60 pages

Over the last few years as a church we have had a good look at the writings of Paul (Romans, Ephesians, Colossians) and in recent memory (the last three months) allowed Luke to shake us up a bit with the parables of Jesus. And it’s not just St Luke and St Paul; last January and February 1 Peter was the text we began the year with. (Actually, as many commentators agree that Mark’s gospel was a source for Luke’s gospel, and most also agree that Peter’s preaching was the key source for Mark, when we read Luke, Peter is also in the picture; if you follow.) We’ve also had some good wrestles with the Old Testament; David, Joseph, Elijah and Moses and a few years ago took 6 months to travel through the whole Old Testament.

However what has been troubling me a bit is that a man that wrote 60 pages of my Bible hasn’t had much of a look in recently. 60 pages! If you have a really small Bible with large print that's probably over a hundred pages. After Paul and Luke, St John is the major contributor to the New Testament and we are going to be spending 2014 with him as a church.

In January and February we will explore the nature of God and the nature of love from 1 John. (2 John and 3 John will also pop up, but blink and you’ll miss them.) During Lent we will be looking at what it meant for individual people to meet with Jesus; Nicodemus, Lazarus etc. and then during Holy Week it will be John’s account that takes us through to Easter Day when Bishop Lee will be preaching. Most of us have either avoided the book of Revelation altogether or got an unhealthy obsession with it. In May to July we’ll address that and also take Revelation away on our church weekend away. When you are on holiday in August you’ll miss the ‘I am’ sayings of Jesus recorded in John, and then in the autumn our attention will be the signs and wonders of John—feeding the 5K, walking on water. And then when we open our Advent calendars next year Revelation 22, Revelation 12 and John 1 will be behind the little doors.

E-mail me or call Sandie to join a new small group for 2014 and get the most out of an extraordinary year.