Of the four dreams that St Joseph had during Jesus’ infancy, three of them are about Herod's family.  We know about the first of these, the dream in which Joseph is encouraged to take his pregnant betrothed as his wife.  In the face of a face-saving divorce, God intervenes to give Jesus an adoptive, earthly father in Joseph.  The other three dreams are about Herod the Great or his son Herod Archelaus.  And so, we are given to compare Herod's family with Joseph's. Herod the Gr

The strange thing about celebrating Christmas in a parish rather than a private home is that all of the big cupboards are empty.  The Advent wreath has been out all month.  We are burning through the candles at a cool summer’s rate.  And now the Nativity set is out too. So, our cupboards are bare because all God’s gifts to you are out on display. I hope you have a lovely nativity set at home.  Our family one was always up on a bench: low enough to see, high enough to be out

The name which Joseph will give his adopted son and heir is indeed promising.  The name of Jesus is promising for those who want the nation of Israel to come out from the shadows and stand apart.  The name Jesus is simply Joshua, which comes to us via Greek and Latin.  If you pronounce and translate the name Joshua for 2000 years, you get “Jesus”.  By the first century, “Yeshua” was an acceptable shortened form of “Yehoshua”, which does indeed mean The LORD saves. Our Jesus h

The Baptist’s question from prison speaks to his prophet’s faith: the one for whom John is waiting is no less than the Christ of God, whom he believes will clearly identify himself.  That is a justifiable position.  All through his life with his own parents and then in the wilderness as hermit and master of disciples, John has been expecting the Christ.  His natural gifts and the Holy Spirit’s presence in his life have led him to this crucial point: this may be the Christ. Jo

“Swords into ploughshares and spears into sickles” is such a familiar trope as to be cliché.  But times when the Hebrew people prepared for war were indeed many, lengthy, and varied.  Abraham had a standing army, which he used in Genesis 14 to rescue his kidnapped nephew, Lot.  Joshua gave his men three whole days to gather sufficient provisions for their next great campaign.  And the Maccabees’ rebellion was able to organise itself to such a degree that they retook the walle

Of all the things that the Good Thief could want, the one thing he asks for is Christ's Kingdom.  He didn't ask for a reprieve or redemption from his present fate; nor was his freedom or some privilege in mind.  He simply asks to be remembered by Christ when his Kingdom is established.  That is, even in the depths of his own suffering, the Good Thief nonetheless has sight of the eternal Kingdom.  That’s where we need to get to: no misadventure or misery should block out for u

Well might we wonder whether the Lord’s words about persecution came to mind as the martyrs met their fate: persecuted and seized, betrayed and tried, hated and killed.  During the English Reformation, there was a woman to whom all of that happened and more.  We call her Saint Margaret Clitherow. St Margaret married a widower with two sons, and with him had three children.  At the age of 18 Margaret converted to Catholicism.  Her new faith brought her difficulties almost from

St John Lateran wasn’t the first church in Rome.  By the time of Constantine, there were about forty Christian churches dotted through the city.  They were often associated with the lives of martyrs: one was a patron’s old house before he and his family were done in; another was the bishop’s urban hide out; another was where heroes were buried.  Excavations of these sites revealed houses with internal walls removed: large indoor spaces were needed to accommodate all the peopl