Simon Says ...

A sermon for Trinity 13 Mark 7.1-8,14-15,21-23. ‘Gospel’ means simply good news, and the Gospel reading this morning is just that – good news.   But whilst it is good news for anyone; it transpires that it is not good news for everyone. The lectionary gets a little squeamish this morning – it wants to spare you particular Jewish customs and Jesus talking about bodily functions. I however think you can cope, and so have read the whole of the passage from Mark! In those missing verses we hear this: “Thus he declared all foods clean”. If only it were so simple. In fact, what Mark summarises as a very straightforward piece of teaching took much of the first generation of the church to work out. The letters of Paul show a good deal of evidence that the church fought bitter battles over the question of whether Gentiles had to become Jews first before they could become Christians.   Frankly, it took the Roman destruction of Jerusalem to really settl...

Taking the Fear out of Bible Reading - Book launch How to Read the Bible (without switching off your brain) by Simon J. Taylor £9.99   •   paper   •   ISBN   978 0 281 07380 1 •   17 September 2015 The book will be launched at Evensong in Derby Cathedral on Sunday 13 th September at 6.00pm with drinks following the service. Copies of the book will be available at a special launch day price! This book offers Bible reading for everyone. It speaks to those who already read the Bible but find themselves asking why; and to those who don’t read the Bible but would like to if only it weren’t so strange. It explains what the Bible is, offers an overview of what is found in it, and addresses questions people ask, such as: Does science disprove the Bible? Why is there so much violence in the Bible? What does the Bible say about sex? The author also presents an account of reading the Bib...

Review of Tom Wright, Simply Good News: Why the Gospel in News and What Makes it Good (SPCK, 2015). A new Tom Wright book is often a treat, but I confess to being a little under-inspired by the title of this one.   Perhaps it sounded like just another book on the Gospels and their historical basis.   I was wrong, this book has lots to say and is more than another history of Jesus. In fact this is a book about evangelism, about the practice of commending Christian faith to those who are outside the church.   What Wright does really well is to use his knowledge of history to explain what telling the gospel meant in the New Testament and what the implications of that are for today. He starts from the (hardly controversial) observation that the gospel is good news.   That is simply what the Greek work euangelion (gospel) means.   It was used to announce the births, successions and victories of Roman emperors.   Rather b...

A sermon for Trinity 12. John 6.56-69 I want to begin with a question and a warning.   First the question: What sort of a god do you want?   That is the question that our Gospel reading sets before us this morning.   What sort of a god do you want?   Perhaps before we go any further it is worth taking a moment to reflect on that question.   What sort of a god do you want? PAUSE I’m not going to ask you to share your reflections with anyone else.   But try to hold them in your mind as you go through the remainder of the service.   Now, however, comes the warning.   “This teaching is difficult.”   That’s what Jesus’ disciples say to him.   “This teaching is difficult.” This encounter comes at the end of a long sermon that Jesus has given after the feeding of the five thousand.   Positively he has been teaching that the feeding points to something about himself.   “I am”, he tells them, “t...