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Mk 9:9-32 – A demonised boy healed – sermon notes

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It had been a mountain-top experience to top the lot. Right there, in front of three of his disciples, Jesus had experienced a brief but amazing transformation. His face shone; even his clothes became dazzling white. Two godly men from long ago, Moses and Elijah, had put in personal appearances. And God himself had spoken: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

As they come down the mountain, Jesus gave Peter, James and John a solemn instruction, v9: “Don’t tell anyone about what you have just seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”…

Bias confirmation

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‘Bias confirmation’ refers to the tendency that people have to notice evidence that seems to confirm their existing beliefs, and to ignore or discount contradictory evidence.  It amounts to unconscious ‘cherry-picking’ from the available evidence, and can lie behind expressions such as, “There – I told you so!  Now will you believe me?”

To a lesser or greater extent, we are all prone to bias confirmation.  We cannot objectively and rationally evaluate all the sense experiences that come our way, and yet we need quick and easy ways of making sense of things, and of fitting them into our existing world views.…

The television mind

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It would be easy to moan about the negative impact that television has had on our ability to think.

So here goes.

Despite the impact of computer technology, television continues the shape the way people think, feel and behave.  And in some ways the impact of TV may be greater even than schools, families and churches.

Many people get their news, and have their opinions moulded by, television (rather than by books and newspapers).

This creates a peculiar climate for Christian apologetics. …

Ten Reasons Why Churches Stall

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In a recent article in Evangelicals Now, Marcus Honeysett sets out ten reasons why churches stall.  We need, he suggests, to look beyond the superficial (such as worship styles and service times) to the deeper problems that can occur.

Our churches stall when (I summarise):-

  1. We forget who and what we are, neglecting our high calling and our lofty mission.
  2. We are no longer thrilled with the Lord and what he is doing in our lives.
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Out of the mouth of…Christopher Hitchens

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Noted atheist (anti-theist, really) Christopher Hitchens was once interviewed by Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell.

The following exchange was enlightening:-

Sewell: The religion you cite in your book [God Is Not Great] is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make any distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

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Song 7:9b-8:7 – Aspects of love – sermon notes

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The Song of Songs is a strange, unique, beautiful book.

Strange – partly because God isn’t mentioned from beginning to end.

Unique – because it is the one book of the Bible that gives a sustained and detailed celebration of love between a man and a woman.

Beautiful – because it does all of this in wonderfully imaginative poetry. It has every right to be called ‘The Song of Songs’, the greatest love song of them all.…

Is church man enough?

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Is church man enough?

Dave Hopwood thinks that it is not, and offers some interesting thoughts about this in a recent article in Church Times.

Dave argues that Sunday-morning church worship, as conventionally experienced, simply doesn’t work for many men.  He urges us to a radical re-think of how we do church for men, based on the example of Jesus himself.

This is one of those articles that provokes excitement and alarm in me in roughly equal proportions.…

Mk 7:1-23 – Lips OK, heart far away – sermon notes

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How far would you be willing to travel in order to meet, or see, or hear, someone you really admired? Your favourite musician, perhaps, or a dear friend.

How far would you be willing to travel to meet Jesus in the flesh? Without the benefit of modern transport? And what would you say to him when you met him?

Well, here are some people who came all the way from Jerusalem to Galilee to see Jesus.…

Assisted suicide? – no thanks

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Bishop Tom Wright opposes the idea of the government setting up an independent enquiry to look at assisted suicide.  Speaking recently in the House of Lords, he said that

‘Parliament is there not to bend to every media-manipulated public whim, but to take the larger and longer view.’

It is often the case that ethics debates taking on a special meaning when individual cases are considered.  Bishop Wright drew attention to

‘The old lady who last summer told me several times that she just wanted to go to sleep and not wake up, but who eventually made a full recovery and celebrated her 63rd wedding anniversary last month and greeted her sixth greatgrandchild last week. 

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Spiritual authority

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In his excellent collection of essays and papers on the Puritans, J.I. Packer offers the following succinct account of spiritual authority:-

‘Spiritual authority is hard to pin down in words, but we recognise it when we meet it. It is a product compounded of

      • conscientious faithfulness to the Bible;
      • vivid perception of God’s reality and greatness;
      • inflexible desire to honour and please him;
      • deep self-searching and radical self-denial;
      • adoring intimacy with Christ;
      • generous compassion manward; and
      • forthright simplicity, God-taught and God-wrought, adult in its knowingness while childlike in its directness.’
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