John 3:1-17 - Trinity Sunday There’s an embarrassment of riches for anyone due to preach on this Trinity Sunday, The readings offered from the Hebrew Scriptures are Isaiah 6:1-8 and Psalm 29 - each proposing dramatic visions of the divine, then Romans 8:12-17 speaks of the Spirit of God, while the gospel passage is ‘sonship’ focussed, telling the story of Jesus’ meeting with the pharisee Nicodemus and the subsequent confusion over being ‘born again ..read more

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15 Pentecost This week we are dealing with Pentecost Sunday, so among other things the lectionary has the narrative of Pentecost from Acts, as well as precursor gospel reading as well as the ‘valley of dry bones’ reading from Ezekiel ..read more

Luke 24: 44-53 An opened mind The lectionary, this week, has two routes one might follow - and I’ve chosen to follow the readings which relate to ‘ascension’ which include the gospel passage from ‘Luke’ - the author of which is also understood to be the author of ‘Acts ..read more

John 15: 9-17 All you need is love The gospel lectionary reading this week follows directly on from that of last week, now the writer has Jesus continue with his ‘vine’ symbolism, but move from an emphasis on ‘remain’ or ‘abide’ to an emphasis on ‘love’. Here the virtue of love is presented as the primary ethic in the Jesus movement, the thing on which everything else depends and relies ..read more

John 15:1-8 I heard it on the grapevine One theory about the four gospels is that they represent different (early) Christian communities. John’s gospel, then, would have been written for a particular Christian group, probably around about 70 years, ish, after Jesus’ death. The way it is written and the stories it contains, are, according to this way of thinking, designed to speak directly to the people of the ‘John community ..read more

How can God be the creator of a universe which is on a scale beyond our comprehension and also be the loving Father of a humankind which occupies a most minute speck in that universe? Scientifically, this might be expressed less dramatically as how can there be sentient human existence in an apparently material or physical universe? The question arises because at least since Newton’s seventeenth-century time, science has increasingly claimed to be able to provide all the answers to all the questions about life, even though the history of science is a perpetual laying down of old certainties in ..read more

John 10: 11-18 What's so good about shepherds? In terms of ‘greatest hits’ of the Gospels, this passage has to be in the top ten. The Good Shepherd who lays his life down for his sheep? Wonderfully evocative language and imagery, a sure fire hit ..read more

Luke 24:36-48 Post resurrection appearances After the stories of Jesus death come those of his resurrection. In these accounts we find the material which, for some, confirm the divinity of Christ, and for others confirm the unreliability of the text ..read more

John 20:19-31 The trouble with doubting Thomas There are some passages which just seem to deliberately create problems. Passages which contradict or at least ‘muddy the waters’ of other passages. This is one of them ..read more

Mark 16: 1-8 Easter Sunday The major Christian festivals have various things in common, one of them is that they are based on stories which seem to stretch credulity ..read more