Gospel commentary index Lectionary Year A
On this page, you can find an index to all the commentary articles on the gospel lectionary readings for the whole of Year A, together with links to the video discussions between Ian and James. The articles will be reposted with updates during the year—but they are listed here for convenience and planning ahead.
Peace, hope, and the love of God in Romans 5 video discussion
The epistle for Trinity 2 is the same as it was for Lent 3, Romans 5.1–8, so I link here the video discussion we previously recorded. The gospel is Jesus’ calling and sending the Twelve into the harvest field in Matthew 9.35–10.8. In Romans 5, Paul effectively sets out his stall for the second main section of the letter, chapters 5 to 8. This is not about the consequences of justification, so much as what justification actually means—reconciled with God, we experience his peace and love, and despite our suffering, this forms in us the hope for what is to…
Henry Nowak, racial justice, and the Church of England
The columns of our newspapers and our feeds on social media have been filled with the debate about the political issues raised by the tragic murder of Southampton student Henry…
The prophetic proclamation of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Gerry Lynch writes: Starting in 1972, the animal psychologist Francine Patterson began to teach an infant gorilla named Koko a modified form of American Sign Language. Patterson claimed Koko could…
Barnabas: key to the missionary work of the Spirit in Acts 11
The first Sunday after Trinity (formerly known as Pentecost 2) is also often used to celebrate the feast of St Barnabas, who was responsible for receiving, encouraging, and working with…
Helen King’s motion for General Synod: a help or a hindrance?
This July, in the final session of this quinquennium, General Synod is due to debate a Private Members Motion from Helen King suggesting that there are no fundamental objections to…
Faith that receives grace in Romans 4 video discussion
The epistle for Trinity 1 in Year A is Romans 4.13–25. Many people are put off preaching on Romans, and Paul’s language here is dense and compressed. Yet the central…
What is prophecy?
I write a quarterly column for Preach Magazine, and for this next edition I have written an article on the nature of prophecy in Old and New Testaments. This is…
Is the Church of England pastoral and not missional?
Angela Tilby, in her weekly column in the Church Times, has claimed that the Church of England is pastoral and not missional. But she can only do this by being…
The Trinity, Matthew 28, and the Great Commission
The Sunday gospel lectionary reading for Trinity Sunday in this Year A is Matt 28.16–20. As with the readings in Years B and C, it is short and compact. (See…
The Trinity, Matthew 28, and 2 Corinthians 13 video discussion
Should we preach on the Trinity on Trinity Sunday? The answer is less obvious than you might think! And what do we make of the triadic formula in Matt 28.19?…
When and from where is Jesus ‘coming on the clouds’?
The phrase ‘coming on the clouds’ is commonly misread as referring to Jesus’ return at the end of the age—when reading it in context and noticing its source in Daniel…
