By the Well

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 4:32-35 this theology transforms communities to be places where all needs are met.

We also discuss the resurrection appearance story in John 20:19-31 with its emphasis on peace, the giving of the Spirit as part of commissioning the (imperfect) disciples to continue Jesus’ ministry, the transformation of fear into joy, and the faith of Thomas who calls Jesus “my God”.

We mention this Acts commentary,the Dead Sea Scrolls Community Rules, and Candida Moss’s Divine Bodies.

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 the ‘third day’, and touch on ways of talking about ‘resurrection’ that free us from rationalistic dismissals of it.

We refer to Rowan Williams’ On Christian Theology

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 that dominates. Power, expectation, and hopes for a leader in this passage invite us to examine our own relationships with those things.

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 of God’s covenant with all humanity.  Themes of suffering echo throughout the Hebrews reading as Christ is cast as a high priest, mediating in a new, intimate way with creation. The John passage reinforces the universality of salvation offered in the suffering Christ.

We refer to Jennifer Kaalund’s commentary on Hebrews 5 on workingpreacher.org

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 picks up this remarkable imagery of snake healing and compares it to the cross. The emphasis is on (eternal) life and the paradoxical manner in which God gives life.

Dorothy’s latest book is “The Ministry of Women in the New Testament”. We mention “A Wrinkle in Time”.