The Narrow Path

  Tuesday, July 1, 2025 Psalms 1; 2 1 Samuel 22:6-23 Acts 14:8-18 Observance: Coming Of The Light, first missionaries to the Torres Strait (1871) Not Without Witness (Acts 14:17) [Paul and Barnabas said to the crowds] “Yet God did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” I must admit that it is difficult to try and figure out what the ancient pagans thought about their false gods. When reading through the ancient epics, the way the gods are described makes it almost sound like they are poetic devices used to describe human activity. For example, during a great battle, Ares the god of war might appear in the form of a certain human warrior. Is this to say that they actually believed Ares came down and shape-shifted into this person everyone knew? Where was that person when Ares was around – were there two of them walking around the battlefie...

  Monday, June 30, 2025 Psalms 148; 149 1 Samuel 21:8-22:5 Acts 14:1-7 Everyone Who Was In Distress (1 Samuel 22:2)   And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to David. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men. Being on the receiving end of harsh criticism is tough. We all like to think we are doing the right thing, all the time. But being on the receiving end of a compliment is often more difficult. Particularly if you have spent some time sitting with Jesus’ teachings about humility and self-emptying. But sometimes (well, more often than we would like) we are actually the right man for the job, as it were. Being a Christian in a world of confusion means we often have that needed word of encouragement, or a greater degree of wisdom than our peers, or find ourselves as the one person in the group with the most generous and patient heart. Ha...

  Saturday, June 28, 2025 Psalms 143; 146 1 Samuel 20:35-21:7 Acts 13:42-52 Observance: Irenaeus of Lyons, bishop and teacher (d. c. 200) Begging To Be Told (Acts 13:42) As [Paul and his companions] went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. There is a line from an Anglican priest, I cannot remember, who complained that whenever St Paul preached there was either a riot or a revival. Yet whenever he preached, he got served tea. When I first heard that it cut me deep – the worst response I ever got from a sermon was that it was “a lovely speech”. These are important things for every Christian to bear in mind when labouring as members of Christ’s body to bring in his lost sheep. What works? What doesn’t? What is the best way to make more Christians? What will make people sit up and listen to us? Some preachers will go into the depth of human sin and depravity, hoping that the Holy Spirit will convi...

  Friday, June 27, 2025 Psalm 140 1 Samuel 20:12-34 Acts 13:26-41 Observance: Cyril of Alexandria, bishop and teacher (d. 444) Swear By His Love (1 Samuel 20:17) And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul. The greatest tales in history that tell of glorious deeds, honourable people, acts of bravery, and all those wonderful sorts of things find their basis in the type of love that God commanded us in Leviticus and later in Jesus to “love your neighbour as yourself”. This type of love has a depth like no other type of allegiance or affection. Jonathan loved David as he loved his own soul, and asked David to swear on that love. To make an oath on the basis of this divine love is to make a promise that one can trust. The trust of the oath is not demanded by anything so base as money or duty, which can change hands. The love of God that inspires us to love one another grips us so tightly th...

  Thursday, June 26, 2025 Psalms 137; 138 1 Samuel 19:18-20:11 Acts 13:13-25 Kill Me Yourself (1 Samuel 20:8) [David said to Jonathan] “Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father?” Getting into trouble is no fun. Especially if you don’t know what you have done to cause the trouble. Even more so if you actually haven’t caused any trouble yourself, but all the trouble is become someone else has problems they need to deal with themselves. And this is where David finds himself. Saul is jealous for his throne, but God is taking it away from him. David is the unlucky one who finds himself in the position of being the one to replace Saul, and so Saul is out for blood. As we read in today’s lesson from Acts, David was man after God’s own heart. This is a phrase we find in scripture, even though w...

  Wednesday, June 25, 2025 Psalm 135 1 Samuel 19:1-17 Acts 13:1-12 His Name Is Pleasant (Psalm 135:3) Praise the Lord , for the Lord is good;     sing to his name, for it is pleasant! Church music is one of those topics that a minister should almost never get involved with. If the music in church is mostly sound, then happy days – leave it there. Because the topic of church music is more divisive than politics. Just have quick thought experiment. What do you think is more important: the red party versus the blue party, or hymns versus praise songs? If you had a strong response in either direction, then congratulations, you understand the problem. But back a long time ago during my time at the Conservatorium, there was never a problem like that. All music was mostly fine; the question rather was whether a particular piece of music was derivative or not. That is, was a certain piece of music truly an artist’s personal expressi...

  Tuesday, June 24, 2025 Psalms 130; 131; 133 1 Samuel 18:17-30 Acts 12:12-25 Observance: The Birth of John the Baptist Give God The Glory (Acts 12:23)   Immediately an angel of the Lord struck Herod down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. There is an Australian historian who makes a compelling suggestion to explain our national political culture. He looked at how the first colonies functioned; specifically with regards to the commissariat. If a farmer had a tough year, he expected the governor to open the shed and share government supplies with his family. If, on the other hand, the farmer had a bumper crop and the market could not afford to absorb his stock, he expected the governor to pay a fair rate and buy his excess. It all comes down to the politics of food – and today’s account of Herod’s death in Acts is the same. There was a famine, and the people were arguing with Herod ...

  Monday, June 23, 2025 Psalms 124; 125; 126 1 Samuel 17:55-18:16 Acts 12:1-11 Souls Knit Together (1 Samuel 18:1) As soon as David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. There’s a gag floating around observing the fact the Jesus’ greatest miracle was having twelve close friends in his early thirties. But perhaps it is not as much of a gag as it sounds – close friendship is something reliable when we are children, but, like our backs, gets more difficult as we get older. C. S. Lewis’s famous work The Four Loves goes into far greater detail than I can about the different types of friendship, affection, and, yes, love. He draws on Classical definitions, and there are some great categories he comes up with. But while we can be as academic as we like about relationships, it still needs to actually be done in order to happen. The friendship between David and Jonathon i...

  Saturday, June 21, 2025 Psalms 121; 122; 123 1 Samuel 17:41-54 Acts 11:19-30 That All The Earth May Know (1 Samuel 17:46-47)   [David said to Goliath,] “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord 's, and he will give you into our hand.” Please bear with me; comparing these speeches of David alongside Homer’s in the Iliad just makes life more exciting. I wonder if it is a boy thing, to enjoy a jolly good taunt before a big fight scene. David isn’t the only one (nor is Homer) – Arnie had plenty, as did Aragorn and James Bond. When the good guy stands up to put down the baddie once and for all,...

  Friday, June 20, 2025 Psalms 114; 115 1 Samuel 17:24-40 Acts 11:1-18 Untested Armour (1 Samuel 17:39) ...and David strapped his sword over his armour. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off. Reading about the exploits of David alongside Homer’s Iliad, it is exciting to get some wider context on ancient warfare. The ancient Greek waxes lyrical about gleaming bronze armour, martial prowess with spears, and terrifying sword-work. As champions boast at each other from either army on the shores of Troy, arrows fly out. Men bravely charge, blinding sunlight bouncing off polished bronze, spears are thrust through breastplates, swords chop through limbs, and men succumb to “the hateful darkness” of death. There is every reason to suspect that the experience of the Israelites and Philistines were no different. Yet when David comes onto the ...

  Thursday, June 19, 2025 Psalms 110; 111 1 Samuel 17:1-23 Acts 10:34-48 Observance: Thanksgiving for Holy Communion And David Heard Him (1 Samuel 17:23)   As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. Boyhood lasts far longer than it ought to. In the schoolyard, boys find trouble, word spreads from the students to the teachers, and then the headmaster walks up to the calls of “you’re in trouble now!” The same situation repeats itself again and again on the streets outside clubs at night – young men, or hairy boys, do silly things, the bobbies arrive, and the same phrase rings out, just this time with years of practise, “you’re in trouble now!” While we may feel this phrase is suitable for immature situations, there are also times in situations with more serious consequences when it comes to mind. S...

  Wednesday, June 18, 2025 Psalm 107:1-22 1 Samuel 16 Acts 10:17-33 If They Hear About This… (1 Samuel 16:2) And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord .’ Have you ever been unwillingly drawn into what you thought was a conspiracy? Our consciences can be unpleasant things, niggling at us, arguing with us. This is exactly where the prophet Samuel found himself. The Lord had told him to go and anoint a new king; yet Samuel was worried that a coup, no matter how divinely inspired, would be the end of him (and quite possibly justifiably so). In reply to his worries, the Lord gives him a cover story. Take the required sacrifice. Is God being sneaky here? Is Samuel to pretend he is going to offer a sacrifice, when in reality he is going to overthrow the king? Actually, the Lord re-frames the issue entirely. This is not a coup, rather ...

  Tuesday, June 17, 2025 Psalm 106:1-24 1 Samuel 15:17-35 Acts 10:1-16 Little In Our Own Eyes (1 Samuel 15:17) And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.” Humility is a great Christian characteristic. Our Lord has a humble heart, and he teaches us to follow him in this attitude. And so we should make sure to reflect on what makes humility, because there is so much opportunity to get it wrong. King Saul was accused by the prophet Samuel of a misguided humility. The king had, apparently, a poor sense of himself; we might call it something approaching low self-esteem. He was “little in his own eyes”. Here is our lesson in avoiding false humility. Saul’s false humility was not a veil covering pride underneath; his false humility expressed itself in a couple of other ways. First was the problem of low self-esteem. Saul saw himself as of not much con...

  Monday, June 16, 2025 Psalm 105:1-22 1 Samuel 14:52-15:16 Acts 9:32-43 Calling And Presenting (Acts 9:41) And Peter gave Dorcas his hand and raised her up. Then, calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. There is a certain preaching technique that we all get taught about that I think every Christian should have on their mind. I am referring to the art of the illustration. A lot of our faith rests on either an internal and experiential knowledge of the reality of the triune God, or a big load of abstract theological systems, or a mix of both. While both are good, they are also difficult to communicate to others in a way that really gets to the root of what Christianity is all about in the day-to-day life of the believer. And so we have illustrations – it is like something out in the world that we all understand. Jesus was great at illustrations. We all remember his illustration of the preached word like seed falling on different type...

  Saturday, June 14, 2025 Psalms 108; 109:20-30 Ruth 4 Acts 3:17-4:4 To Perpetuate The Name (Ruth 4:10) Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.” There was a certain European aristocrat, a man of noble birth. One day he received a call from God to leave his wealth, his palace, his family and his homeland to go and be a missionary. His humility and love for the Gospel over his own self-interest is admirable. Ironically, he is remembered for a quote: “preach the gospel, die and be forgotten.” Far from being forgotten, Nikolaus Ludwig, the Count von Zizendorf, is still remembered over 300 years later, both for his famous quote, and his famous aversion to fame. Our desire to be remembered after our death; to have done something of wo...

  Friday, June 13, 2025 Psalms 101; 102:1-11 Ruth 3 Acts 3:1-16 Observance: Antony of Padua, missionary and preacher (d. 1231) Integrity Of Heart (Psalm 101:2) I will ponder the way that is blameless.     Oh when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart     within my house. As we read through Ruth it is difficult not to be encouraged by the integrity of each of the characters. Naomi returns to her hometown in her widowhood, trusting in the goodness of her people to support her. Ruth holds to her mother-in-law with a duty infused with love – a true and honest loyalty. Both women trust in the culture of “redemption”; that is, in a society where women are easily exploited, it is the responsibility of the men to care for and support them. Boaz, the ideal “redeemer”, does not take advantage of this younger woman who approaches him at night, and not only acts with integrity towards her in what woul...

  Thursday, June 12, 2025 Psalms 99; 100 Ruth 2 Acts 2:37-47 Whose Are You? (Ruth 2:5) Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” It’s not a bad question that Boaz raises, and it’s not a bad question we should ask ourselves. “Who am I?” is a question that seems to confound the modern thinker; and the modern answer seems to be “whoever you want”. Yet I would like to keep thinking about how this book of Ruth tells us our family history. Because our family often defines who we are. Think about your own immediate family: are you the type of person who hugs? That is a family tradition. How do you use cutlery? Do you scoop your rice with your fork, or do you push rice onto the back of your fork with your knife? That is a family tradition. Do you consider coarse language a sign of ones social class or intelligence? That is a family a tradition. All these little things we pick up from our family all add to...

  Wednesday, June 11, 2025 Psalms 95; 96 Ruth 1 Acts 2:22-36 Observance: Barnabas, apostle and martyr One Of His Descendants (Acts 2:30-31) Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, [David] foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. I don’t know about you, but when I come across a bit of the Bible like the beginning of Ruth, I am suddenly transported back to being a small child. I feel like I am sitting cross-legged on the floor as the teacher opens up a big picture-book and begins to read out a story. “Once upon a time there was a certain family who lived in a village…” Most of those old children’s stories are intended to give us a few lessons: one is to imbibe our small minds with picturesque ideals of virtue and living. Loving families, courageous characters, peaceful h...

  Tuesday, June 10, 2025 Psalms 92; 93 Deuteronomy 6:4-25 Acts 2:14-24 A Heart Of Love (Deuteronomy 6:5-6) You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. I have heard, more than once, the idea that the God portrayed in each of our two Testaments in the Bible are two different Gods. You may have heard it yourself: that the God of the Old Testament is a violent, angry God, while the God of the New Testament is loving and gentle. It is an ancient idea, and we even have a name for it: the heresy of Marcionism. It is a heresy because it is not true, and it gets its name after the first person to suggest it publicly. We need not accept this simply because the Church teaches it. We can see for ourselves, by reading our Bible, that in the Old Testament there is a lot from God (through his prophets in particular) about how much he love...