Since I got home from my travels in December, most of my Irish ministry has been the kind that is hard to explain in other parts of the world. Because so many secondary schools (read: Middle/High School) here were started and/or are funded by the Catholic Church, their educational ethos requires that they devote at least one day every year to the personal and spiritual development of their students.
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4th Sunday After Pentecost: Shadow Puppet Armour.
I have a confession to make. It's tale I don’t often tell, a dark secret that I don’t often share.
I’m not proud of it.
Once … when I was young and foolish … before I was old enough to know better …
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3rd Sunday After Pentecost: God's Infuriating Lack of Clarity.
I, like so many of us, wish that God was clearer. Whether it’s about the big stuff or the small stuff in my life, I wish he would drop me a text, pass me a note or drop a stone tablet with instructions from the sky.
Over the past few months, I have been pondering the next stage of my life.
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2nd Sunday After Pentecost: Outdo One Another.
Consciously or subconsciously, we are all guilty of dividing parts of the Bible into two categories: bits we like and bits we don't. We know that the whole Bible is important but we can’t help ourselves.
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Trinity Sunday: Here I Am.
When you start reading Isaiah 6, you could be forgiven for thinking it would have no relevance to your life. The prophet is describing a vision he has that sounds more terrifying than edifying. The vision is of God who is sitting on a throne. He is sitting ‘high and lofty’, a stance that doesn’t feel hugely welcoming.
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A Tale As Old As Time: Theological Musings on #50ShadesOfGrey
So … now that we have cleared the air about whether or not a Christian should watch 50 Shades of Grey, I want to share my reflections on the film. I would love to be able to say that it was a good film (it wasn’t) or that it’s surprisingly edifying (it’s not) or that you should go see it (don’t) but I can’t.
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Why I Watched #50ShadesOfGrey.
Revolectionary: 19th Sunday After Trinity
I love it when people ask ‘So, Scott, what do you do?’ My answer either perplexes them or perplexes me.
I had business cards printed last year that tapped into this confusion. On one side, they describe my job as ‘Author/Blogger/Speaker’. On the other, they read ‘Unemployed/Of No Fixed Above’.
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Revolectionary: 18th Sunday After Trinity
I think it’s important to give the Pharisees credit — they do a great job of maintaining their malice in the midst of how amazed they are. It’s as if they can’t decide whether to love Jesus or hate him.
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Revolectionary: 17th Sunday After Trinity
It would appear Jesus never got his hands on a copy of How to Make Friends and Influence People. Here in Jerusalem in the days and weeks before his trial and crucifixion, Jesus refuses to mince words or pull punches.
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Revolectionary: 16th Sunday After Trinity
Sometimes Jesus likes to speak in opaque parables that are open to interpretation and lead to transformative debate. Their meanings lie deep beneath the surface of still waters like treasures one must dive to lay hold of and drag to the surface.
At other times, the meanings of his parables lay barely beneath the surface and are clear to all within earshot. This is one of those.
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Revolectionary: 15th Sunday After Trinity
The more I reflect on the life of Jesus, the more I realise that he would have gotten into a lot of trouble if he was a child in most church 'Sunday schools' today. In this week's Gospel reading, we find Jesus (as usual) being questioned by the religious authorities and (as usual) his answer seems neither straight forward nor clear.
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Revolectionary: 14th Sunday After Trinity
The beauty of challenging myself to write a weekly post on the lectionary was that if I really wanted to avoid a passage I could choose to focus on another of that week’s readings.
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Revolectionary: 13th Sunday After Trinity
Ah Peter. How I love you and how you give me hope.
It’s heartwarming to know that Jesus must have found Peter almost as annoying as he finds me … And encouraging to know that Peter must have found Jesus as frustrating as I do.
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Revolectionary: 12th Sunday After Trinity
It’s amazing how certain verses can become so common in Christian culture that most Christians could quote the verse to you but would struggle to find it in the bible or (more importantly) tell you about the context surrounding the verse.
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Revolectionary: 11th Sunday After Trinity
While Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ is often absurd, there are moments when, whether by accident or design, they brilliantly communicate life in first century Palestine.
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RevoLectionary: 8th Sunday After Trinity
‘What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.’
- Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan
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Revolectionary: 7th Sunday After Trinity
Before we dive headfirst into stories from Genesis and the Gospels, I want to set you free from a bind that I think a lot of people feel trapped in ...
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Revolectionary: 6th Sunday After Trinity
I want to lose weight … but I don’t want to eat healthily.
I want to be well-read and theologically astute … but I don’t want to devote hours and days to study.
I want to get up early and feel productive … but I don’t want to have to go to bed at a reasonable hour.
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