Persecutors, snakes and murderers – Matthew in Advent day 8

It has been building up to this. Jesus has been slowly getting stronger in his condemnation of the teachers and Pharisees. When Jesus called them white washed tombs full of dead men's bones they would have understood it to mean that Jesus was saying that they were not only ritually unclean but the source of …

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Heaven, mansion or shack? – Matthew in Advent day 2

A few years ago I attended a Christmas meal at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, home of the Dukes of Devonshire. Not dining with the Duke, unfortunately, nor in the dining room of the great house itself, but in rooms in a converted stables. Still this was a level of luxury that I am not accostomed …

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