Saint Peter’s Day: Matthew 16: 13-20

Given the importance of Peter in the early years of the church, the New Testament account of his life is remarkably frank about his failings.  We are given a picture of a flawed human trying to make sense of events as they unfold, rather than of an idealised saint.  He is a person to whom

Whitsunday: Acts 2: 1-11

There are two ways of looking at Acts of the Apostles. The first, and more orthodox way, is to treat it is a continuation of the gospel of Luke, in which case the Ascension and Pentecost fit neatly into a sequence of events that started with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem (19: 28-44) and which

Ascension day: Mark 16: 9-20

That Jesus died, was resurrected and then ascended into heaven would seem to be a core belief of traditional Christians. It is, after all, part of both the Nicene and Apostle’s creeds.  So it may come as a surprise to see how differently the four gospels deal with the Ascension.  Matthew skips it altogether, ending

Acts 17: Paul in Athens

The Council at Jerusalem may have decided that Christianity was more than just a cult within Judaism but, as Paul and his colleagues travelled around the Mediterranean, it was still the Jewish communities that they sought out in the cities they visited.  Paul’s religion might have changed but, culturally, he was still a Jew.  There

Acts 16:25-36: In chains for Christ …

Luke’s account of the formation of the early church works simultaneously at many levels.  There is the narrative history of the events that followed Jesus’ ascension, there are fragments of theology (though the core of this lies in Paul’s letters) and there is what we might term, in modern parlance, “spin”: the process by which

Acts 16: 1-15: Walking the walk

The Council of Jerusalem was a significant milestone in the early church but it was not the end of disagreements.   Soon after, for example, we read of Paul and Barnabas falling out over whether to take John Mark on their next trip (15: 36-41) with the result that the pair headed in different directions. 

Acts 15: the Council of Jerusalem

In Acts 10 we read about Peter’s personal struggle to overcome ingrained prejudice and mingle with Gentiles.  Five chapters on and the consequences of that decision, and of similar outward-facing behaviour by others, particularly the church in Antioch, means that the complexion of the young church was changing fast and it raises a very fundamental

Acts 14: changed by the world?

From Cyprus, Paul travelled north to Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and to the Roman province Galatia (whose capital, Ancyra is the modern Turkish capital, Ankara) where he has some significant encounters and persuaded a number of people, Jew and Gentile, to join the new movement.   A year or so later, he wrote his letter

Acts 13: Paul goes to Cyprus

“Exploring the world,” wrote Rebecca Solnit in her book Wanderlust: A History of Walking, “is one of the best ways of exploring the mind”.   As you move through space and time at nature’s natural pace, so your mind is free to observe, to roam, to make connections.   Is it any wonder that Luke

Acts 10: Peter and Cornelius

The importance of the shift in outlook, from the early church seeing itself as an exclusively Jewish sect and, instead, to look outward towards the Gentile (non-Jewish) world is easily forgotten.  Modern Christians see themselves as belonging to a religion that is distinct from Judaism: we recognise its place in our heritage but in evolutionary