Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
The Sunday lectionary reading for Trinity 16 in Year C offers some serious challenges to our understanding and practice. The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and …
The Sunday lectionary reading for Trinity 16 in Year C offers some serious challenges to our understanding and practice. The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and …
The Sunday lectionary gospel reading for Trinity 14 in Year C is Luke 16.1–13, the so-called Parable of the Unjust Steward (or ‘Dishonest Manager’). For various reasons, it is one of the most intriguing and challenging parables of Jesus to interpret, though popular readings commonly pass over the problems with it. James and Ian discuss …
The Sunday lectionary gospel reading for Trinity 14 in Year C is Luke 16.1–13, the so-called Parable of the Unjust Steward (or ‘Dishonest Manager’). For various reasons, it is one of the most intriguing and challenging parables of Jesus to interpret, though popular readings commonly pass over the problems with it. Here, I will explore …
Why does Jesus say that we must ‘hate’ those we love, and our own life, in order to follow him? Why does he say this to ‘the crowds’? What does this teach us about following Jesus—and about the nature of grace? James and Ian discuss the passage, its importance for our understanding, and issues in …
In the gospel reading for Trinity 12 in Year C, Luke 14.25–33, we complete our navigation through this section of Jesus’ intermingled teaching and action until we hit the landfall of the ‘parables of the lost’ next week in Luke 15. The double focus on the crowds and discipleship, the drawing together of teaching found …
The lectionary gospel reading for Trinity 11 in Year C, Luke 14.1, 7–14, continues to engage with material that is unique to Luke, arranged in Luke’s distinctive order, and bridging the worlds of the original context of Jesus and Judaism and Luke’s context in wider Roman culture. The passage comes in a sequence of episodes …
The Sunday lectionary gospel for Trinity 8 in Year C is from Luke 12.32–40, and offers a slightly odd selection of verses, in that it includes the end of one section of Jesus’ teaching—on trusting God for provision, and so being generous with our possessions—and the beginning of another, on readiness for the return of …
The Sunday lectionary reading (Trinity 9, Year C) continues on its journey through Luke’s ‘special section’ of Jesus’ ministry and teaching on road to Jerusalem from Luke 9.51 to Luke 18.14. In this short (and again, inexplicably truncated by the lectionary) reading from Luke 12.49–56 (you might choose to read on to verse 59 to …
The lectionary reading for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity in Year C is the Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12.13–21. It is one of several parables that is unique to Luke, and includes features that connect it with other Lukan parables.
Ian and James discuss the details of the text—and the way that is continues to offer a remarkable contemporary challenge to culture, faith, and discipleship.
The lectionary reading for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity in Year C is the Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12.13–21. It is one of several parables that is unique to Luke, and includes features that connect it with other Lukan parables. Since last week’s reading of Jesus’ teaching about prayer, things have moved …
