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This Sunday is the feast of Pentecost, fifty days from Passover (hence the name), in the Jewish calendar the festival of Shavuot (‘weeks’), one of the three great pilgrim festivals (with Passover and Sukkot, ‘Tabernacles’). It was the beginning of the wheat harvest, but also celebrated the giving of the Torah on Sinai, and so … Continue Reading
The lectionary New Testament readings for the Pentecost, this coming Sunday, are 1 Corinthians 12.3b-13, Acts 2.1-21, and John 20.19-23—but the first or second reading must be from Acts. So I suspect most churches will read Acts and 1 Corinthians 12. Written commentary on Acts 2 can be found here, and video discussion here. Here … Continue Reading
What would you identify as the climax and completion of Jesus’ life and ministry? Surprisingly, this is not a trivial question. One of the key differences between John and the synoptic gospels is that, where the synoptics portray the crucifixion as a necessary but incomplete act on the way to the resurrection, John portrays it … Continue Reading
The lectionary reading for Easter 7, the last Sunday of the Easter Season before Pentecost, is the first part of the ‘great prayer’ of Jesus in John 17.1–11. The lectionary divides the chapter into three parts over Years A, B and C, which either assumes that preachers and people have a good memory from year … Continue Reading
The lectionary gospel reading for Easter 6 in Year A is the next section of John 14.15–21. The split of the passage for the two Sundays is a little odd, in that last week’s was twice the length, and contained three massive issues to address! This week’s is much shorter and more straightforward. (The lectionary … Continue Reading
The lectionary readings for Easter 6 in Year A are 1 Peter 3.13-end and John 14.15-21. The reading from 1 Peter 3 includes well-known and practical advice on how to ‘give an account of the hope that is in you’ which has obvious application today. But the second half includes what is perhaps the most … Continue Reading
The lectionary readings for Easter 5 are 1 Peter 2.2-10 and John 14.1-14. You can see the video discussion of the reading from 1 Peter here, and at the end of this piece. When I read this text, I cannot help but feel it has a slightly strange, dream-like quality to it, and I think … Continue Reading
The lectionary gospel readers for the Fourth Sunday of Easter take the three parts of John 10 in turn; being in Year A, we are reading the first ten verses. You can watch the video discussion of the passage here, and it is linked below. The epistle is 1 Peter 2.19–25, a challenge passage both … Continue Reading
The lectionary readings for the Third Sunday in Easter ignore the particular gospel for the year, and instead cycle round Luke 24 and John 21: in Year B we have the second half of Luke 24, Jesus meeting the group of frightened disciples; in Year C, the miraculous catch of fish in John 21; and … Continue Reading
The lectionary epistle for Easter 3 in Year A is 1 Peter 1.17–23. In this section, Peter begins by reflecting on the significant of the impartiality of God’s love—he is not like a king who shows favouritism to some, by lifting their bowed face to look at him, but treats all equally—as Peter discovered in … Continue Reading
The Sunday gospel lectionary reading for the Second Sunday in Easter is John 20.19–31, which includes Jesus’ encounter with so-called ‘doubting Thomas’. It is the set reading for this week in all three years of the lectionary, so we know it well—and need to reflect on it if we are going to preach effectively on … 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 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 power preaching Revelation same sex marriage same sex unions sexuality theology video Year A Year B Year C
