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Some thoughts for the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time and Matthew 10

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O ur texts this week include the binding of Isaac. It is a tough but important story. For Muslims the son being sacrificed is Ishmael. Both Jews and Muslims site this story on Mount Zion on the rock inside the beautiful Dome of the Rock Mosque. It makes this site both a sacred and highly contested place. Bonnie and I experienced the gracious welcome of the Palestinian Muslim guardians of the site, and the aggressive intimidation of Jewish settlers provoking a fight. Our gospel reading is the end of Jesus’ instructions to his disciples as he sends them out as participants in his ministry, living God’s way esteeming those honoured in the Beatitudes - the invisible and silenced. It is all about welcoming and being welcomed. Most of us are good at welcoming people into our space. By good I mean we are good at deciding who to welcome and who not to welcome. We are in control and the risks are few. But there is more at work in this reading. We are invited into a riskier welcome. Many of us...
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Some thoughts for the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time and Matthew 10

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Two weeks ago we celebrated our Church constitution – Te Pouhere, which weaves us together - Māori, Pasfika and Pākehā. Like the flax strands in ngā whāriki or a woven mat, each Tikanga takes part in the life and mission of our church knowing their voice and way of living the gospel is as important as anyone else’s. It is a gift of God. On Sunday morning we are invited to gather at Te Ranga and remember the battle fought there 162 years ago. We will remember injustice of both those events and the land confiscations that followed, and the ongoing effects of that today. Māori lives did not matter then. How do we make them matter today? Not all will be happy about this.   Some of you may not agree with what I have just written. In our gospel reading last and this week we have heard Jesus’ mission instructions to his disciples. Jesus invited them to share in and carry on the task he had described in the Beatitudes and had since lived, of bringing the Kingdom of Heaven into the mids...
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Trusting the Spirit

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  Ōtūmoetai – Year A   Pentecost Sunday, 2026 Readings: Psalm                        Psalm: 104:24-34, First Reading:            Acts 2:1-21                                           Second Reading:         1 Cor 12:3-13                           Gospel:                        John 20:19-23 What I want to say: explore how the different versions of the gifting of the Spirit offer different theologies of t...
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Some Thoughts on Pentecost

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Pentecost Sunday marks the end of Easter. Bosco Peters reminds us that, “Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost do not form three seasons. The Easter Season celebrates the three dimensions of the resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Spirit. These fifty days, a seventh of the year, form our “great "Sunday" …. Just as Sunday is the first and the eighth day, so the great Sunday of the fifty days of Easter begins with the day of the resurrection and continues through eight Sundays, an octave of Sundays, a "week of weeks." [1]  It is also a turning point in our church year as we enter Ordinary Time where we are invited to stop and pay attention to the work of the Spirit in our lives and the world. Where do we look for this work? This Pentecost we are given contrasting readings. Acts is the one we know best. Which is not surprising given that’s where the timing and the name comes from. It’s big and loud, full of fire, wind and drama. We often look for the Spirit...
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