Delicious Food in Coach C

I was mildly irritated at Preston railway station on Friday morrning. My train to Coventry was delayed by nine minutes and the recorded announcement kept telling us about the exciting prospect of Coach C, wherefrom “delicious hot and cold food” was being served. Not only did the train’s absence make this repeated boast increasingly annoying, I always rather thought that it was the punters’ job to determine whether the food was delicious, not the recording’s. That food was served might be a fact; whether it was delicious was a matter of taste, and one untested while that train dawdled somewhere around Lancaster. Once aboard, I never did sample Avanti’s culinary delights; leaving one’s baggage unattended is seldom wise in 2020s’ Britain.

Whereas most train station announcements are garbled, muffled, repetitive and occasionally helpful, they are generally factual: the 9.18 is departing from Platform 3. The 9.18 is delayed. The buffet car is found in Coach C. To describe the food as delicious, or the driver as handsome, or the on-board atmosphere as convivial, are not claims we might expect to hear from an automated public address system. Pulpits are not dissimiliar, even though they are occupied by men of flesh and blood. Assuming preachers are not reliant on artificial intelligence like ChatGPT, we are not hearing unfeeling robots. Yet the pulpit is not the place to share fancies, opinions and sentiments. Although a theological persuasion is likely to colour one’s thoughts, and some texts are open to interpretation, Sunday preaching should be clear, untainted, objective and crisp. Discussion about alternative interpretations might be had at a Bible Study, but the Sunday sermon is more elevated. Political preferences, economic mores and religious hobbyhorses should find there no place; there, it is Christ and His gospel which are announced and proclaimed- no more, no less.

For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. 2 Corinthians 4:5