The Better Part

John 3.16-18 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection In the Gospel for this Sunday, we hear Jesus speaking to a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus seems to have a question deep in his heart: "Who are you, God?" Nicodemus knows Jesus, but he wants to know more. Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Jesus begins with God. God loves the world—the mountains, the oceans, the lakes

John 3.16-18 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday is called Trinity Sunday. We say that God is Trinity—One God, three Persons. It does not seem to make a lot of sense. It is mystery. On this Sunday, we stop to think a bit more about this mystery—about who God is. Long before Jesus was born, we hear in the Bible of a man named Moses who asks God what he should say if someone should ask him for God's name. God says to Moses, “I AM who I AM.” This is a strange name, i

John 3.16-18 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday is Trinity Sunday and our Church asks us to stop and think for a while about the mystery of who our God is. Because it is a mystery, we cannot solve it, but by thinking closely about who God is, we draw closer to the mystery and deeper into the love of God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” These words of Jesus tell

Acts 2.1-11 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday is a new feast. We celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. We call this feast Pentecost, and the colour of the feast is red. Last Sunday, we heard about Jesus returning to God in heaven. Before he goes, he asks his disciples to go and make new disciples in all countries of the earth. How can they do this, if they do not speak all the languages of the earth? This Sunday we find out what happens next. When the day of

Acts 2.1-11 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection Last week, we heard about Jesus ascending into heaven to oversee the building of the Kingdom. We also heard that the Lord works with them to build it. We wondered how this could be. How can Jesus sit at the right hand of God, overseeing the work, and at the same time be with us? We are missing something. Something has to happen between Jesus ascending, and the beginning of the building of the Kingdom. This Sunday, we celebrate t

Acts 2.1-11 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection This Sunday is Pentecost, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples and Mary in Jerusalem. We consider this day the birthday of the Church, because on this day, 3000 people are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. The light of Jesus' Risen life begins to spread. Image by Holger Schué from Pixabay The account of Pentecost is filled with sound. there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it fill

Matthew 28.16-20 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection We know that after Jesus dies and rises to new life, never to die again, he spends forty days appearing to his disciples. They talk with him, eat with him, and spend time rejoicing with him that his Risen life will never end. After forty days, Jesus returns to his Father in heaven. We call this the Ascension into heaven. "Ascend" means to rise from a lower level to a higher level. Jesus has already risen from ordinary life

Matthew 28.16-20 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection On Ascension Sunday, or the Feast of the Ascension, we celebrate the moment in Jesus' Risen life—forty days after the Resurrection to the full life of God—when he returns to his Father in heaven. "Ascend" means to rise from a lower level to a higher level. It can also mean to take the throne. We often call Jesus the King—the King of kings—and we celebrate the day that he takes his place on the heavenly throne. Once, when a

Matthew 28.16-20 Listen to the Gospel and Reflection On Ascension Sunday, or the Feast of the Ascension, we celebrate the moment in Jesus' Risen life that we speak of in the Creed: "He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty." Forty days after the Resurrection to the full life of God, Jesus returns to his Father in heaven. Frankly, this does not seem like the best of feasts. Imagine the disciples standing there on the mountain as Jesus