Small Group Notes for 28th June 2026 - Boasting about tomorrow
N.B. Sermon can be heard via our website and YouTube channel and the Paper Service version is on our website: https://parishofmedsteadandfourmarks.co.uk/online-church/paper-services/
Read: James 4:13-17
Maybe I am sometimes in danger of seeing people like James – who I have enjoyed so much these last weeks – as being somehow ‘super-human’, his every word a priceless pearl dropped from heaven. But more often these days I look for the man. Here he asks me: ‘What is my life?’, a question so deep it is still without an answer. He asks: ‘How impermanent is my life?’ I’ve been in hospital too often, not to know. These I think are the answers of someone who has lived.
Nevertheless, I sometimes need a shake-up, like the one James is giving me here. So … … …
At the heart of our reading lies the word ‘boasting’. If you’ve never read Paul in 2 Corinthians:11:16 and come away perplexed, I would be surprised. So, what is ‘boasting’, how do you understand it? How can ‘boasting’ be ‘good’ as well as ‘bad’?
What is James saying about it? What does Paul mean?