What are we doing today as we commemorate the saints and remember our loved ones departed? Simply put, we are remembering with gratitude those who we have known and loved who have died and gone to God before us and we are giving thanks for those deemed to be saints and asking for their prayers as we try to live a good Christian life.

The saints are those named by the church as being good examples to us of how to live a life dedicated to the service of Christ and to God’s people. They range from the obscure and...

In 2000 years what little seems to have changed. The Second Epistle to Timothy could easily have been written for a 21st century audience for all that it describes:

“³For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, ⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.”            2Timothy 3:4:3-4

What a wonderful phrase; 'itching ears' is and what egotistical desires it highlights.

Christianity has always been, to...

Hebrews 5, 1-10

Immediately after this morning’s reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews come these words:

“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain...”

Explaining who Melchizidek was and why the writer makes a link between him and Jesus Christ would indeed be hard, a task more suited to a Bible study than a short reflection. It would also distract us from the two simple and profound truths that this difficult passage contains.

The first of those truths is that the people who are called to the priesthood are human, yet their very humanity...

Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Down through the ages, men and women have asked deep questions about the meaning of eternity. We have only to think about the creative arts which often reflect this.  How many plays, books and operas have been written about eternal love, eternal life, eternal youth, eternal separation?

As a lover of opera Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Verdi’s La Traviata instantly come to mind. There are others.  At this year’s Edinburgh International Festival there was a production of Dido’s Ghost performed by the Dunedin Consort. Some of...