A Bird’s Eye View of February’s RCL Gospel Readings

Viv Whimster, Convenor, Methodist Lay Preachers’ Network

Sometimes the lectionary allows us time to linger with the accounts of Jesus’ early ministry as we ease our way into the busy start of a new year. This is one of those times and we are invited, through the whole of February, to meet and understand Luke’s Jesus before we are directed on our Lenten journey.

Luke introduces us to the infant Jesus through his birth narratives. The child long awaited by the faithful and heralded by divine messengers, lives with the least in society. We are introduced to the adult Jesus through his baptism at the start of Epiphany, while an account of his temptation (Luke 4:1-13) is left until Lent. For now, we meet up with Jesus as he moves to Capernaum, away from the rejection he receives in Nazareth, his home community. To this point, Jesus seems to have been on his own, perhaps leaving his connection with John the Baptiser. Now he seeks the company of a support team (Luke 5:1-11).

Who will he choose? Simon Peter has social standing - a house where he offers hospitality, a fishing business with boats and associates, and a personality that gives him the courage to take the lead. Despite these attributes, his toil can be completely unproductive. But with Jesus on board, his vessel becomes a launching pad for a life-giving message and storage for an unimaginably huge catch of fish - and through this encounter he understands himself in a new and challenging way. Simon Peter, then his workmates, follow Jesus as his public ministry takes off.

We may be tempted to follow Jesus and join his team because of the benefits - sharing our resources and attracting a crowd, enjoying a successful fishing venture with plenty to eat and sell. However, we are reminded (Luke 5:12 through to 6:11 which are omitted as lectionary readings) that Jesus’ ministry of healing, of noticing the vulnerable and rejected in society, upsets the status quo and starts a process of antagonism and opposition that will lead to suffering and death. No wonder Jesus needs a support team in God (6:12) and in his friends (6:13-16).

Luke then invites us to consider what it means to hear and be healed. We may join the crowd and listen to his teaching (6:17-38) and find that the things we think we value, as blessings from God even - wealth, good food, happiness, inclusion - may actually be barriers to following God. It’s strange and unsettling.

The lectionary takes a leap then guides us through the miracle of feeding a crowd and Peter’s recognition of Jesus’ identity (9:8-36). Stern words follow, about denying ourselves and taking up our cross. Is this really the leader we want to follow? In case there’s any doubt, we are afforded a glimpse of Jesus as the one chosen by God and invited? instructed? urged? to listen to him. We do, but will we be ready to follow Jesus on the journey ahead?

Was there ever really unity in the Church?

Adrian Skelton, UCANZ Executive Officer

An important new book, edited by two established US scholars and a younger Canadian colleague, is set to shake up our ideas about the nature of the early Jesus movement: ‘After Jesus Before Christianity’ by Bernard Brandon Scott, Erin Vearncombe, and Hal Taussig (Harper Collins, 2021). A neat abbreviation, AJBC,is already being used for this book, available on Kindle – or, after a long wait, via the American Postal Service.

AJBC adopts the methodology of examining widespread evidence for “Jesus clubs” without using the anachronistic lens of a unified “Christianity”. Christianity as a term did not exist until the (Roman) Empire had taken over and defined the movement for its own purposes. We are blinded by believing that later Christianity was the only direction in which these Jesus groups might have developed.

The brutal actions of Empire in breaking up nations and enslaving populations produced a large mass of non-Romans searching for identity. Jesus was a powerful symbol for some groups, who keenly adopted an allegiance to Israel in terms of following the God of Israel (claimed to be more than a local god), and reading and praying according to Israel’s traditions, which included ritual bathing.

The most common and frequent activity of these diverse groups was gathering for meals. Each group had its own rules, but common elements included songs and prayers (in the tradition of Israel) and memorialising the Israel-born teacher and leader, Jesus. These supper clubs held to a variety of practices and beliefs, which they might dispute with one another, for there was no central leadership.

Members were often slaves or others whose family situations had been broken up by Empire. Some lived in experimental family groups – outside of blood or married relationships – for mutual support and economic sharing. The other novel feature of Jesus groups was flexible gender roles (“neither male nor female, but one in Jesus the Anointed”). Women were acceptable in leadership roles, in contrast to wider (Roman) society.

If they were so diverse – with different names such as “movement for the Saviour”, “school of the Lord” – what, if anything, kept the overall movement together? Was there a common denominator? Well, yes: it was their resistance to (Roman) Empire. This resistance gave people courage and maybe even kept violence at bay. They made fun of Roman power by positing the alternative empire (or kingdom) of God’s compassion.

Caesar Augustus was contrasted with Jesus Anointed, as Lord and Saviour, and even God – all titles proclaimed by the Empire as belonging to Caesar. As well as filling out our knowledge of the fascinating first two centuries of the common era, this book reminds us of the power and potential unity of resisting the forces of oppression. It should be on every minister’s study list!