St Barnabas, Fendalton

This week saw the election of a new chief Shepherd in God's Church, Pope Leo XIV, called to care for the sheep.

There is an old children’s song that goes “it’s from the old I travel to the new, keep me travelling along with you”. The Resurrection is really a signpost to the ‘new’. It marks out new territory. It even provides the garments to wear along the way. This story my grandfather told in his diaries of living as a missionary in China in the 1940s explains it best…

The message this Sunday is one of Peace.  Jesus appearing to his anxious disciples after his death and resurrection and offering them peace.  Once they realised it was Jesus, by seeing him and his scars, he then breathed the Holy Spirit upon them.  How hopeful for us all to hear and take in his peace at such times as these.  The scripture passage goes on to tell us of the disciple Thomas being abs...

Some of us are like Thomas who need to know that the risen Jesus still bears the scars of the cross

Easter Day - The tree of shame became the tree of glory - and an Easter egg tree!

For most of this past week, my laptop has had a small but really significant problem. The letter ‘e’ doesn’t work most of the time. T here are a lot of words in the English language with the letter ‘e’ in them, including the words ‘English’ and ‘language’! What started as a small annoyance quickly turned into a major impediment. Entire words, sentences, paragraphs, even sermons, risked being incom...

John 12:1-11 is the account of Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet.  It is a beautiful story that gives us insight into the nature of humble service and can inspire us with its stunning example of extravagant devotion.

We are coming now to the end of things. Six days away, we’re told. The countdown has begun. And we have here a remarkable scene; a collage of characters, two of whom take our attention. There’s Mary, this named woman with this extraordinary action. And there’s Judas, this named disciple, whom we will meet again soon, and who here we get a thumbnail sketch that begins to tell us a little more about...

This Sunday, we celebrated Harvest festival  and the bountiful crops that we receive, which tied in with the Gospel reading of the celebratory party given for the lost or returning son. This parable is about two sons and their father.  One who goes off and squanders all his money and comes back abject and sorry.  The other who is a faithful and hardworking son who gets jealous of the other brother...

The gardener in Jesus’ parable of the fig tree understands me: “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.” The gardener believes that if he moves the dirt around, enriches it with fertilizer, and pays more attention to it, then something might happen. In other words, let me keep trying. Not for the sake of my ego, but for the sake of life. Give it another cha...

Jesus raises the issue, and his answers aren't quite what you might expect...

In Lent, we might be thinking a lot about appetites, and how we have set aside our appetite for chocolate or wine or chips or whatever in the spirit of giving up for Lent, in the full knowledge that come Easter Sunday we can resume our gluttony with fervour. But there’s something about appetite that we need to retain – it’s not all fasting and sour faces. In giving up our appetite for some things...

Jesus compares himself to a hen with chickens rather than a fox!

We have in our gospel reading today the three temptations of Christ, like three knocks on a big door. The first temptation is to be relevant. The second temptation is to be spectacular. The third temptation is to be powerful.

As we read the passage today of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, we too can relate to being tempted in different ways and at different times.  We can be tempted in letting go, giving in or saying 'whatever' especially as we are encouraged to try some fasting, extra praying and giving to others.   Jesus is our example of keeping strong in believing and hoping in God.  As Psalm 91 says...

Maybe the temptation this year is just to give up for Lent...

The gospel reading today gives us these four images: The blind leading the blind. The speck of dust in another person’s eye and the log of wood in our own. The good tree that bears no bad fruit. The house that’s built on sand and the house that’s built on rock.

I find it enormously helpful to have a view of people, including myself, that recognises that all of us have the range of human vices within us. All of us, too, are also, simultaneously, being renewed daily by God’s mercies that are new every morning. And both of those things exist at once. This is the truth of the human condition and the grace of God’s compassion.

What's it really mean to love our enemies?

What we have here in Luke’s gospel is the grittier version of the Beatitudes we find in Matthew’s gospel. There, it’s the Sermon on the Mount. Here, it’s the Sermon on the Plain! And here, poor means  poor.  We may want to sanitise it and say that it really means only the poor  in spirit,  which is a phrase we find in Matthew’s gospel, but not here. Luke isn’t going to do nuance. He isn’t going to...

As we marked Waitangi Day on Thursday, I recalled an event that involved my dear friend and colleague, the late Kāumatua (Elder) Huikakahu Kawe, from whom I learned so much. I’ve shared some of this in this week’s Connect – so if you’ve read that, then you can take this opportunity to have a nap! But I do want to say a little more here, how it connects with our lectionary readings for today, and h...

I've seen a couple of good video clips lately about mercy, one in Washington and one at Waitangi...

The story of Simeon and Anna, perhaps even your own story, perhaps even the story of this parish on the cusp of its sesquicentennial, is a story of “by faithful waiting and being guided in prayer and patience to the point where they recognise the glory of God in the child they see.”

Farewell Jo! Our deep thanks and appreciation for your ministry with us over the last 5 years as our Pastoral Care Co-Ordinator. Go well in your new role!

Jesus is in the change business, we can be not so keen on that, but Jesus changes us for good!