Gospel Stories – Shaken and Stirred

Have the stories of the New Testament lost their power because their interpretations are supposed to be set and unalterable and therefore of no practical use to the present day, or are they just too ‘old hat’, familiar at a superficial level? Myths are perpetuated as they are re-interpreted in each generation. You can see […]

There is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents than over the ninety and nine just souls. Why is that one may be tempted to ask. The ‘right’, traditional answer is so obvious that it doesn’t need investigating further, but supposing we want an answer that doesn’t come out of an authority that […]

In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves, Then he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at […]

Luke 15:4 Matthew 25:1 There is a reciprocity between historic cultural norms and the expression of the same in Christian teaching, though the cultural norms go back to the beginning of time, or if you like, back to Eden! Because they have been normalized for so very long, we don’t notice the fearful anomalies that […]

Matt 9:14 Mk 2:18 Luke 5:33 The Pharisees criticize Jesus because he enjoys Himself whereas ‘truly religious people’ like John Baptist, for example, fast, pray, and preach dreary sermons about sin and the degraded nature of humanity and God’s coming vengeance. Whereas all Jesus does is wander around telling wonderful stories, healing the sick, eating […]

One of my very most favourite writers on spiritual matters believed and promoted the idea, so unusual in Christian writings, that God was enjoying Himself and wanted us to join in, and the man who said that was a member of the most venerable of Religious Orders! This is a far remove from the Middle Ages when it was thought heresy to suggest that Jesus might have laughed.