The great Christian hymn Be Thou My Vision has this fantastic little line in it that I'm sure you're all familiar with: 'thou my best thought'. It sounds a bit awkward on it's own actually, but it's a wonderful aspiration for Christians - that the Lord, the one true living God himself would be the best thought that have. Being a preacher, I suppose I'm in the privileged position of having more dedicated opportunities that many to cultivate those 'best thoughts'. And, having been appointed the pastor of a local church this year, the preaching and the thoughts have ramped right up. So, as the year 2023 magnanimously bows out, what has been my best thought about God this year? Well, I think it has to be from Song of Songs chapter 4. Verse 9 says this (NASB): You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride; You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes... And the thought that this verse led me too, was the delectable notion
I had every intention of writing a few more of these 'Simpsons Theology' posts. I suppose I also had every intention of putting new insulation in the loft. It's never too late to start the things you want to do, though, is it? So here we go, another bit of insight from the minds of the writers of The Simpsons. The Simpsons Season 13, 2001 Episode 6: She of Little Faith The writers of The Simpsons aren't good theologians, by the way. That's not what I mean by a series called Simpsons Theology. Sometimes they do get some things right, most of the time they get it wrong, occasionally they think they've nailed it and try to correct the Church... But that's another episode and another blog. So it's not about the theological insights they offer. It's about the cultural observations they make about Christianity which Christians can then interpret theologically. A show like The Simpsons is interesting because it gives a glimpse into how the world perceives C