Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

The word ‘pleasure’ is a kind of neutral word that usually needs an adjective or two to clarify it. We know that pleasure is something that everyone is interested in, although sometimes it can be very elusive. Years ago, I heard a Christian singing a song which contained these lines: I walked a mile with Pleasure; She chatted all the way; But left me none the wiser For all she had to say. I walked a mile with Sorrow; And ne’er a word said she; But, oh! The things I learned from her, When Sorrow walked with me. As far as I could find out on the Internet, the author (Robert Browning Hamilton) was described as an amateur poet who lived on the east coast of America in the late decades of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century. I don’t think we can find a collection of his works anywhere. But these lines have become well-known because they describe what many people have experienced. I wonder what Solomon would have made of them. I recall also a ...

Most of the material found in John 13-17 is only found in this Gospel. We do not know why the other Gospels do not refer to what took place or what was said in them, despite the fact that some of the profoundest of Jesus’ teachings are given here. Nor can we know why John in chapter 13 does not refer to the fact that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper during the meal that is detailed – John does not even hint that it happened, although he was there. In a sense, we do know why the authors utilized the material that they did – the Holy Spirit guided them as he inspired them to describe what had taken place.   All that is recorded in this section of John took place on the day of the Jewish Passover. Days in their calendar began on the evening. In our calendar, we would say that Jesus was crucified on the following day, but in their calendar he was put to death on the same day as he instituted the meal. It began with the meal in the Upper Room, and it was followed by the disciples...

What kind of book is Ecclesiastes? In the Bible there are several types of literature. There is history, there is biography, there are records of religious requirements, there is poetry, there are proverbs and there are letters to churches and to individuals. We should not treat all of them in the same way. For example, a proverb usually is a brief sentence that states a general truth. It is not a promise, and we make a mistake if we treat it so. For example, one proverb says that if we train a child in the way that he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it. That is not a definite promise as much as it is an observation. Similarly, we could take a verse in a psalm by itself and inevitably take it out of its context. Ecclesiastes belongs to the category of literature called wisdom literature and from the Old Testament the Book of Job, some of the psalms, the Book of Proverbs, the Song of Solomon and the Book of Ecclesiastes are located in this category. In Israel, the...

There are many passages that we could have used as the basis for thinking about the theme of the exaltation of Jesus. We will refer to some of them as we proceed. The Creed describes his exaltation when it says that he ‘sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty’. So it connects his exaltation with his ascension. The ascension describes his journey from earth to heaven and his exaltation describes what happened once he reached heaven. Of course, others correctly view the exaltation as beginning with his resurrection, continuing with his ascension to heaven, which is followed by his reign on God’s throne, and including his future activity as the universal judge. Yet there is a sense in which the resurrection and ascension occur prior to the exaltation. Paul in this passage from Philippians places the exaltation at the moment when God the Father gave to Jesus ‘the name that is above every name’, with that name being the title ‘Lord’. No doubt, we have often heard of how Paul se...