Sermons and Singles

Single of the week has just been updated, and I’ve chosen Nine Million Bicycles by Katie Melua - a really delightful and smooth Blues number.

Once again: by clicking on ‘Single of the Week’ on my side bar, you will be taken, if you have iTunes installed, to a 30 second music sample of the track, and the chance to download it if you want.

This morning kicked off with a fine sermon by Professor Hermann Lichtenberger, on Rom 7:14-25. Having just written a book on the subject (Das Ich Adams und das Ich der Menschheit: Studien zum Menschenbild in Römer 7, [Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004]), his message was meaty, but also clear and direct. I felt confronted by the absolute seriousness and extent of sin, and the manner of Paul’s approach to the problem, in contrast to that evidenced in the striking Greco-Roman and Aristotelian parallels. Whereas the latter spoke about meditation on the consequences of one’s actions to enable the person to not only know the right thing but also do it, Paul would never have said such a thing. ‘Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!’ was the Apostle’s cry.

It was a pity that he didn’t engage at all with those various approaches to Rom 7 that understand it as speaking of the plight of Israel (as in Wright), and one wonders if the text was treated a touch anachronistically - but this reaction could be way of mark. It was a powerful and, for me at least, moving sermon.

I missed last week’s sermon on Mark 7:14-23 by Professor Eberhard Jüngel, and I was assured after the service by a couple of regular members that it was indeed very powerful and thought-provoking. Next time, dear Prof. Jüngel, I will most certainly be there!