John’s Gospel is the strangest, wordiest, and often the most bewildering of the Gospels. It contains many of the most important stories of Jesus’s life, yet there are times when a reader might pause and wonder what John is saying, and why he’s saying it in such a tangled and abstruse way. Beginning on Thursday, May 27 we’ll begin a twelve week study of John, relying on Bruce Malina and Richard Rohrbaugh’s Social Science Commentary on the Gospel of John and John Sanford’s Mystical Christianity: A Psychological Commentary on the Gospel of John. We’ll meet from 7:00 – 8:00 PM every Thursday, and you’ll have the opportunity to either gather in person at the church, or join us online through Zoom (details are at the end of this post).
You’re welcome to purchase the books for yourself, but it’s unnecessary. Every week I’ll have done the reading and will present all of the information we need to engage with the text. Our read through John will follow this schedule:
| May 27 | John 1:1-18 | The Prologue |
| June 3 | John 1:19-51 | The Testimony of John the Baptist, The Lamb of God, The First Disciples, Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael |
| June 10 | John 2:1- 4:54 | Wedding Feast at Cana, The Cleansing of the Temple, Dialogue with Nicodemus, Jesus & John the Baptist, Conversation with the Samaritan Woman, Cure of the Nobleman’s Son |
| June 17 | John 5:1-6:71 | Healing on the Sabbath, Pool of Bethsaida, Controversy in Jerusalem and Galilee, Feeding of the Five Thousand, Jesus Walks on Water, The Discourse on the Heavenly Bread |
| June 24 | John 7:1-8:59 | The Unbelief of Jesus’s Family, Jesus at the Festival of Booths, The Light of the World, The Woman Taken in Adultery, Controversy with the Pharisees, Confronting the Problem of Evil |
| July 1 | John 9:1-10:42 | Cure of the Man Born Blind, the Meaning of Illness, Jesus at the Feast of the Dedication, Jesus Withdraws Across the River Jordan, Parable of the Good Shepherd |
| July 8 | John 11:1-12:11 | The Raising of Lazarus, The Anointing at Bethany, The Enigma of Judas |
| July 15 | John 12:12-50 | The Entrance into Jerusalem |
| July 22 | John 13:1-17:26 | Passover in Jerusalem, the Last Supper, Washing the Disciples Feet, the Farewell Discourse, The True Vine, The Priestly Prayer of Christ |
| July 29 | John 18:1-19:42 | The Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’s Trial, Peter Denies Jesus, Pontius Pilate, Pilate’s Wife, The Crucifixion, The Burial of Jesus |
| August 5 | John 20:1-31 | The Resurrection, Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene, Jesus Appears to the Disciples, Jesus and Thomas |
| August 12 | John 21:1-25 | More Resurrection Appearances, Jesus and Peter, Jesus and the Beloved Disciple |
To join us in person, just show up at the church. We’ll be meeting in the Anderson Conference Room, or in the Sanctuary if it gets hot and the air conditioning system is still being installed. To join us on Zoom, use this link:
This should be really fun! Let me know if you have any questions.
I appreciate your detailed website message it’s not only comprehensive it’s inviting! It’s a time when God probably wants us to draw near and many cases we couldn’t be further apart! I’m not just referring to the Pandemic while it does complicate things even more in many cases it’s not the root of the problem!
I agree, Anthony. The class has been so interesting because only three of us have regularly been coming to the church, with the other nine or so people joining us on Zoom. I think these hybrid situations might simply be the norm from now on. Yet any way we can draw near is more than welcome and a real gift.