Author: Howard

I’m back again, after a Christmas season too busy to let me produce any podcasts. Let’s see how well I can keep up with them in this new year… Meanwhile, back in the first chapter of John’s gospel, we have the story of Nathaniel receiving his call to become a disciple of Jesus. John presents… Continue reading Nathaniel Gets The Call

…. and the whole show was on the road: the incarnation, our redemption, the whole Christian story for the last 2000 years. Every year, on the last Sunday before Christmas, we hear something from the two stories (Matthew’s and Luke’s) about Mary and Joseph’s journey towards their big night in the stable at Bethlehem. This… Continue reading Mary said “Yes” to God ….

Here it is then, my podcast on Advent 3 Gospel from the Fourth Gospel… Howard Pilgrim

The second Sunday in Advent every year features the ministry of John the Baptiser as forerunner to the public career of Jesus. All four gospels agree that Jesus and his movement were launched from among those who went out into the desert to hear and respond to John’s prophetic challenge to Israel. In Mark’s case,… Continue reading From the Beginning then…

Advent is here again, and with it the start of a new liturgical year in which our keynote Gospel will be Mark, and to a lesser extent John: the two shortest of the four gospels, and the two most contrasting… which will make for some interesting reflections in the course of the next year. But… Continue reading Still Waiting…Still Watching?

Christ the King Sunday, completing Year A in our RCL calendar of readings, has the last section of Matthew 25 as its Gospel reading: the depiction of a glorified Christ summoning all the nations of the world to a final reckoning. His definitive judgement has one criterion: how each person has treated the lowliest of… Continue reading The King’s Family

I have been on the road this week and unable to record a podcast on the readings for this Sunday. If I had been able to, I might have covered these points about the parable of the Talents:- 1. Like the previous parable of the foolish bridesmaids, this story expresses Matthew’s concern for how the… Continue reading Getting on with it….

Did the title get your attention? Well, I admit I may be pushing water uphill to make that connection, but even if you are not convinced by the time you get to the end of my podcast on this week’s gospel and epistle readings, you may have picked up some other useful stuff along the… Continue reading Foolish Bridesmaids and Climate Change?….Hmmm…

This Sunday, the 31st in Ordinary Time in Year A, is also when we celebrate All Saints Day. That means we don’t get the Gospel reading for that regular Sunday. Many of us would think, “Just as well!” because it is not very nice, being the opening section of a long chapter in which Matthew… Continue reading All Saints …. including Pharisees?

Many Christians have an instinctive reaction to anyone talking about interpreting the Bible. “Why can’t we just take it as it is?” they ask. If that is you speaking, please read on… It seems that Jesus doesn’t agree with you! When the Pharisees asked him to identify the most important of the approximately 630 commandments… Continue reading An Unavoidable Task