reflection. I like Read more
Recently, “Grapevine” reprinted a notice originally on a billboard outside Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver, Canada. Apology If you’ve been told that God is some kind of punishing, capricious, angry bastard with a killer surveillance system, who is basically always disappointed with you for being a human being, then you have been lied to. The church Read more
For some of us, Head and Heart disagree so often we wonder how they can inhabit the same body. Here’s how their stories could be told. Heart is a happy Hippy, a flower child in love with love. Head is a serious disciplinarian whose love is law and order. Heart wants to live in a Read more
Sometimes we can use language to paint ourselves into a corner. For example, Catholics can’t be gnostic or agnostic. What was so wrong about the Gnostics? As I understand it, some were okay and some weren’t. If we think church division began with the reformation, we have to think again. Even in St Paul’s day Read more
Seeing the world through the eyes of love is the God view of the world and not our way of seeing. Generally, we have a polarised view of the world, divisions created by our values system. Our list for nature goes something like this: monarch butterflies good, white butterflies bad, kauri trees good, pine trees Read more
Most of us feel a personal connection to a particular saint, a favourite feast day, hymn or psalm. We can’t say why because it’s an inner connection, more about feeling than words. We have prayer routines that suit that inner space. What those routines are, will be like a preference for certain foods. We know Read more
The John 9 gospel story about the man born blind, is a long reading that makes us want to sink into our seats. The healing episode is quite short. Jesus noticed a man blind from birth, and after a few words with the disciples, made a wet mixture of clay and spittle and anointed the Read more
When I was young, another child would sometimes let me fill in a page of her colouring-in book. As she handed me the crayons, there would be the warning, “Don’t go over the lines!” I always did. In spite of good intentions, a crayon would slip, or I’d try to improve the picture by adding Read more
People love him, there’s no doubt about that. The Messiah, some say, while others blaspheme, calling him Son of God. You wouldn’t think him worthy of any title, he looks so ordinary, a man in a simple tunic with a rope belt, an untidy beard. Yet I have seen him heal a child with bones Read more
It was a fine Bible scholar who made me realise I was interpreting some passages of Scripture out of their cultural context. I suppose it’s okay to do that, if I’m reading Scripture as parable and letting the Holy Spirit connect the words with my life. However, if my literal understanding of a story is Read more