The music is playing loudly, people are dancing, laughing, chatting and drinking. Then someone comes into the room, switches the lights on, turns the music down, looks around scowling and says “please tone it down.” Then the best man goes across to them and says “excuse me but you’ve just interrupted a wedding.” You walk… Continue reading New (Matthew 9:14-17)
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On wishing politicians dead
On wishing someone else dead “We should rejoice that this dictator is dead” said the preacher, to audible gasps from the congregation. “My daughter prayed that he would die at our family prayer time yesterday, and it has happened.” He then went on to explain his reasoning. The dictator could either die to himself and… Continue reading On wishing politicians dead
How to be a devil’s advocate
To be honest I’d rather that people wouldn’t. The Devil seems to be perfectly capable of being his own advocate and has a whole following of supporters genuinely willing to advocate for him. Furthermore, too often, it seems to me that “I’m just playing devil’s advocate” is what someone says when their argument has been… Continue reading How to be a devil’s advocate
Overcoming Fear (3) Christ our saviour
Here is the third in our series with a look at 1 John 2:1-6. What does fear have to do with repentance and forgiveness?
We can’t have “British Values” if we want to be truly democratic, tolerant and pluralistic
What does it mean to be British? If we think about it carefully, there are only two things that make you British. You were either born here or you have been given British citizenship. Now, there may be some things that at a certain level unite us together. There is a common language and a… Continue reading We can’t have “British Values” if we want to be truly democratic, tolerant and pluralistic
How we respond to asylum policies is likely to depend on our presuppositions
Steve Kneale has argued here that we need a different type of blue-skies thinking to get to grips with the issue of asylum. He helpfully identifies a number of problems with the current situation and some of the suggested solutions. He then goes on to make some of his own recommendations. The challenge with responding… Continue reading How we respond to asylum policies is likely to depend on our presuppositions
Love Conquers Fear (2) Forgiveness
Here’s the next in our series on “Love that conquers fear.” Today we are looking at the role forgiveness plays (1 John 1:5-10)
What is driving my views – political ideology or theology?
It became rather apparent during lockdown that once again, our country was being divided down fairly familiar lines. I’m not saying that there was an exact like for like, true in every case. However, generally speaking, it seemed possible to divide people into two camps. The first camp was those who were concerned about Global… Continue reading What is driving my views – political ideology or theology?
Matters of conscience and matters of wisdom
This is a quick response to my friend Steve’s article this morning. Today, Steve has commented on the issues with identifying something as a matter of conscience. Some people seem to treat a “matter of conscience” as a kind of subjective route into saying that they can hold to their own personal truth unchallenged. As… Continue reading Matters of conscience and matters of wisdom
When you want to prevent others from receiving forgiveness
It only really struck me with force when I was actually preaching on Sunday. I guess it was because I was preaching specifically on this incident for the first time from Matthew’s Gospel, I’ve spoken on it many times from Luke’s Gospel but not from here. Matthew really brings out the hard hearted merciless ways… Continue reading When you want to prevent others from receiving forgiveness
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