Mark Whittall

This is Jesus’ first sermon, and his great manifesto. It is a vision of transformation. It is a call to action. It is an invitation to a new way of life. But before anything else, Jesus begins with blessing. Blessing comes first. Just think about that. Let it sink in. In our relationship with God, the God whom Jesus reveals to us, blessing comes first. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are you. It is a complete

Finally something which they can all agree on! After three days of conflict and disagreement in the Temple, finally something upon which they can all agree. Which commandment in the law is the greatest? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This was the Shema, Deuteronomy 6.5, the words that a faithful Jew would write on their doorpost and pray twice a day, morning and night. Surely they could all agree that th

“Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” It is one of the most famous lines in scripture. And we so often treat it as simply good advice. We take it as practical advice about how to organize the affairs of church and state, or how to manage the conflicting demands of our faith and our world. We saw it play out in Washington this past week, in the way that US Senators and Judge Amy Coney Barrett danced around the sacred and

At first glance, today’s gospel looks like good advice: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” It sounds like good advice, not just for Jesus’ original listeners, but also for us, in our time and place. Because there is a lot of worry in our world, in our communities, in our homes. So much so that one in nine of us will experience an anxiety

“When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do?” Now that’s a good question. Where there is injustice, where there is oppression, where there is suffering, where innocent people are being killed, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do? This violent parable that Jesus tells about the landowner and the tenants cries out for an answer to that question. We want an answer - and we know almost instinctively what the answer should be. We know there should be j