Virtual Methodist

The second of our Eye Witnesses to the events of Holy Week at the Agape Centre this week: Caiaphas the High Priest, responding to all that Jesus said and did, not least in driving the moneychangers out of the temple. the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. ‘What are we accomplishing?’ they asked. ‘Here is this man performing many signs.   48  If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.’ 49  Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, ‘You know nothing at all!   50  You do not realise that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.’ 51  He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation,   52  and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them...

Hero or villain. Saint or sinner. No. I’m not talking about Luis Suarez, but I’m a Liverpool fan, so you might guess my opinion there. How we define people often depends on our personal perspective and the truth is usually more complicated than such a simple definition. We in this province know that well, particularly in the messy business of making peace after a period of prolonged and profound conflict. (You just have to check out the responses to the presence of Martin McGuinness at the state banquet in Windsor Castle last week for evidence of that.) This is Holy week, the run-up to Good Friday, where we reflect on the price Jesus paid to make peace between us and God, followed by the resurrection joy of Easter Day. Personally I’m fascinated by the characters we’ve traditionally portrayed as villains in the Holy Week story. Judas Iscariot - wondering what his motivation was for betraying his teacher. Was it all just a matter of money or something else? Pilate, the ultimate po...

The gospel reading for this coming Sunday is John 2: 13-22, one of the accounts of Jesus cleansing the Temple. For that reason, and in the light of my reflections last week, I thought I would reblog this Holy Week offering from a few years ago... It offers a reimagining of Caiaphas' perspective on Jesus The man must die. He is worse than that madman in the desert that Herod disposed of a few years ago. John the Baptizer... We breathed a sigh of relief when he “disappeared”... Then this Galilean started stirring up trouble, I almost believed that the Baptizer had risen from the dead... Apparently they are cousins... Well, that explains it... We all know that madness runs in families. But if we do not act quickly the whole nation may run mad. He may not seem mad... He talks of loving God and loving others... If only it were that simple. But he hasn’t shown much love towards us... He has undermined our authority, with his sermons and his stories and his sayings... Both us and...

I've been a little busy lately. But then as my friends who think that I only work one day a week say, the shock of being "on duty" throughout Holy Week is fairly extreme. But anyway, what follows is one of the pieces we used in our Walk of Witness around Ballybeen today at lunchtime, with the other churches. I wrote it a few years ago based upon John 11:47-53 & 18:12-14 ... I removed the "b" word for the public performance, but this is the original post watershed version. The man must die. He is worse than that madman in the desert that Herod disposed of a few years ago. John the Baptizer... We breathed a sigh of relief when he “disappeared”... Then this Galilean started stirring up trouble, I almost believed that the Baptizer had risen from the dead... Apparently they are cousins... Well, that explains it... We all know that madness runs in families. But if we do not act quickly the whole nation may run mad. He may not seem mad... He talks of loving God an...