4.5 Christmas Day Son of Mary If you have followed the symphony this far, you will have seen the great themes of our Bible coming together in the person of Jesus; I have tried to explore two very different strands: the ‘universal’ and the ‘particular’ the ‘universal’...

4.4 Jesus is Lord This is a strange one and one we need to rewind. We sing hymns – “Jesus is Lord, Creation’s voice proclaims it” and we see Lord as a theological word. But it wasn’t. Kurios is a Greek word used for a master, a boss, or as a way of addressing a...

4.3   Emmanuel Emmanuel means “God is with us”. Four short words but are there any other short sentences more profound than this one? If we had to sum up the gospel, the message to humanity, in just a few words, would this not be about as good and brief as...

4.2  Prince of Peace This title, from a prophecy of Isaiah, is echoed in the voices of the angels at Christmas. “Peace on earth” There is an immediate political challenge here, because Augustus claimed to have brought in the Pax Romana, Roman Peace, under which...

Week 4 Jesus 4.1 You shall call him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. A great symphony returns to the key themes and develops them. While it moves to a climax and an end, it also re-works themes, and we find many of these themes re-worked in the key...

3.6  John John writes a very different type of account from the other three gospel-writers. Some suggest that he is like a Jazz-musician ‘riffing’ on the themes from the gospels, picking up a few key themes and developing them. It is rather nice to think that...

3.5  Luke When we hear the Christmas story, we normally hear a mix of Matthew and Luke; shepherds and Wise Men tumble over each other in a stable, camels and sheep in the background and possible a donkey that Mary was riding on. Spoiler Alert – none of the...

3.4  Matthew It is not clear whether Matthew knew Luke’s Gospel or vice versa, though it is generally agreed both Matthew and Luke knew Mark, and both decided to add an account of Jesus birth. Matthew’s birth account is very Jewish in focus – Joseph, more than...

3.3  Mark Mark almost certainly is the earliest of the gospels. What did he think he was writing and why? Probably he is writing in the late 60s AD and to the church communities maybe in Rome, as he has to explain some Jewish customs. In the ancient world there...

3.2       Who’s Who So who else should we know about in this world that God chose to live in? The Gospels talk of Pharisees and Sadducees; there are a couple of Kings, both called Herod (which is confusing); there are Roman officials who...

The Way Prepared 3.1 The World of Jesus It is a very peculiar thing. God, Creator and beyond time and space, is found in a womb, constrained by birth, in a particular place and a particular time. What about all the other places and people and times? Why then, and why...

Week 2 - Bible and History In the second week we think more about the prophets – Why? Because they were trying to see where God was in the world, and what God was calling people to do. How is God at work in history? What is judgement, and is God merciful? What...

Week 2 - Bible and History In the second week we think more about the prophets – Why? Because they were trying to see where God was in the world, and what God was calling people to do. How is God at work in history? What is judgement, and is God merciful? What...

Week 2 - Bible and History In the second week we think more about the prophets – Why? Because they were trying to see where God was in the world, and what God was calling people to do. How is God at work in history? What is judgement, and is God merciful? What...

Week 2 - Bible and History In the second week we think more about the prophets – Why? Because they were trying to see where God was in the world, and what God was calling people to do. How is God at work in history? What is judgement, and is God merciful? What...

Week 2 - Bible and History In the second week we think more about the prophets – Why? Because they were trying to see where God was in the world, and what God was calling people to do. How is God at work in history? What is judgement, and is God merciful? What...

Week 2 - Bible and History In the second week we think more about the prophets – Why? Because they were trying to see where God was in the world, and what God was calling people to do. How is God at work in history? What is judgement, and is God merciful? What about...

Week 1 - Bible and Literature In the first week we think about the Bible, our Scriptures, the book of God, without which we would know so little about Jesus. We think about its richness and variety – it is not really one book at all, but 66 documents gathered into...