Streams of Living Water

Read: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Last week, I saw a billboard poster for a prominent British insurance firm recently with the message, “There is only one predictable thing in life – the future is unpredictable.” Now there’s a sense in which I understand what the insurer is saying, but there’s another sense in which that’s just plain not true – that’s just a gimmick to get you to buy their insurance products – that should be prosecuted under trading standards legislation, because you see the problem is that ultimately, the future is 100% predictable. We know the future for 100% of us here today, like as not, will be death and the grave. Every one of us will die – from the oldest to the youngest, from the fittest to the laziest, from the poorest to the richest – we all know the future – and it ain’t orange – the future is dead. We don’t know is when, where or how it will happen, but we know it will. How dark the future is! Read the rest of this entry »

Psalm 98:1-9
Are we living in a gloomy society? Are you a gloomy person? I sometimes think that Scotland didn’t exist, the share price in the company which produces Prozac would plummet. Scots are by nature gloomy and depressive people – the glass is always half empty. But tonight, I want to look at God’s remedy to our gloom – Psalm 98. Read the rest of this entry »

Read: John 14:13, 14
What is sharper, the scabbard or the sword – the leather casing the sword is stored in, or the sword itself? Of course, it is the sword. What is stronger, to pray and put at the end of each prayer, “for Jesus’ sake”, or to really pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So often, when we are praying, we superstitiously use the mere name of Jesus as a full stop or a way of being confident that God will listen to us. But that is to be a prayer warrior with a scabbard and no sword. Rather, we long to pray with true power and effectiveness, and according to the Shorter Catechism A.98, that is achieved by praying in the name of Christ. Read the rest of this entry »

Read: Psalm 51:1-19
To get a politician to say sorry, is like trying to get a chicken to fly. Sorry is the hardest word. If we find it hard to say sorry to other people, do we find it hard to say sorry to God? How do we say sorry to God for all the ways in which we sin against Him? In A. 98 of the Shorter Catechism we are told that it is through prayer, and particularly prayer ‘with confession of our sins’. Confession of sin – saying sorry to God – is a vital part of prayer. I want to ask three questions tonight about the link between prayer and the confession of our sins to God. Read the rest of this entry »

Read: Psalm 13:1-6
Frederick Douglass was born in 1818 in the American state of Maryland. Born the illegitimate son of a black slave woman and her white plantation master, Douglass was raised in slavery. In 1838 Douglass escaped from slavery and in later years became one of America’s most prominent abolitionists. In 1845 he wrote his first autobiography, a book which has become an American literary classic named, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.” More than any other man, Douglass gives us access into the day to day lives of American slaves. In reading Douglass’s book a couple of years ago, I read a section which changed the way I think about Christian praise, and in particular, why it is that over half the Psalms are given over to mournful laments. Listen to the quote and you’ll understand too: Read the rest of this entry »

In the late 1840’s, Hugh Miller, instead of going for his annual break to Orkney, decided to go to England instead. When he was staying in Manchester, he decided one Lord’s Day to worship at the collegiate chapel. That particular Sunday was St. Bartholomew’s Day - notorious among Protestants for the memorial of the massacre of the French Hugenots. The Liberal Preacher in the collegiate chapel preached that day on the importance of observing Saints Days. There follows a hilarious account of Miller’s experience there:

First, Miller’s impression of the gargoyles on the wall - “Not a few of the carvings which decorate every patch of wall are of the most ludicrous character. Rows of grotesque heads look down into the nave from the spandrels; some twist their features to the one side of the face, some to the other; some wink hard, as if exceedingly in joke; some troll out their tongue; some give expression to a lugubrious mirth, others to a ludicrous sorrow.”

Second, Miller’s impression of the impact of the sermon on Saint’s Days, - “I looked round me to see how the congregation was taking all this, but the congregation bore the tranquil air of people quite used to such sermons. There were a good many elderly gentlemen who had dropped asleep, and a good many more who seemed speculating in cotton (Manchester was the cotton capital of Britain at the time); but the general aspect was one of heavy inattentive decency: there was, in short, no class of countenances within the building that bore the appropriate expression, save the stone countenances on the wall.”

Let’s give God thanks for those bastions of truth which are emerging in today’s Anglican community! And let’s pray that those who are truly listening to our preaching (and not just asleep) may not have recourse to the expressions of the gargoyles!

P.S. There are no stone gargoyles on the inside of St. V’s - only on the outside. Perhaps their pained expressions should mirror our expressions of grief at the moral and spiritual decline in the city…

Read: Psalm 30
As Christmas time approaches, the selection of films on the television becomes very predictable indeed. Like as not, over the next couple of weeks we’ll have films on we’ve seen a hundred times before, like The Sound of Music, or The Wizard of Oz. But there’s one film I personally never tire of watching – It’s a Wonderful Life with James Stewart. We all know the story – it’s a story of a great turnaround in the life of a going down businessman. We like it, not just because it’s a great story but because James Stewart is such a likeable guy that we want to see his life turned around. As human beings we love the great turnaround stories where good triumphs over evil. Psalm 30 is an example of the ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ theme in the Book of Psalms where we start off in a pit but we end on a pinnacle, we start off on a low, but end on a high. It is the third example of the genre of Psalms we are looking at – a Psalm of Thanksgiving. And I want to see three things about this turnaround Psalm tonight: Read the rest of this entry »

(So, Hugh Miller’s spent the day in Stratford upon Avon and now makes his way to Olney, to spend the night there. But when he gets there, the innkeeper informs him that there will be a bare-knuckle boxing championship tomorrow and there is no room for him. He advises him to try the next village of Newport Pagnell. As he leaves Olney, he meets the policeman who warns him that the 4 mile walk to Newport, although very peaceful, is dangerous, since many robberies have already taken place on the road that same evening. Our intrepid Black-Isler won’t be disuaded and begins his trek. And now comes Miller-time…) Read the rest of this entry »