Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
In the Synod debates on sexuality and marriage last February, I started playing ‘inclusive Jesus’ bingo. How many times would speeches protesting against our current doctrine and urging change mention that Jesus (or the gospel) was ‘inclusive’? I had to stop, since I ran out of cards because I was marking them so fast. In …
For the Mothering Sunday gospel of Jesus’ presentation in Luke 2, the written commentary is here and the video discussion is here. The epistle is 2 Cor 1.3–7, and the video discussion of this passage is here (and included below). The Sunday gospel lectionary reading for Lent 4 in this Year A continues with the …
Sarah Mullally, current bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury elect, gave a new year’s address yesterday in which she set out some priorities for the Church of England. (It was quite widely reported, in The Times, BBC, LBC and elsewhere, though I could not find the text anywhere on her own website or that …
The lectionary gospel reading for Trinity 10 Year C is Luke 13.10–17, a short but remarkable account, unique to Luke, of Jesus healing a crippled woman on the Sabbath. For video discussion of the issues here, together with a new discovery about the text, watch here. There are multiple layers to the meaning of this …
If you enjoy these videos, why not buy us a coffee? The gospel reading for Trinity 10 in Year C is Luke 13.10–17, a short but remarkable story of Jesus healing a woman bent double. It has a striking literary structure, which can be thought of as a kind of literary diptych; the effect is …
The lectionary reading for Trinity 1, Year C, is Luke’s version of Jesus meeting and healing the demon-possessed man in the ‘region of the Gerasenes’ (Luke 8.26–39). See below for commentary on this passage. The epistle for this week is Galatians 3.23-29, and you can watch the video discussion of that passage here, and the …
The lectionary readings for Easter 4 in Year C include three substantial readings: Acts 9.36-43, Revelation 7.9-17 and John 10.22-30. There is a note which says: ‘The reading from Acts must be used as either the first or second reading’, which suggests that this reading is thought to be particularly important—and this is characteristic of …
The gospel lectionary reading for the so-called Last Sunday after Trinity (or Trinity 22) in Year B is the story of the healing of blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10.46–52. This reading has an appeal at two levels. First, it is in Mark’s usual lively and direct style, and has a similar feeling to some of …
The gospel lectionary reading for the so-called Last Sunday after Trinity (or Trinity 22) in this Year B is the story of the healing of blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10.46–52. This reading has an appeal at two levels. First, it is in Mark’s usual lively and direct style, and has a similar feeling to some …
The gospel lectionary reading for Trinity 8 in Year B appears to be very odd at first, with a split collection of verses in Mark 6.30–34 and 53–56. I think the logic for this is that we are considering the ‘bread’ of another Markan sandwich, and the ‘filling’ is the paired episodes of the feeding …
The reading for Trinity 8 in this Year B in the lectionary is rather odd—a selection of verses sliced out of Mark’s narrative, Mark 6.30-34, 53-56. It separates the ‘bread’, the description of Jesus’ ministry, from the jam or the meat of the sandwich, the feeding of the 5,000, which we consider next week from …
