G’day, mate. Ow ya goin’? Happy Australia Day! A number of years ago, I was working for a large company in England. One day, an Australian colleague brought in a whole load of little Australian flags and gave them out as gifts to all the managers. “That’s very kind,” said one of them. “What’s this…
Guid mornin’ This is surely not the first time the term “shock-jock” has been used to mean a terrible Scottish accent – for which I apologise – but we cannae reach the 25th January without mentioning Rabbie Burns. Because it was on this day in 1759 that Scotland’s national poet was born and therefore on…
Advent reflection for 21 December 2013 Reading: Romans 5:12-19 Adam is a ‘pattern’ of Jesus (v.14) in that one affects the many. And this remains the case for all of us who are made of the same stuff as Adam was: whether we like it or not, whether we intend it that way or not,…
Advent reflection for 12 December 2013 Reading: John 3:1-21 Perhaps Nicodemus was afraid of what others might think if they saw him – a well-educated and well-respected man (a Pharisee) – hanging around with an eccentric carpenter. Perhaps Nicodemus’ day was crammed with duties of leading and instructing others (v.10). For whatever reason he came…
Advent reflection for 8 December 2013 Reading: Hebrews 10:1-18 There are many things that promise to deal with our desperate quest to be somebody and our sense that we are not all as we should be. Some of those things claim to make up what’s missing – like make-up so our skin appears blemish-free; other…
Sheep are a common image in the Bible for the people of God: crowd-following wanderers in need of someone to lead them, take care of them and bring them home. The hope of a “good shepherd” coming to do that is a recurring theme of the Old Testament. We are supposed to identify with the…