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The Sunday lectionary reading for this week, Easter 6 in Year C, is Acts 16.9–15. We are continuing in this season to focus on the reading from Acts, which (the lectionary tells us) must be the first or second reading. This is a pivotal moment in the gentile mission, since it is the time when, … Continue Reading
We continue focussing on the passages in Acts, and for Easter 6 in Year C the reading is Acts 16.9–15. This starts half-way through a paragraph, so we should really start reading at verse 6. We are now in the second half of Acts, focussing on what the Spirit is doing through the ministry of … Continue Reading
Steve Walton has been a friend for many years—but he is also a great scholar, and has just published a collection of essays on the theology of Acts, and the first volume of his Word commentary on Acts. So I thought it was a good time to ask him about his study, Acts as a … Continue Reading
On Easter 5 in Year C, we find that once again the Sunday lectionary points us towards the reading from Acts as an important point of focus in the post-Easter narrative. The reading ‘which must be used as either the first or the second reading’ is Acts 11.1–18, the final episode in the ‘Petrine narrative’ … Continue Reading
The lectionary reading for Easter 5 in Year C is Acts 11.1–18, Peter’s recounting of the story of his meeting with Cornelius. From Easter to Pentecost, we are encouraged to focus on these readings from Acts. This text comes at a pivotal moment in the story of Acts. It is part of the last major … Continue Reading
The Book of Revelation is the most explicitly Trinitarian book of the New Testament. Amongst its complex cast of characters in the narrative of the text, it presents God (the Father, the ‘one seated on the throne’), Jesus (either named, or presented symbolically as the lamb slain and standing, or the rider on the white … Continue Reading
The Sunday gospel lectionary reading for Lent 1 in Year C is Luke 4.1–13, Luke’s account of the temptation of Jesus in the desert. (The link to the video discussion of this passage can be found at the end of this article. For commentary on the NT epistle reading, Rom 10.8b–13, see the video discussion … Continue Reading
The NT epistle for the Sunday next before Lent is 2 Corinthians 3.12–4.2, in which Paul draws a comparison between Moses’ encounter with God in Ex 34 and our encounter with God in the person of Jesus, using the metaphor of the ‘veil being removed’. There are clear connections with the gospel passage, which is … Continue Reading
A little while ago I had a curious discussion with someone online. Commenting on one of the events for Remembrance, I noted that the prayer said by the Christian leader took the form of a general invocation of a deity, but wasn’t actually a Christian prayer. ‘What do you mean by a Christian prayer?’ … Continue Reading
Where is the world heading? How will it all end? Are we in the ‘end times’? Will there be a ‘secret rapture’? What is the ‘millennium’? These are questions which we find asked often in the modern world, and many claim that we are in unique times when these questions are singularly appropriate. But you … Continue Reading
This Sunday is the Feast of Pentecost, when we remember, celebrate, and re-engage with the first giving of the Spirit at Pentecost as recounted in Acts 2., and the lectionary reading in this Year CX is, as every year, Acts 2.1–21. Although it is a comparatively long reading, in one sense it is not long … Continue Reading
Ian Paul: theologian, author, speaker, academic consultant. Associate Senior Research Fellow, Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology; Associate Minister, St Nic's, Nottingham; Managing Editor, Grove Books; member of General Synod and Archbishops' Council. Mac user; chocoholic. Tweets at @psephizo
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Gospel commentary index Lectionary Year A
Andrew Goddard Bible biblical interpretation Biblical literacy biblical theology Christmas Church of England culture discipleship discussion doctrine eschatology evangelism gay General Synod Grove guest Hermeneutics History hope interpretation James Blandford Baker Jesus John's gospel Justin Welby leadership lectionary Luke Luke's gospel Matthew ministry mission New Testament Paul politics preaching Revelation same sex marriage same sex unions sexuality theology video Year A Year B Year C
