The power of God, says St Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, is therefore revealed in human weakness, supremely in the weakness of Jesus. At the heart of the Christian gospel stands the ridiculous paradox that true power is found in the apparent failure, and the shameful death, of a young Jew at the hands of a ruthless empire. Why? Because there are more

The Church is often tempted to think it can simply beat the powers of the world at their own game, by using the cross as a symbol of earthly victory. Followers of Jesus sometimes imagine that the victory of their cause is all that matters, whatever means they use to that end. But that is a travesty of the whole meaning of the ascension, and of the

Like all human empires, the supreme thing it can do is to kill.

What I am suggesting is that, instead, the true image of the human Jesus, the very Jesus we are called to follow, should subvert our false pictures of heaven, and should become the centre of the true picture instead.

The ascension of Jesus, then, is his going, not way beyond the stars, but into this space, this dimension. Notice what this does to our notion of heaven. The Jesus who has gone there is the human Jesus. People sometimes talk as if Jesus started off just being divine, then stopped being divine and became human, then stopped being human and went back

The Christian hope is not, then, despite popular impressions, that we will simply ‘go to heaven when we die’. As far as it goes, that statement is all right; after death those who love God will be with him, will be in his dimension. But the final Christian hope is that the two dimensions, heaven and earth, at present separated by a veil of

This is following Jesus with a difference. Sophisticated Christians will quickly say that all that sort of language is simply metaphorical. It doesn’t mean that Jesus has literally gone to some place in the solar system millions of miles away. But an awful lot of people on the edge of the Church, and outside looking in, still imagine that

He is the God who brings in the kingdom of gentleness and justice, feeding his flock like a shepherd and carrying the lambs in his bosom.

If the diabolical marriage is to be called off — and if it isn’t, then we really are in for hell on earth — it is time, now, to call a spade a spade, to name idolatry for what it is, and to set about opposing it with all the tools at our disposal.