Colourful Dreamer

This is our last week immersed in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. The sermon itself goes on for 2 more chapters. But we need to stop because Lent is knocking on the door. With the Holiness Code of Leviticus 19 and Psalm 119’s deep love for Torah in hand, with Paul's  vision for all the church community might be from 1 Corinthians, we continue to listen to Jesus taking part in the ongoing need to reinterpret the law to new situations. We listen as he offers what God’s intentions in Torah look like in his time, and they invite us to do the same. How might he apply the law to Roman occupation   and new social assumptions. All this is based on the image of the empire of Heaven laid out in the Beatitudes; a community where love and reconciliation are the norm. It lays out what Jesus will be ushering in for the rest of the gospel. With Lent just around the corner it is good to hear Jesus invitation to imagine an entirely different world from the one we live in. A world whe...

 You can listen to this sermon here Gate Pa –   6 th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Year A - 2023 Readings: Psalm                                      Psalm: 119:1-8                                              First Reading                              Deuteronomy 30: 15-20               Second Reading               ...

For the last few weeks we have been listening to Matthew 5 and Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. One way to read this is Jesus giving words to what he has already done and laying a theological foundation and what he will say and do for the rest of the gospel . In all this he is reminding his listeners of what Torah and the Prophets have always taught about what the Empire of Heaven looks like, what life looks like (Deuteronomy 30). In the Beatitudes Jesus says that amongst the most important, those at the centre of the Kingdom of Heaven are those whose ongoing grinding poverty has crushed their spirits, those who mourn, and those who long for God’s justice. He goes on to say that his disciples are those whose lives are shaped by this hope and who will sow the seeds of God’s reign – they will be salt and light. In Matthew Jesus wasn’t doing something new. He was not replacing the old. He was fulfilling the ancient and trustworthy traditions that come from God. That is im...

You can listen to this sermon here   Gate Pa –  4 th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Year A – 2023 Readings: Psalm -                        Psalm: 84                            First Reading -             Malachi 3:1-4               Second Reading -        Luke 2: 22-40 Gospel -                       Matthew 5: 1-12   What I want to say: As we end Epiphany-Christmas with its focus on light and revelation, we are given the beatitudes. Jesus gives words to what he is already and will continue...