A Psychologist looks at Scripture

Send us Fan Mail I urge you to spend some time reflecting on who God is for you?  The answer may give you insight about how you see God, your expectations of God and how you allow God to impact your life.  One of the questions I ask people is; “What does God have to do to get your attention?’  This is another way of looking at what God means to you and how you expect God to reach out to you.  Don’...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s Gospel is an account of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples.  This account is very different from the other accounts in the Gospels.  Jesus makes another appearance.  He welcomes his disciples with the call to Peace. I want to point out that Jesus said this to the disciples who were afraid, the doors were locked, they had isolated themselves out of fear.  Fear...

Send us Fan Mail Jesus makes some serious claims of those who follow Him, who will be able to drive out demons, speak new languages, pick up serpents, and even if they drink poison they will survive.  Jesus promises miraculous cures simply by laying hands on the afflicted.  I recognize that miracles do happen.  I am not questioning that, however in our own times we don’t always see the healings no...

Send us Fan Mail John is writing on his favourite theme of love.  We are given a command to love one another.  I struggle with this because one cannot be commanded to love.   I wonder if the personality of Jesus, described in the Gospels, could shed light on how to respond to the call to love.  We might start by focusing on and developing these personality traits in our own lives.  Complete our 1...

Send us Fan Mail In this Gospel Jesus compares himself to the true vine.  There are many points I want to draw your attention to.  This metaphor of the vine would be well understood by the people.  There were vineyards where people would grow grapes for wine.  People would understand that vines were frequently pruned to produce much more fruit.  Anyone who grows plants or interested in growing gar...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s podcast is from John 10: 11-18.  This Gospel will be read in churches April 21, 2024.  Jesus compares himself to a shepherd, not just any shepherd but a good shepherd.  Fortunately, Jesus goes on to clarify what he means.  Probably most of us have little or no experience with shepherds and likely have never met one.   Jesus frequently used common experiences that people wo...

Send us Fan Mail There are many stories in which Jesus is revealed to people in various communities.  I am proposing that the aspect community in our faith may be more important than we realize.  I want to draw your attention to Matthew 18:20 where Jesus promises, “When two or more are gathered in my name I am there”.  I am beginning to realize that being in a community can help mature our faith....

Send us Fan Mail In this Gospel of John, we have another appearance of Jesus.  Although the doors are locked Jesus has no trouble appearing to his disciples.  The first thing Jesus says is “Peace be with you”, and He will soon say it again.  Jesus makes it clear that peace is an important part of his Gospel.  He says it twice here and in several other scriptural passages.  Unfortunately, we Christ...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s podcast is from the Gospel of John 20: 1-9.  This gospel focuses on one of the earliest accounts of the resurrection of Jesus. The story starts with Mary of Magdala going to the tomb and finding it empty.   I wonder what it was like for the followers of Jesus during and after the crucifixion.  They were devastated!  Likely, some of the disciples could be diagnosed with Acu...

Send us Fan Mail Jesus is welcomed by the people of Jerusalem in a fashion reserved for royalty.  I have no way knowing for sure how Jesus felt.  On one hand he was likely pleased that the people were happy to welcome him.  He probably recognized many of the people and genuinely felt welcomed.  On the other hand, Jesus, who knew the thoughts of the Pharisees,  knew the depth of their faith and tha...

Send us Fan Mail One of the unusual themes found in this Gospel is the paradox of death leading to life.  What is unique here, is Jesus’ understanding about life and death, where death comes before life. One would think that you would have to live before you can die, however, Jesus turns that all around. Jesus teaches that one has to die first before one can live life fully.  It is only by experie...

Send us Fan Mail Jesus is sent to lead people to eternal life.  God is not condemning his people, but his message is offering them eternal life.  Interesting, Jesus makes it clear we are not meriting eternal life, we simply have to believe.  People have a hard time with this, still under the impression that we have to merit this invitation and the invitation could be taken away at anytime for any...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s gospel event is especially significant.  Scripture scholars have proposed that this event with Jesus overturning the money tables probably lead to his undoing and ultimately being betrayed and handed over to Pilate.  When Jesus drove out the money changers the Pharisees started losing money and they became more serious in their plans to get rid of him.   Jesus'anger w...

Send us Fan Mail This Gospel is very different from all the Gospel stories.  It describes a mystical vision, an experience shared with Jesus, Moses and Elijah and Peter, James and John.  Peter’s offer to build three tents clearly indicates that he didn’t understand what was happening.  His experience is similar to our experience of the Spirit.  We often misunderstand and miss recognizing the Spiri...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s Gospel from Mark just simply says Jesus experienced temptations.  We have to look at the Gospels of Matthew and Luke to learn just what those temptations were.  I considered focusing this podcast on those specific temptations.   Upon further reflections I realized it might be a good idea to look at temptations in general first.  The first thing I want to draw your attentio...

Send us Fan Mail In the Gospel Mark describes an encounter between a man with leprosy and Jesus.  There are many things going on here.  We hear a lot about lepers in the time of Jesus and Jesus cured many of them.  Leprosy is a brutal disease.  Not only did the disease attack the body but the leper was excluded from society.   This reminds me of the early days of the AIDS crisis and more recently...

Send us Fan Mail The disciples find Jesus praying.  Jesus had got up before dawn to find time and a place to pray.  The first thing Jesus says is "let us go to the nearby villages".  It may have been tempting for Jesus to stay.  He was successful, the people responded well and people were being healed.  It looked like Jesus had a very successful day.  It would make perfect sense to stay....

Send us Fan Mail We don’t hear very much in present society about unclean spirits.  Its not a term we hear very much about. I like many thought Jesus was talking about evil possession.  I propose that in today’s Gospel the unclean spirit may be aspects of ourselves that undermine our beliefs.  Let me give you some examples to help you understand what I am trying to highlight. Examples of unclean s...

Send us Fan Mail We sometimes hear about the need for repentance.  What exactly does repentance mean for followers of Jesus?  Alongside of the call to repentance in the Gospel is the call to discipleship.  I wonder if there is a connection.  Understanding repentance is an important step in developing our spiritual life. Complete our 1 Minute Survey

Send us Fan Mail Today's Gospel occurs at the beginning of Jesus' ministry.  We learn that community plays an important part in the development of our faith life.   One of the first things that Jesus did was calling disciples to build community.    Pope Francis described the Church as a field hospital for those who are hurting and in need of support.   In this podcast we will look at how...

Send us Fan Mail There is a lot going on in this Gospel.  There are a few points I want to bring to your attention and hopefully useful to you for reflection. Matthew 2:1-12 tells the story of the arrival of the Magi  to honor the birth of the newborn king Jesus.  We don’t know very much about these individuals.     Theologically, they represent the Gentile non-Jewish world. Their presence reminds...

Send us Fan Mail In Luke 2:22-44, Jesus is presented in the Temple.   The presentation of the first born child in the Temple is a routine custom in the Jewish faith in biblical times.  Everything changes with the appearance of Simeon and Anna.   Simeon prophesizes the mission of Jesus and provides for us directions for individuals who desire to live their Christian faith. Complete our 1 Minute Sur...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s Gospel focuses on Joseph, the foster father of Jesus.  We don’t hear much about Joseph. The Gospel of Matthew 1:18-25 gives us insight to what kind of man Joseph was.  In this Gospel, Joseph learns that Mary, the woman he is betrothed to is pregnant by someone else. Joseph’s response is powerful and based on his values and beliefs not on his emotions.  He does the right th...

Send us Fan Mail John readily admits he is not the Messiah and points out that there is someone more powerful than he who is coming after him.  John clearly knows and is true to his mission .  It is unknown if he knew the Messiah was Jesus.  Likely he didn’t know the Messiah was Jesus until after he baptized Jesus.  We have John recognizing Jesus as the Messiah in John 1:35-37 when he directs two...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s Gospel introduces John the Baptist.  We know a lot about him but there is still a lot more we’d like to know.  His mission was to prepare the people to receive Jesus.  His birth was prophesized by the prophet Isaiah 40:1-5,9 and Malachi 3:1-5.  Jesus quotes Malachi in Matthew 11:10 which suggests Jesus recognized John the Baptist as the one prophesized in Isaiah to be the...