Colourful Dreamer

One of the names given to Jesus at time is Jesus our Liberator. This is a sermon/reflection based on the gospel reading ( Matthew 16:21-28 )  for this Sunday - 22nd in Ordinary Time where I put that reading back in the whole gospel.    W hat we are liberated from and what we might be liberated into The Sermon     1.      Matt’s Jesus Story Previously on Matt’s Jesus Story Jesus is born in Bethlehem -         City of David -         Of the line of David o    King and liberator Family forced to flee to Egypt in face Herod the Great’s paranoia -         Where God liberated the people from slavery through Moses When they return at Herod the Great’s death Take no chances and go to small village in Galilee -Nazareth -         Jesus grows up   Much later Baptised by John Baptise...

I often use three questions to help shape our response to God: Whose are we? Who are we? What is ours to do? Our readings this week help us with these questions. In Exodus and the story of Moses placed in an ark, we meet God working through subversive and disobedient women taking significant risks for this Hebrew boy. While the Pharaoh is un-named, which reduces his legacy to tyrant, the two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, are immortalized as those who protect life. God acts through all these women, including Pharaoh's own daughter, to completely outsmart Pharaoh and collapse his system from the inside out. What image of God might this offer us? Matthew 16 marks a major turning point in this gospel. Caesarea Philippi is on a major trade route to Damascus. Near a headwater of the Jordan River, Greeks had built a temple to Pan three hundred years earlier and it became a centre for Roman and Greek worship, idolizing Herodian and Roman wealth and power. Herod rebuilt it to honour Caesar...

All Saints –   20 th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Year A - 2026 Readings: First Reading -              Genesis 45:1-15                 Psalm -                        Psalm: 67: 1-7 Gospel -                         Matthew 15:10-28 What I want to say: There is more than one way to understand most things -         Jesus treatment of the Canaanite woman In all that is happening for us today, let us take hold of sheer gift and abundance God’s blessing in this time. What I want to happen: What gift do this week’s readings offer us.   The Sermon        1.     Introduction: Today's go...