Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
On this first Sunday of Lent, we are reflecting in the lectionary on the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness being tested by Satan, which offers us the pattern for the Lenten period—though it is worth noting at the outset both that the figure 40 in Scripture is often taken as an approximate …
For those using the Revised Common Lectionary, the readings are Genesis 2.4b-9,15-25, Revelation 4 and Luke 8.22-25. The gospel reading is very short, and is set alongside two other significant readings that it might be odd to by-pass. I therefore share two reflections I have written on Genesis 2, and two on Revelation 4. The comments on Genesis …
I think I had been aware of The Bible Project very vaguely in the past, but for some reason only looked at it more carefully when someone told me how helpful they had found it in the last few days. I am not sure whether lots of friends are using it and just haven’t mentioned …
This Sunday’s lectionary reading is Luke 6.17–26, this gospel’s version of the Beatitudes. One of the most obvious questions arising from the reading is how they relate to the Beatitudes as recorded in Matt 5.1–12. This might seem like a distraction to preaching on the passage itself, but I think there are three reasons why …
Will Jones writes: The Bishop of Bangor in the Church in Wales, Andy John, has written an Episcopal Letter outlining a theological and scriptural justification for marrying same-sex couples. The letter is worthy of proper consideration because of its very fair and clear (albeit brief) exposition of both the conservative position and Bishop Andy’s own affirming …
This Sunday’s lectionary reading is from Luke 5, the story of the miraculous catch of fish, as we jump forward into Jesus’ ministry before returning to the temptations in the desert at the start of Lent. It is a captivating story in its own right, but it also raises questions about the connections with the …
Yet another ‘prophecy’ about the end of the world comes and goes—but we know, like the proverbial bus, another one will be along soon. One of the reasons for this predictable yet disappointing procession is that we don’t really know how to read the Book of Revelation properly—the source of many of these failed forecasts. …
The lectionary reading for Sunday is Luke 2.20–40 as we celebrate the Presentation of Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem. If you are following Luke in the lectionary, this will feel slightly odd; last week we heard about the beginning of Jesus’ teaching ministry in the synagogue in Nazareth, and have already reflected on the …
The lectionary reading for Epiphany 4 in Year C is Luke 4.14–21. As is often the case with the lectionary, the reading is rather displaced and truncated; the previous episode is the temptation in the wilderness, which we will read at the beginning of Lent, and the following week we revert back to Luke 2 as …
This Sunday’s lectionary gospel (for Epiphany 3) is John 2.1–11. So I reproduce here an edited version of the article I posted last July, with some additional comments about symbolism. The miracle of Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana comes early in John’s gospel, in John 2.1–11, and it offers us …
Any discussion of ‘the cross’ in the Book of Revelation immediately faces a substantial challenge: in contrast with almost every other book in the New Testament, it is barely mentioned at all overtly. Its solitary explicit appearance comes in an extended prophetic narrative in chapter 11: the bodies of the ‘two witnesses’ will ‘lie in …
