Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

In the preceding passages, Solomon comments on various unfair aspects of life that he had observed including injustice, oppression, greed and achievements. Yet he also realised that one dark shadow lurked over all people and that was death. Therefore it was not surprising that life seemed meaningless because no matter what one did it would end. In the verses we are going to consider he turns his penetrating eye on to another common activity – religion. I suppose from one point of view his comments here are connected to something he had done for the benefit of the people. After all, he had built the house of God for the purpose of them gathering there to worship him. Did the fact that some people used it wrongly cause him to have a sense of pointlessness? Of course, he could hardly point the finger at others since he had later build places of worship for false gods. Solomon would have seen large crowds gather in the temple in Jerusalem to worship God. He himself would have part...

Preached on 30/3/2014 The Saviour has just instructed his disciples that they should love one another, with the guaranteed outcome that the world would then know that they are his disciples. Therefore, one would have expected the reaction of the disciples to involve asking Jesus in what ways they could love one another. Yet there is no hint that this type of question crossed their minds. Instead Peter asked a question about a matter that Jesus said they could not appreciate at the time. We could say that Peter was guilty of inappropriate curiosity and this attitude prevented him seeing the importance of a loving, practical, Christian outlook.     Jesus revealed his patience towards Peter by expanding on where he was going and what it would mean for Peter. Jesus may have referred to his going to the cross when he said that Peter would eventually follow him because Peter suffered crucifixion many years later. But it is more likely that Jesus was referring to heaven beca...

Preached on 30/3/2014 The inclusion of this affirmation in the Apostles Creed informs us that those who compiled it regarded the church very highly. Yet today the church is often the victim of critics on one hand (who highlight her faults) and consumers on the other (who are in it for what they can get out of it). They expected Christians to have a grasp of the significance of the church and to be conscious of it whenever they gathered together. As we can see, the description of the people of God contains the definite article, two adjectives and a noun. At all times, grammar is important and we should notice when a statement is precise in a grammatical manner. The definite article reminds us that there is only one church, at least one in the sense that ‘church’ is used here. Church Today it is common to use the word ‘church’ to describe a religious building. The word is never used in that way in the Bible. We are delighted to have a very good building, but it is not an accur...

The opening verses of Ecclesiastes 3 are well known as a folk song from the 1960s, although I suspect most people today will not know where they come from originally. Yet even those who do know where they are from might not be able to state what they mean. The words are true to life, some might say. But I suspect that the question we should ask is whether or not they describe true life rather than being merely true to life. After all, since the words come in contrasting pairs, perhaps the author is saying that life is meaningless, that no matter what you try to do, the opposite will also always occur. Or is he saying that life is full of variety, that we should not be presumptuous about anything remaining the same? To whom do the times belong? In verse 11, the author says that times belong to God, that he is involved in them. As we read the list of scenarios we can see that one thing the author is saying is that the ‘times’ are inescapable. Clearly this perspective could distu...