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

Lent   The First Sunday of Lent Genesis 9:8–17 1 Peter 3:18–22 Mark 1:9–15 Noah is conspicuously absent from much of the New Testament. When he does appear, as in 1 Peter 3, it isn’t immediately obvious why. Who were those ‘spirits in prison’ from Noah’s day? In what sense did Jesus preach to them? How can Noah’s ark help us understand baptism (apart from the obvious sense of coming through water to salvation)? And how does all this relate to what Peter is saying? He is explaining why it is better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong. Jesus’ innocent suffering, as elsewhere in the letter, is the model for that of Christians. And those who, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, belong to the one true God are assured that, since Jesus is already sovereign over all spiritual and temporal powers, they must not be afraid of what those powers can do to them. Standing before God with a clear conscience (vv. 16, 21), they know that whatever ‘flesh’ can ...

Proper 2 2 Kings 5:1–14 1 Corinthians 9:24–27 Mark 1:40–45 Naaman’s wife’s maid knew more about Elisha’s healing powers than the king of Israel. All the king could do was tear his clothes and rage against his Syrian counterpart, suspecting that a request for healing was a disguised excuse for renewed hostility in their already long-running, and still continuing, border disputes. In such a setting, a concession or a friendly request or gesture is instantly regarded with suspicion. As we know, three thousand years of tussling over territory is not easily forgotten. Could Naaman’s own story—including the verses after our passage ends—indicate ways forward? He, too, one of the great ones in that little world, has to learn from his servants what he could not see for himself: that the humiliation which leads to health is better than the pride which leaves you a leper. The rivers of Damascus were indeed greater than the muddy stream of Jordan, but they had never parted to let God’s...

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 equivalent...

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...