• BST Kings

    Author: John W Olley

    Author’s preface. How long does it take to prepare a sermon? ‘All of my life up till now’ fits my reading of 1 and 2 Kings. I am grateful to parents and church leaders who started me early on Scripture Union readings covering the whole Bible regularly, including Kings. The first Sunday School class I taught made a model of Solomon’s temple and while a university student my participation in Beach Missions included dramatising Josiah’s discovery of the Book of the Law. Stories of Elijah on Mount Carmel and Naaman’s healing had their place in sermons I heard and preached. These were however generally treated as isolated stories, not part of an extended narrative. Studies for pastoral ministry at Morling College, Sydney, helped me to look carefully at the biblical text itself and I saw how much the Old Testament related to everyday life, especially when taken in large blocks. That did not sit easily with readings in church services and ‘sermon texts’ being much shorter. Teaching in Hong Kong for a decade brought fresh challenges – I began to see how my own cultural background influenced my reading of Scripture. 

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