40 years in the wilderness

The Apostle Paul describes Jesus Christ as the power and wisdom of God (1 Cor 1;24). He is contending with those in the fledgling church that he had helped birth in Corinth who would prefer signs and wonders and great oratory. He is contending with those who measure status and significance in terms of strength and learning. His response is to declare that God’s strength is human weakness and God’s wisdom human foolishness. And that this is exemplified in the person, teaching and death of Jesus the Christ. Jesus to use the song of his Mother was the one who lifted up the lowly and brought down the mighty from their thrones. This is the wisdom of God, the equalisation of all peoples, the honouring of the least honoured and the dishonouring of those who think too highly of themselves. This is the power of God, the forgiveness of sinners, sitting and eating with them and the confounding of religious scruples and cleanliness preclusions. The power is in the sacr...

Jesus described the alternative Empire he came to proclaim, incarnate and establish as treasure hidden in a filed and as a pearl of great price. The Empire of heaven is counter to that of Rome and rooted not in violence, slavery and oppression but peace, service and love. The Empire’s of this world that have come and gone nevertheless share characteristics of their unseen invisible Heavenly counterpart. They are universal and embrace all peoples, they require a response it is impossible to remain neutral in or to either earthly of heavenly Empire’s. In and of themselves these alternative Empire’s mysteriously grow, have a life in and of themselves and bear fruit the one form to evil and the other to good. This Heavenly treasure is hidden because God delights in playing the game of hide and seek, a game that all children love. This is a game of love in contrast to the bullying that so often characterises childrens lives on the playground. It turns out th...

So who has heard of the Sidonians? Perhaps if I say the cities of Tyre and Sidon some might get the Gospel reference to the travels of Jesus. That said it is somewhat strange that he did travel to that part of the ancient world. Again unless we are familiar with the Hebrew scriptures we would miss this as well. For Tyre and Sidon were regarded at the time of Jesus by the people of God as, as good as, or rather as bad as the Samaritans. And I suppose I assume that most people will have heard of them because of one of Jesus’ most famous parables about good neighbourliness. Albeit that once again I suspect most of us will not have a clue that to Jesus’ audience a ‘good Samaritan’ was a contradiction in terms, san impossibility. So Jesus deliberately chooses a Samaritan for his parable just as he deliberately journeys to and through the region of Tyre and Sidon, it is calculated. The Gospel writer Luke as well as Jesus anticipates that we will make ...