Easter Sunday (Mark 16.1-8)Neil Millar The reading we just heard constitutes the end of Mark’s gospel – at least according to oldest manuscripts. The story introduced so confidently as the ‘good news (proclamation) of Jesus, the Son of God’, concludes abruptly with a tale of confused women fleeing an empty tomb; afraid to say anything … [Read more…]
Good Friday (Mark 15)Neil Millar A lot has happened in the story since last evening. According to Mark, after his betrayal and arrest in the Garden, when his disciples fled, Jesus was taken to the high priest’s house for ‘questioning’ by a coterie of priests, elders, and scribes. Their enquiries were vicious and relentless, with … [Read more…]
Maundy Thursday (Mark 14.26-42)Neil Millar In April 2015, almost six years ago, Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed in Indonesia, after spending almost 10 years in a Bali prison. You may remember the story – how they were convicted of attempting to smuggle heroin into Australia, how they matured and changed during their … [Read more…]
21 March 2021 – Neil Millar In accord with the tenor of Lent, we’ve been reflecting on what it means to heed Jesus’ call to ‘repent and believe the good news’. Repentance begins, as the word metanoia suggests with a change of mind (meta = change; nous = mind), but what actually needs changing? Well, … [Read more…]
14 March 2021Neil Millar This Lent, we’re reflecting on Christ’s call to ‘repent and believe the good news’. Literally speaking, the word ‘repent’ (metanoia) means to change our mind. There’s a tendency to think of repentance in terms of modifying our behaviour, cleaning up our moral act, and for sure, repentance involves outward change, but … [Read more…]
7 March – Neil Millar The call to ‘repent and believe the good news’ is an invitation to fullness of life that comes, paradoxically, by way of a death. If any would be my disciple, they must ‘deny self, take up their cross, and follow me,’ Christ said, in the reading we heard last week. … [Read more…]
28 February 2021 – Ann Munro From its first appearance to its legalisation under Constantine, Christianity was an illegal religion in the eyes of the Roman state. For the first two centuries of its existence, Christianity and its practitioners were unpopular with the people at large. Christians were always suspect, members of a “secret society” … [Read more…]
(Mark 1.9-15) – 21 February 2021Neil Millar And Jesus came into Galilee saying: ‘Repent and believe the good news’. With this traditional exhortation, we begin again the season of Lent. The gospel readings on the Sundays of Lent (taken mostly from John’s account) take us ever closer to the climax and culmination of Jesus’ ministry … [Read more…]
(Mark 9.2-9) 14 February 2021Neil Millar A few weeks ago, I offered an introduction to the gospel according to Mark, noting some of the more striking features of the text that most scholars believe was the first written of the four NT gospels; a text that we will be focussing on in detail in coming … [Read more…]
(Mark 1.29-39) – 7th February 2021Neil Millar ‘Come healing of the spirit, come healing of the limb’ (Leonard Cohen). Those words (from our prayer for mercy) give a good sense of what’s happening as Jesus ministers healing and health to residents of Capernaum struggling in mind and body, spirit and limb. It’s been a big … [Read more…]