Dr Brendan Murphy was the Chief Medical Officer of the Commonwealth during most of the Covid crisis.
Dr Murphy’s presence at the many press conferences was quietly reassuring.
It was a surprise, then, that at a Senate Estimates hearing, when he was asked, ‘Dr Murphy, what is a woman?’ he could not reply, saying that that was a highly contested area!
In my lifetime different areas of Christian truth have aptly matched the needs of the time; in the ’60s it was the authority of Scripture; in the ’70s it was the person and work of the Holy Spirit; in the ’80s and ’90s, I remember hearing John Stott say that if he were to begin parish ministry at that time, he would spend the first year preaching on the doctrine of the Church.
These are days of gender fluidity and identity issues wherein ‘what is a woman’ is a contested area. They are days of imposed tolerance where the ‘acceptable’ Christian must not make judgements on others but give widespread approval, the concept of sin being itself debatable. The doctrine which fits the hour is what used to be called, the Doctrine of Man and Sin – what does the Bible teach about the nature of humanity, gender, identity and nature of sin, and our relationship with it?
Last week I listened to a discussion of AI’s understanding of people; when I converse with ChatGPT does it treat me as a person or as a marketing unit?
In our church recently we have been hearing preaching on the early chapters of Genesis; it has been refreshingly contemporary. Alastair Paine’s book, ‘The First Chapters of Everything,’ has been a very helpful commentary on this section of Scripture.
Preaching on the doctrines of Man and Sin is so appropriate for the 2020s and a good place to do that is from Scripture’s Wisdom literature.
In Proverbs 30:19 Agur says that one of the four things that are too wonderful for him to understand is ‘the way of a man with a maiden.’ One of the most fundamental human relationships is the relationship of a man and a woman; how can we understand it ? Elsewhere in Wisdom, in the Song of Songs, we have a whole book about that relationship; what value there would be in doing in a 4 week series on that neglected book.
How to live wisely in the various everyday places and complexities of life – that’s Proverbs.
What is the way of true blessing for a young man or woman (the wisdom Psalm 1); What does godly femininity look like (Proverbs 31); how can a young man keep his way straight (Psalm 119); what to do when life doesn’t seem to match God’s promises (Psalm 73 and the whole of Job); where can I find true meaning and purpose (Ecclesiastes).
The preacher of Wisdom will never be accused of being anything but contemporary.
And of course, our wisdom literature extends to the book of James in the New Testament and the Apostle Paul makes it clear that the truly spiritual person, the wise person, is the one who understands the Cross of Christ. In fact he placed a value of nothing on everything else in order to preach ‘Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (1 Cor 2:2) and ‘Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God’ (1 Cor 1:30).
ChatGPT attributes the saying, ‘cometh the hour cometh the man,’ as close to Sir Walter Scott as to anyone. But cometh the 2020s and I am glad to have Scripture’s wisdom to preach.
The Trust is holding its annual Preaching Workshop at Drummoyne, 4-6 August on Preaching Wisdom Literature, we still have one place vacant!
David Cook.