Kevin Makins - Setting the Table: By the Rivers of Babylon

Psalm 137 & 2 Kings 25

The eighth sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

Tragedy strikes, the walls fall down, Babylon comes, and we find ourselves at the rivers side; sitting, mourning, and wondering ‘where is God?' 

We ask the question 'how can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?' 

Sometimes suffering takes us into exile.

Bill Webb - Holy War and the Christian Conscience

Judges 5 & Deuteronomy 21

The seventh sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

God has rescued Israel, revealed to them how they ought to live, and now has … sent them into war? 

Within the Old Testament there are descriptions of warfare that trouble the soul. 

And they should! There are bloody, brutal, and barbaric texts within our Bible! How can we read these texts? How can we answer question’s about these verses? How can we follow a God who commands such violent acts?

Perhaps the first step is to look at the world in which the Israelites lived, to examine what war looked like then, and to see what God is doing in the midst of a particular time and a particular place.

Is it possible that these troubling texts are actually good news?

Kevin Makins - Setting the Table: Law, or, Put Flesh And Blood On It

Exodus 19-20, Matthew 5 & Galatians 3

The sixth sermon of our 23 week series “Setting the Table” - exploring the narrative of Scripture.

Rescued from slavery, God’s chosen people are led to a mountain where they receive a law they are to live by. 

The idea of “the law” tends to bring to mind lists of rules and regulations; ways we can do “good things” to earn God’s acceptance, and avoid the “bad things” that would make him angry.

But what if this totally misses the point? What if the law is actually far more good and true and beautiful than we think? 

What does the law tell us about humanity, and perhaps more importantly, the God who created us?