You Can Be Serious!: Meeting Jesus afresh in John's Gospel

By David Wilbourne

‘Both vintage and fresh David Wilbourne . . . [His] gift is to enable us to see again the face of Jesus delightfully present with us through our Lent journey.’

GRAHAM USHER, BISHOP OF NORWICH

Whatever our church denomination, we all use the same Sunday Gospel from the Revised Common Lectionary. Year A focuses on Matthew, but during the first five Sundays of Lent, four of the Gospels are curiously from John. By basing each of the five sessions in this course on the previous Sunday’s Gospel, David Wilbourne provides a brilliant connection to the preaching and teaching that has just taken place.

Serious yet full of life and humour, the course covers:

Session 1: Temptation . . .

On checking every word that comes out of the mouth of God

Session 2: Strangers in the night . . .

Nicodemus came to Jesus under cover of darkness: finding God in surprising places

Session 3: The winner takes it all

‘You worship what you do not know’: upping our game with worship

Session 4: I was blind but now I see

‘A god who can be understood is no god’

Session 5: Them bones, them bones, them dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!

Contrasting events in John with parables in the Synoptics

The course booklet is accompanied by a lively CD, in which David Wilbourne and guests from various denominational backgrounds, put forward their thoughts on the themes of the course.

This York Course is available in the following formats

Course Book (Paperback 9781915843012)

Course Book (eBook 9781915843029 both ePub and Mobi files provided)

Audio Book of Interview to support You Can Be Serious! York Course (CD 9781915843050)

Audio Book of Interview (Digital Download) 9781915843043

Transcript of interview to support You Can Be Serious! York Course (Paperback 9781915843005)

Transcript of interview (eBook 9781915843036 both ePub and Mobi files provided)

Book Pack (9781915843067 Featuring Paperback Course Book, Audio Book on CD and Paperback Transcript of Interview)

Large Print (Paperback 9781915843722)

• Language: English
• Publisher: York Courses
• Release date: Jan 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9781915843029

David Wilbourne

The Rt Revd David Wilbourne was the Assistant Bishop of Llandaff from 2009 until 2017, and previously worked as chaplain to two Archbishops of York, John Habgood and David Hope. He is a frequent after dinner speaker, radio and TV broadcaster, guest preacher and retreat and conference leader. Renowned for his ability to strike a balance between the humorous and the poignant, the latest of his many books - Shepherd of Another Flock: The Charming Tale of a New Vicar in a Yorkshire Country Town – was hailed by the TLS as 'glorious'.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

I have preached and led courses for 40 Lents – a Lent of Lents! The different contexts I’ve ministered in and learned from as priest and bishop have seasoned my Lenten thoughts, along with a host of books I’ve read, written and reviewed.

Did the advent of Covid-19 and subsequent lockdowns, though terrible, cause you to pause or undertake projects you’d never dreamt you’d have time for? I revisited the Maths and Further Maths A levels I’d studied as a teenager. It proved an all-consuming, enjoyable activity, but also brought me up short and made me determined to apply the academic rigour used by mathematicians in reflecting on my faith.

One thing Christians have in common is that every Sunday the same Gospel reading is used at their main act of worship. The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) sets out a three-year cycle, with the five Sundays in Lent 2023 (Year A) featuring one reading from Matthew and four readings from John. John is often treated like a poor relative to the other three Gospels, with scholars doubting his historical veracity, so I thought it would be good to reflect on the previous Sunday’s Gospel and see what John had to say. To lighten things I have drawn on favourite songs for the titles of each session – check them out on YouTube!

Anthony Bloom grew up in Russia and Iran at the time of the Russian revolution 100 years back. Like many adolescents dazzled by communism, he thought the Church was tired and hypercritical and was grossly misleading people. He decided to read Mark’s Gospel to arm himself to be the Richard Dawkins of his day. ‘By the third chapter, sitting at the other side of my desk was a presence.’ The rest is history. Rather than taking on the Church, he was ordained and eventually became Moscow’s archbishop.

As I researched John’s Gospel for this course, I too felt a presence, as if I was meeting Jesus again for the first time. I treated the text seriously, wanting to draw out its quirks and qualities, with my simple prayer that you too might meet Jesus afresh and make your own connections, enabling life in all its fullness.

SESSION 1

TEMPTATION . . . Matthew 4.1–11

What is your favourite read? I highly recommend H. H. Munro’s (Saki’s) Short Stories, tight witty pieces set in Edwardian times which I have read and benefited from repeatedly. But the undoubted top of my literary pops are the Gospels. Honoured by the Church throughout the ages, they’ve daily inspired, recalled, comforted and challenged me since boyhood. I am distinctly uneasy when scholars cast doubt on any Gospel’s historicity or authenticity, claiming ‘that cannot have happened’ or ‘Christ couldn’t have said that’. The mega gospel event is the Resurrection: as Saki quips, ‘When once you have taken the impossible into your calculations, its possibilities become practically limitless.’ So taking Easter as read means I take the historicity