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See How He Loves! (John 11:36)

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  Tuesday, May 13, 2025 Psalm 35:1-17 Exodus 25:1-22 John 11:17-37 See How He Loves! (John 11:36)   So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” None of our Gospel writers give us much in the way of editorial comments about what tone of voice people used. We have to try and figure out what the lesson for us is based on other things in the text. But sometimes we get a really big clue that tells us exactly what a certain scene was like. Today, Jesus has come to the place where his friend Lazarus died, and his emotional response is such that the onlookers are obviously moved. Yes, Jesus could have come earlier, and stopped Lazarus from dying in the first place. But Jesus already explained his delay – a great miracle had to be done. And so he delayed until God’s power of life over death could be shown to the crowds. But that doesn’t mean Jesus is heartless. Jesus has done more for us than we will ever really properly comprehend. To have drunk the...
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Misplaced Alarm (Psalm 31:22)

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  Monday, May 12, 2025 Psalm 31 Exodus 24 John 11:1-16 Misplaced Alarm (Psalm 31:22) I had said in my alarm,     “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy     when I cried to you for help. You may or may not know this, but currently the entire Australian Anglican church is celebrating what is called “Hope 25”, where every single parish across the nation has been encouraged to put on some sort of witness to the hope we have in Jesus Christ. Since we like to define Anglican beliefs through what we pray, it seems right that we turn to the prayer book of the Bible – the book of Psalms. Today’s Psalm is a corker when it comes to describing what it feels like to be a person of hope in a fallen world. There are so many reasons that get thrown up in our lives to discourage our hope. Our eyes can become wasted with grief; our years spent with sighing and sorrow; our strength fai...
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Little By Little (Exodus 23:30)

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  Saturday, May 10, 2025 Psalm 25 Exodus 23:20-33 John 10:31-42 Little By Little (Exodus 23:30) Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. The pursuit of holiness can be quite frustrating at times. We can find ourselves crying out with St Paul that we have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. (Romans 7:18) But there can be great comfort if we were to just sit down and look back over our lives and see that how, little by little, God has driven back those parts of us we don’t like, while the bits we do have had time to settle in. It may be risky to read these words from God to Moses about the upcoming invasion of Canaan and directly translate them to our own spiritual development. This way of reading the Bible is how the ancient Church did things, and sometimes they did it quite well. There is also the danger of losing the immediate context of the passage an...
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Appear Before The Lord (Exodus 23:17)

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  Friday, May 9, 2025 Psalm 22:1-22 Exodus 23:4-17 John 10:19-30 Appear Before The Lord (Exodus 23:17) Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God . How are we to live our lives as physical and material beings, while still acknowledging the reality of the spiritual and supernatural? Today’s text from Exodus really brings this tension to our attention. We have been given a whole load of test cases which teach us some helpful principles to guide how we ought to treat one another in general. Avoid bribes; treat people fairly; if you see someone who hates you struggling, then go and help them. Now God is saying that there also needs to be times when we down tools and go and worship him, which means we have to trust that the things we leave behind will be safe. Three times in the year all the males had to leave their properties, entrusting their safety to the Lord, while worshipping him at the place of meeting. Two aspects ...
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I Will Hear Them (Exodus 22:22-24)

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  Thursday, May 8, 2025 Psalms 20; 21 Exodus 22:20-23:3 John 10:1-18 Observance: Julian of Norwich, holy woman & mystic (d. 1417) I Will Hear Them (Exodus 22:22-24) You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless. Every now and then one hears of a father who has been taken in by the police reluctantly. Reluctantly, because their child has been hurt by an adult somehow, and the father has taken matters into his own hands. The police only charge him as a technicality, and the courts often do their best to shield the father from the worst of what the law could do. A protective father willing to risk prison for the sake of their child seems to be a noble thing, and I find nothing wrong with this attitude. Consider what God is sayi...
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Who Is He? (John 9:36)

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  Wednesday, May 7, 2025 Psalm 19 Exodus 20:18-21:6 John 9:24-41 Who Is He? (John 9:36) [The blind man] answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Who is this, who has done such an amazing thing? Things that once held our attention now become forgotten; new interests have sprung up, and what a wonder that they have. Why no more interest in things of the pasts, of things that fade? Why such passionate desire for the things that last, for the eternal, the heavenly? Someone has done this to us. Someone is bringing us out of the past into a new and glorious future. And who is he, that we may believe in him? We can wonder at the heavens, which declare the glory of God. Celestial spheres, incomprehensibly huge, spinning through space at mind-bending speeds at distances too far for us to imagine. Or the firmament of the earth, which tells of God’s handiwork, layers of molten lava, stone and rock, mud and soil, from which burst...
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Again, Asking How? (John 9:15)

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  Tuesday, May 6, 2025 Psalm 18:1-31 Exodus 19:16-20:17 John 9:13-23 Observance: John, apostle and evangelist [ if not observed on December 27 ] Again, Asking How? (John 9:15) So the Pharisees again asked [ the blind man ] how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” John’s gospel has several wonderful stories of people and their conversion. One of my favourites is Nicodemus, because of his character growth that develops through the whole account. The blind man in the ninth chapter is another conversion story, yet somewhat different to Nicodemus’ experience. John shows off his brilliant writing skills, as he has worked into this chapter a great story filled with sublime truth, dire warning, and not a small amount of humour. Jesus simply walked up to the blind man and gave him his sight. There was no mucking about, he just got stuck in and did the job. Yet we remember that, in context...
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