You Tube Theology

The lectionary reading for Easter 7, the last Sunday of the Easter Season before Pentecost, is the first part ‘great prayer’ of Jesus in John 17.1–11. The lectionary divides the chapter into three parts over Years A, B and C, which either assumes that preachers and people have a good memory from year to year, or perhaps suggests that we think about the whole passage, but only read one section each year.

Though the start of the passage follows both the chapter division and a natural division of the discourse, we finish half way through a section. The first five verses focus on Jesus' relationship with the Father, the in verse 6 the focus shifts to the consequent implications for the disciples—though our reading ends half way through this.

As previously in the Farewell Discourse, there is a density of terms, full of allusions to earlier parts of this gospel, abrupt changes of subject, and memorable apophthegms.

Come and join James and Ian as they discuss this passage, its implications, and how we might preach on it.