Holy Textures

John 15:26-27 and 16:4b-15, Year B, Pentecost Sunday

Short, easy to read, thought provoking background commentary for your sermon, bible study lesson, or scripture reflection.
Listed on The Text This Week, www.textweek.com.

Year B, Season of Easter 
Pentecost Sunday 
Last Sunday After Easter

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

Sigh. The "job" of testifying / proclaiming / preaching would be a lot easier if only John were a little more linear and a lot less associative in his testimony about Jesus.

Chapters 13 to 17 have emotional intensity and forcefulness because of the direct, personal, immediate language. No where else does Jesus speak so directly of himself as "I." No where else does Jesus speak so directly to his followers as "you." And we the readers - even at this distance in time and place - hear that "you" as "me / us."

John 17:6-19, Year B, Easter 7

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

It might be helpful to preface the reading of this text with an introductory comment that these words are part of Jesus' prayer that concludes his last meal with his followers before his arrest. In a way, these words are Jesus' last will and testament.

We are concluding the Easter Season with Jesus' concluding prayer.

John 15:9-17, Year B, Easter 6

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

To my mind, verses 9-11 should be read with last week's passage since they continue elaborating on the relationship between Jesus and his disciples.

However, a dramatic shift takes place in verse 12.

Jesus shifts the focus to the relationship the disciples are to have with each other.

Jesus commands them to love one another as he has loved them.

John 15:1-8, Year B, Easter 5

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

As much as I find myself often arguing against or puzzled by what John is writing, Chapter 15 of the Gospel according to John is currently one of my personal favourites.

In this passage, we learn a lot about:

• the kind of relationship we are to have with Jesus -
     I am the Vine you are the branches;
     
• how we must maintain that relationship -
     abiding in Jesus and following his commandments; and,
     
• what will result from that relationship -
     bearing fruit and experiencing joy.

John 10:11-18, Year B, Easter 4

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

This reflection is drawn from a sermon which also reflects on Psalm 23.
Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

The 23rd Psalm is perhaps the best known and most loved passages in the whole Bible.

Even though they had given up asking us to memorize Bible verses when I went to Sunday School, I can still almost recall the whole of this Psalm from heart – and using the original language of the Bible – the King James:

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want, ...

I wonder how old David was when he wrote this Psalm?

Luke 24:36b-48, Year B, Easter 3

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

Sometimes, modern day sophisticates talk about folks in the Bible as if they were merely uneducated, gullible, bumpkins who unquestioningly accepted any super-natural hocus pocus.

But listen to their reactions to the resurrection events as interpreted by various translations (and note how the translators sometimes struggle to capture the full sense of the underlying Greek):

John 20:19-31, Year B, Easter 2

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

To begin with the end ...

Verses 30-31 (NRSV) state the purpose for which John has written this Gospel.

Note the direct address to YOU, the reader.

But these are written so that YOU ...

John is not writing an abstract treatise for whoever may happen to come upon it. He is writing with a very specific audience in mind. Namely, those second and third generation believers who are under-going severe persecution at the hands of the current Roman Emperor. (And, now, also to you and me.)

John 20:1-18, Easter Sunday

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

One of the people I hope I get to meet in heaven is Mary Magdalene.

The four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John often differ in the details, but one thing they all have in common is that Mary Magdalene is the first to witness, believe, and testify about the empty tomb / the risen Jesus.

She is the first Easter Christian.

And then she disappears from the Biblical story

Mark 16:1-8, Year B, Easter Sunday

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

After a week that began with a bit of non-violent civil disobedience - Jesus' mock "triumphant" entry into Jerusalem while Pilate was parading in on the other side of town - we have a completely different "entrance" from a completely different side of town.

My Annual Rant About The Resurrection and Science

Argh!

Every year at this time, some well meaning preacher or pundit is quoted as saying something like:

• Science explains the "how" but religion explains the "why;" or,
• Easter happens in the hearts of Jesus' followers; or
• Resurrection happens whenever the followers of Jesus embody the love / message / passion / purpose of Jesus; or
• The resurrection story is a metaphor that explains what is "true" about life, not facts that explain what is "real;" or
• The resurrection is a story about hope triumphing over despair; life over death; etc., etc.

Argh!

Why is it that for 51 Sundays of the year, we talk about Jesus and God as though they are both actually, really real, factually existing, but suddenly on this most central of Sundays we go all soft and speak only of "meaning," "values," "purposes," etc.