“He didn’t suffer fools gladly” reads the obituary… “Cantankerous old grouch” we imagine… Or at least I do. I might be wrong in the particulars, but that’s how I read the phrase in general. No-one ever does suffer fools gladly. We are only told when someone definitely does not. And since, generally, no-one seems to […]
— The fat-cat who exploits every tax loop-hole imaginable… — The hospital which lets pedantic box-ticking get in the way of patient-care… — The cricketer whose legal ploy is nonetheless “not cricket” (New Zealanders know what I’m talking about)… In all these cases we’d say they obeyed the letter of the law but not the […]
When Monty Python’s Life of Brian came out 30 years ago it caused a tremendous stir. Now there are definitely reasons to object to the film. But we should not object simply because the film makes fun of religious people. Jesus made fun of religious people. Constantly. (e.g. The Mote and the Beam or Straining at […]
Heaven is a world of love. So said Jonathan Edwards in a famous sermon by that title. His text was our verse for today: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) It’s a trio that Paul uses often in his letters to describe the […]
How would you compare life now to life when Jesus returns? So often we think of ‘the here and now’ as the concrete reality and Christ’s future as an ephemeral, ‘wafty’ hope. Paul thought of things precisely the other way around. In the final paragraph of First Corinthians 13, Paul addresses our future hope. When compared […]
First Corinthians 13 is dynamite. It explodes every myth humanity has ever bought about spirituality. As we saw last time, Paul holds out three models of super-spirituality: the ecstatic worshipper, the profound prophet and the stoic do-gooder. And he then detonates a bomb under each of them. None of these super-saints are anything if they […]
Together with the 23rd Psalm, and perhaps John chapter 1, First Corinthians 13 is among the most popular chapters in the Bible. It is read at weddings and at funerals, at state ceremonies, hospital bedsides, school assemblies. It is the go-to Scripture for any and every occasion. It is often simply known as St Paul’s […]
When we hear the phrase we think of two-faced gossips, slick marketing men or political spin doctors. Actually Paul is speaking about a ministry philosophy of deep integrity. He’s talking about a flexibility that seeks to honour something far deeper than cultural expressions. In 1 Corinthians 9 the Apostle is laying bare his modus operandi. He is […]
“I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.” So said French mathematician and Christian thinker Blaise Pascal. Therefore, said Pascal, we fill our lives with diversions so that we might distract ourselves from “our feeble and mortal condition.” In other […]
What would convince the world to believe in God? I once asked an atheist the question: “What would convince you to believe in God?” He answered: “Until god appears before me as a burning bush or I see his picture on the front of popular science magazines I will remain a non-believer.” It strikes me […]
