B120- Easter 6 (John 15:9-17, Acts 10:44-48)
The readings this week invite us to reflect on change, the role of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus’ commandment to love. Acts 10:44-48 narrates the “gentile pentecost”, the delightful interruption of the Holy Spirit who falls upon everyone while Peter is speaking. This is the fourth pouring out of the Spirit in Acts, this time…
Read MoreB119 – Easter 5 (Acts 8:26-40; John 15:1-8)
The universal embrace of the gospel is embodied in the Ethiopian Eunuch in the Acts 8 passage. The usual social barriers are no barriers to his baptism and the joy of faith. We talk about the communal context of interpretation of scripture, the importance of teaching, and the proclamatory, spoken nature of the good news.…
Read MoreB118 – Easter 4 (Good Shepherd)
Robyn and Fran unpack the good shepherd imagery used for God in Psalm 23 and Jesus in John 10:11-18. We discuss the complexity of “laying down one’s life” and its afterlife in the way we talk about veterans and self-sacrifice (noting it is Anzac Day in Australia this Sunday). We refer to a discussion of…
Read MoreB117 – Easter 3 (Acts 3:12-19, Luke 24:36-48)
Kylie Crabbe returns to discuss the reaction to Peter healing a man with a mobility impairment in Acts 3. This is a conversation between Jews (Peter and other Israelites) about the nature of God’s power and the continuity between God’s action in the past and in Jesus. Glorifying God and the invitation to repentance are…
Read MoreB116 – Easter 2 (John 20:19-31, Acts 4:32-35)
Kylie Crabbe joins the podcast to unpack the Acts passages this week and in the weeks ahead. We discuss the dating and authorship of Acts, the key themes, and genre. Resurrection is the key theme in the speeches of Acts, indicating how important resurrection theology was in the preaching ministry of early Christianity. In Acts…
Read MoreB115 Easter Sunday
We begin talking about preaching Christ is risen by looking at 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, an account of the resurrection that predates the gospels. We note Paul’s repeated use of ‘appeared’; how this passive voice places the initiative with Jesus, not Paul’s capacity to ‘see’. We explore the different emphases in Mark and John’s account of…
Read MoreB114 – Palm Sunday (Mk 11:1-11, Ps 118)
Rev. Carolyn Francis, Pastor at Collins Street Baptist Church, joins us to unpack preaching on Palm Sunday. We explore the Markan emphasis in this well-known story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem where he is lauded as king in the Davidic line. Jesus’ kingship will ultimately subvert worldly notions of kingship, rejecting military might and power…
Read MoreB113 – Lent 5 (Jer 31; Heb 5; John 12)
God’s faithfulness to the people of Israel is manifest in the Jeremiah reading with the promise of a new covenant that will not be broken – thanks to God’s radical forgiveness. Christians understand Christ partly through the lens of Jeremiah’s new covenant; in the paradoxical way the brokenness (of Christ’s body) makes up the un-breakability…
Read MoreB112 – Lent 4 (Num 21:4-9, John 3:14-21)
Dorothy Lee joins us to unpack the themes and theology of John 3. We begin with the Numbers reading, looking at the people’s grumbling, the difficulty of transition, and the strange use of snakes as both punishment and redemption from punishment. Metaphorically, the lack of trust in God is poisonous for the community. John 3…
Read MoreB111 – Lent 3 (Exod 20:1-17; 1 Cor 1:18-25; John 2:13-22)
Dorothy Lee joins us as we talk about the liberating force of the Ten Commandments as a grace-filled way to live out salvation. We touch on Paul’s counter-cultural theology of the cross in Corinthians: God goes with shame and undercuts our notions of strength and power. Dorothy outlines how worship and market places operated in…
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