Several years back I wrote about a discovery that the carol, While Shepherds Watched not only fits to the tune of On Ilkley Moor Baht 'at, the Yorkshire folk tune, but that may even have been the original tune.
It's been a joy, and at times a challenge, to preach right through the letter of 1 Corinthians. It's healthy to take a long epistle like this, and to tackle it in a single sermon series, so we don't lose the train of Paul's thought by interrupting the series midway through. The challenge, then, is to decide how fast to go. Too fast, and you get such long blocks that the details get lost and the series is bland. Too slow, and the series simply takes too long, and we actually do lose Paul's train of thought because it's so long since we began.
Notes from a sermon preached on 20th May 2018 (Pentecost Sunday 2018), based on John 16:12-15.
Paul Barnett has written a very helpful, carefully applied, commentary on 1 Corinthians.
Discussing 1 Corinthians 4:14-16, he gets close to the heart of the problem Paul was addressing in Corinth, and also how that underyling problem makes the letter relevant today:
The other day I was asked why we spend time in church (during sermons) talking about issues that may not be relevant for us today.
On the face of it, it's a good question.
If I look out at the church family here, I can think of many subjects that speak directly into needs we know and feel. Maybe there are issues about unemployment, family life, over-demanding employers, ageing and dementia, the housing market, and so on.
500 years ago, William Tyndale lost his life in his campaign to give the English people one Bible in their own language. Today, we're spoilt for choice, with many excellent English translations of the Bible. Here's a paper I wrote in 2013 to help us decide which translation we should use in church.
Matthew and Mark both record two feeding miracles. In Matthew 14:13-21 we have the feeding of the 5000; in Matthew 15:21-29 we have the feeding of the 4000.
Yesterday, the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) released a document they term a "reflection" on the gospel, the church and marriage.
CEEC is an umbrella body for many evangelical groupings within the Church of England that began in 1960. From their "About" page:
Angels don't normally have names in the New Testament. Why does Luke tell us that it was the angel Gabriel who appeared to Mary? Let's think this through.
