Tag: Ian Banks

Jonah’s physical presence in Ninevah brings disruption and unhinges everything. The city stops. Everyone repents, animals too!

Our reading from Deuteronomy is known as the Shema. It gets to the very heart of worship. It tells us who God is and what our response should be.

Today is Bible Sunday. There are 39 books in the OT, and 27 in the NT. Appropriately our reading today is from Isaiah, which has 66 chapters.

Did the Ethiopian eunuch see himself as the Suffering Servant. Did he see a link between the words that he read and his own experience?

Those hands that flung stars into space and surrendered to cruel nails left their fingerprints on you too. If you just look closely enough. 

It’s Creation Season and I couldn’t not talk about Psalm 19 today. Abraham Heschel compared these first verses to someone with ‘presence’.

“What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.

One commentator described today’s Gospel in Mark as “Jesus with his compassion down”. Perhaps we might call it: “Small crumbs of comfort”.

‘And when the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.’

Cohen said: “But there are moments when we can reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that’s what I mean by ‘Hallelujah.’”

I’m going to try and keep you awake. If I say: ‘bread from heaven’ you reply: ‘feed me now and evermore’. You get bonus point for singing.

Are you now, or have you ever been, an embarrassing parent? Do your saintly children have a ‘Ready-Brek’ aura around them?

Jesus is telling us that we must also come aside and rest awhile. To slow down and pay attention to our own hearts, our own movements.

So, next time that you’re interrupted… just pause a second… before you decide what to do next. Pause before you decide how to respond.

We need a nudge to remember that there are other people in other boats out there when we’re in a storm – and Jesus calms it for them too.