“Who do you say, I am?”

That was some question for Jesus to ask Peter and his disciples. Can you imagine what your response might have been should it have been you that Jesus asked that question of?

In actual fact Jesus has already asked you that question. You might not be able to answer it, as I suspect that like many of us, you might still be trying to fathom out who Jesus actually is for you. It is easy to give a quick, impulse response to his question; ‘Who do you say I am?’ by simply saying; ‘the...

But she came and knelt before Jesus, saying “Lord, help me” (Luke 15:25)

How many times have we been in a situation when someone – perhaps a stranger or a person who appears to be “different” comes towards us.  Our automatic response is to think “please do not come any further” or “please do not speak to me”. We may even turn our back on them or pretend that they are not there.

Occasionally if I am waiting for a bus on Lothian Road early evening a stranger will come towards me. I have seen them before. I know that...

One of the saddest situations I had to deal with as a teacher was trying to comfort and support a boy whose mother had died of cancer. That his prayers for her recovery had not been answered was difficult enough for him. What made it far worse was that another pupil told him that his prayers had not been answered because his faith wasn’t strong enough. That is a view of the nature of faith which I think is profoundly unhelpful and it’s based in part on a misreading of the moment in today’s Gospel when Jesus says to Peter...

“…while he was praying the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became dazzling white.”                 Luke 9:29

“…at that time, I happened to be receiving the transmission over the wireless. I was in the receiving room and I was facing northwards. I noticed the flashing light. It was not really a big flash but it still drew my attention. in a few seconds the heat wave arrived. Afterwards I noticed the flash white clouds spread over the blue sky. It was amazing. It was as if the blue Morning-Glories had suddenly...