Faith, then, is far from being a denial of reality – indeed it is the opposite; it is a meeting with reality, and where we are at our most real. Jesus asks us to be careful that our faith be not a kind of escapism. We are to ask ourselves how we are doing as Christians [ … ]

There is a beautiful lesson in love, which is to test ourselves when we are offering gifts of love to our beloved/s, and this is by imagining that we actually don’t know the person or people to whom we are giving. This way, we can make sure that what we are doing is giving, rather than making an investment and expecting something in return [ … ]

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine. This is difficult text. The dogs, the pigs – these would be terms to describe the non-Jewish, yet in acknowledging this we are aware of Jesus’ ministering to everybody, gathering crowds of disparate people, and enjoining them to coexist peacefully, while he walked in the land of the Gentiles [ … ]

When we are offended or injured, Jesus teaches us not to demand pay-back, an eye for our eye, a tooth for our tooth, but rather to forgive, and where there was hatred, to bring instead to the situation the opposite of hatred, which is love [ … ]

Through these verses of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus directs us to consider and take to heart not the outward show of the Law, the behaviour which other people can see, but rather the inward spirit – our thoughts, our mind, the invisible part of ourselves, which is visible to ourselves and to God [ … ]

This is an extraordinary scene. Many, many people are gathered with Jesus to hear his teaching, which is the Sermon on the Mount. The people will not all be friends; there will be different, sectarian groups, and rivalries between them. Some of those gathered to listen to Jesus will be suspicious of others. Nor can the people yet understand what is happening here, just who and what Jesus is. The people have flocked to – see someone, hear someone, someone new and extraordinary, someone perhaps who can answer their needs. Their coming to Jesus is an expression of hope and longing. Who knows what thoughts there must have been as people looked around to see all those others gathered. This is a vast company of strangers [ … ]