DAILY, WEEKEND, AND HOLIDAY INTERNET EVANGELIZE TO THE WORLD MINISTRY

Ordinary Time Proper 1 Isaiah 40:21–31 1 Corinthians 9:16–23 Mark 1:29–39 Nobody in Corinth had seen it before. Nobody had thought of it. It wasn’t on their mental map, any more than it is in our world. So when Paul wanted to tell them that as Christians, working out how to live in a pagan environment, they might face times when they should voluntarily forgo something to which they had a complete right—an intricate but vital principle—the only example he could give of what this might look like was his own. Hence this bit of autobiography, providing a fascinating glimpse of both Paul’s practice and his theory. The underlying point (chapters 8, 10) concerns food offered to idols. Christians, believing in the creator God, are free to eat whatever is sold in the market. But because they believe in this God through the crucified Jesus, their freedom is further defined by the gospel’s confrontation with evil, and by the conscience of fellow-believers. They must not give offence. ...

The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Deuteronomy 18:15–20 Revelation 12:1–5a Mark 1:21–28 Authority, so problematic for us, is central to the biblical message. The Kingdom of God is not a democracy, as a character in Chariots of Fire pointed out. When the [Israelite's] banded together to decide things their own way, they voted either to go back to Egypt or to make a golden calf. Almost the only time the apostles acted unanimously was when ‘they all forsook him and fled’. God’s redemptive word of authority, calling us to order, breaks through the noise of humans stampeding in the wrong direction. Admitting this means swallowing pride. Refusing to recognize it means conniving at self-destruction. Lemmings all go together when they go. And yet. We learnt long ago that power corrupts; we learnt more recently that all authority is to be distrusted. Humanly speaking these are important lessons. Yet one can no more live on suspicion than one can eat a Marxist tract. Without trust bre...

The Second Sunday of Epiphany 1 Samuel 3:1–10 [ 11–20 ] Revelation 5:1–10 John 1:43–51 The [ Word ] of the Lord was rare in Eli’s day . The scroll remained sealed until the Lamb appeared. Nathanael sat under his fig tree, unknown, undisturbed. Not because God  couldn't speak or didn’t care, but because his foolishness is wiser , as always, than human wisdom. A voice in the night at Shiloh . A man from Nazareth , the town from which no good comes. A Lamb that had been slain. The strange stamp of authenticity. Eli , old, blind and no longer in control, still recognizes the source and the method, even though the new word brings judgement on his family. ‘It is YHWH ; let him do what seems good to him .’ The previous chapter chronicles the disobedience of his sons, the growth of Samuel , and the earlier warnings. Now the scene is set for the new thing Israel’s God will do, and it will begin with the [ Word ] , initially misunderstood but finally unmistakable: a g...

The Second Sunday of Epiphany 1 Samuel 3:1–10 [11–20] Revelation 5:1–10 John 1:43–51 The word of the Lord was rare in Eli’s day. The scroll remained sealed until the Lamb appeared. Nathanael sat under his fig tree, unknown, undisturbed. Not because God  couldn't speak or didn’t care, but because his foolishness is wiser , as always, than human wisdom . A voice in the night at Shiloh . A man from Nazareth , the town from which no good comes . A Lamb that had been slain . The strange stamp of authenticity. Eli , old, blind and no longer in control, still recognizes the source and the method, even though the new word brings judgement on his family. ‘It is YHWH ; let him do what seems good to him.’ The previous chapter chronicles the disobedience of his sons, the growth of Samuel , and the earlier warnings. Now the scene is set for the new thing Israel’s God will do, and it will begin with the word, initially misunderstood but finally unmistakable: a gentle repeate...

The First Sunday of Epiphany Genesis 1:1–5 Acts 19:1–7 Mark 1:4–11 Wind and water. Light and dark. Heaven and earth. The beginning. There is a quiet joy about the opening of Genesis . Quiet, not because it’s only slightly exciting, but because we know at once that these are the soft opening notes of a theme that will grow and swell, rise and develop, until the whole orchestra has joined in with wild, exuberant harmony and counterpoint. Even that will only be the completion of the beginning. God saw that it was good. But there is more. The wind of God sweeps over the waters. Difficult to know how much to hear in that phrase. ‘Wind’ is the same Hebrew word as ‘spirit’ , or even ‘Spirit’ ; there is a good deal to be said for thinking that the writer, editor(s) and transmitters of Genesis 1 would not have made the finicky post-Enlightenment distinctions that we do. A full range of meaning is available, from ‘a mighty wind’ through to ‘God’s Spirit’ . The wind blows where i...