The other week, I wrote that if I could only have two pieces of Scripture to form my Bible, I’d choose Jesus’ appropriation of Isaiah 61 as his personal mission (Luke 4) and the first half of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). As it happens, today’s Gospel reading is Luke’s parallel telling of … Continue reading Blessed Are You Poor (in Spirit?): A Reflection on Luke 6.17-26
"Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” “For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle” "Go away from me, Lord, for I … Continue reading On Wonder, Humility, and Vocation: A Reflection on Luke 5, Isaiah 6, and 1 Corinthians 15
As the old proverb has it, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Seeing or hearing something too often can cause us not to pay attention to it. This can be especially true when something is most familiar to us in a specific context. I am convinced that this has happened with today’s epistle reading, 1 Corinthians 13.1-13, commonly … Continue reading Love at the Root: A Reflection on 1 Corinthians 13.1-13
A few years ago I went through a period of reading a lot Buddhist literature. I stopped, not because I didn’t find it valuable — indeed, if you ever need help surviving the experience of having a human mind, Buddhism is a great place to turn! — but because it got repetitive. No matter what … Continue reading The Jesus Manifesto: A Reflection on Luke 4.14-21 and 1 Corinthians 12.12-31
One of the big questions in any religious or philosophical tradition is ‘What does a good (or holy) life look like?’ Often there are two poles, which we might call the ‘purity’ pole, where goodness is judged by adherence to rules and strictness of behaviour, and the ‘celebration’ pole, where goodness is judged instead on … Continue reading Of Water and Wine (And Joy!): A Reflection on John 2.1-11
Matthew Root 