Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Drawn to the Gospels: An Illustrated Lectionary (Year A)
    Drawn to the Gospels: An Illustrated Lectionary (Year A)
    Drawn to the Gospels: An Illustrated Lectionary (Year A)
    Ebook178 pages59 minutes

    Drawn to the Gospels: An Illustrated Lectionary (Year A)

    By Jay Sidebotham

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Each week brings a lighthearted opportunity to remember that humor and the gospel are not mutually exclusive.
    The second in a series of three books brings weekly gospel readings to life. Each week, a cartoon illustration and text of the gospel creates a lighthearted opportunity for individual reflection, or an enjoyable addition to study materials and church bulletins. These amusing and original reflections deepen scriptural literacy and engagement among members of the Episcopal Church, including youth groups, and will inspire some fun in the process.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChurch Publishing
    Release dateMay 17, 2019
    ISBN9781640650817
    Drawn to the Gospels: An Illustrated Lectionary (Year A)
    Author

    Jay Sidebotham

    Jay Sidebotham serves as Director of RenewalWorks, a ministry of Forward Movement. A graduate of Union Seminary, New York, and ordained to the priesthood in 1990, he has served in parishes in New York, Washington, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Illinois. Throughout his ministry, he has had a deep commitment to making the Bible accessible to people of all ages, and cartoons have been one of the primary ways he has accomplished that.

    Read more from Jay Sidebotham

    Related to Drawn to the Gospels

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Maundy Thursday, April 14

      Feb 16, 2022

      AS A VOCALIST, I HAVE many favorite hymns: “Be Thou My Vision,” “Crown Him with Many Crowns,” and “The Love of God.” All hold deep meaning for me. They lift my spirits when I sing them. Recently I was surprised to learn the definition of the word hym

      1 min read

    • Article

      Summer Mindset

      Jul 19, 2020

      Summer Mindset
      1 min read

    • Article

      A Pained Intuition and a Palpable Longing: Katie Ford on Theology, Poetry, and the Unknowable

      Sep 13, 2018

      If You Have to Go, the new collection of poems by Katie Ford, is a book that conjures powers of possession. I feel that way about all of her books: Her poems bring me to a mystical plane somewhere between language and life. I’m left shaken. Her willi

      17 min read

    • Article

      What Happened Next?

      Feb 24, 2022

      What Happened Next?
      9 min read

    • Article

      Why Study Church History?

      Jun 15, 2020

      Why Study Church History?
      3 min read

    • Article

      Woman letters

      Mar 21, 2024

      Woman letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Easter of Empty Churches

      Apr 10, 2020

      The Easter of Empty Churches
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Parables Of Jesus

      Dec 30, 2022

      The Parables Of Jesus
      3 min read

    • Article

      Final Analysis

      Dec 18, 2017

      Final Analysis
      2 min read

    • Article

      What The New Testament Doesn’t Say

      May 20, 2019

      When professing Christians deny Biblical creation, we often point them to the Words of Jesus and the New Testament authors, which clearly affirm their own belief in Biblical creation. Because Christians are, by definition, people who believe what Jes

      5 min read

    • Article

      Characters Of The Bible Anna

      Nov 25, 2022

      Characters Of The Bible Anna
      3 min read

    • Article

      Book of Uncommon Prayer

      May 3, 2023

      Book of Uncommon Prayer
      3 min read

    • Article

      Young Evangelists Are Answering The Call

      Jul 22, 2022

      Many years ago, Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke spoke of a vision that the Lord had given him of young people preaching the Gospel on the streets of Europe. That vision has taken another step forward with the introduction of Fire Camps – retreats for youn

      3 min read

    • Article

      Proclaiming The GOOD NEWS Laying Everything Down For The Sake Of The Gospel

      Apr 22, 2019

      In Romans 1, we read the story of Paul the apostle giving a message to the church in Rome. After the resurrection, Paul tells the church that their faith is being proclaimed to the whole world; that Jesus, their Messiah, was raised from the dead and

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Drawn to the Gospels

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Drawn to the Gospels - Jay Sidebotham

      img1img1

      This book is dedicated to Frances,

      who after many years of marriage remains kind enough

      to chuckle at my cartoons.

      img1

      Copyright © 2019 by Jay Sidebotham

      Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Jay Sidebotham

      All rights reserved. Permission to duplicate pages is granted for local church or school use.

      Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Church Publishing

      19 East 34th Street

      New York, NY 10016

      www.churchpublishing.org

      Cover art by Jay Sidebotham

      Cover design by Jennifer Kopec, 2Pug Design

      Typeset by Denise Hoff

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      ISBN-13: 978-1-64065-080-0 (pbk.)

      ISBN-13: 978-1-64065-081-7 (ebook)

      CONTENTS

      Introduction

      Advent

      Christmas

      Epiphany

      Lent

      Easter

      Pentecost

      In Conclusion

      INTRODUCTION

      How Would You

      Tell the Story of Jesus?

      What do you think is most important for people to know about Jesus? What part of the story would you emphasize? Evidently, telling the story of Jesus is something we’re all supposed to do. In the service of Holy Baptism, the following question is asked of the whole congregation:

      Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?

      It is a promise that we will share the Good News of Jesus as we know it, a promise that we will tell the story. There are lots of ways to do that. This book is just one of them, as it moves us through the church year, beginning with the First Sunday in Advent. For each Sunday, we include the citation for the gospel to be read in church on the appointed Sunday, a few comments about the reading, some questions to think about, and a cartoon to illustrate something about the passage.

      It’s exciting that there’s more than one way to tell Jesus’s story. We give thanks in particular for the four gospels in the New Testament, and the varied ways that they share the story of Jesus.

      What About the Cover of This Book?

      For a long time, the church has recognized the distinctive voices of the gospels and represented them with ancient symbols: Matthew is represented as a human being, Mark as a lion, Luke as an ox, and John as an eagle. Each character is depicted with wings, indicating the presence and participation of God in the writing of the gospels. The symbols, depicted on the cover, have biblical roots. We read about four such figures in the Book of Ezekiel (chapter 1), and also in the Revelation to John (4:6–9ff).

      As you might imagine, commentators over the centuries have offered various interpretations of these symbols, some more far-fetched than others. For example, the symbol of Matthew—a winged person, or perhaps an angel—represents the humanity of Jesus, noting the way the gospel begins with the genealogy of Jesus. The symbol of Mark—a lion—suggests a figure of courage and monarchy, as Jesus announces the nearness of the Realm of God. The symbol of Luke—an ox—reflects a figure of sacrifice, service, and strength. The symbol of John—an eagle—may represent the soaring, poetic language of the gospel, or the persistent and paradoxical theme in John’s gospel that Jesus comes from above and returns to his heavenly realm when he is lifted up—lifted up on the cross, lifted up to heaven.

      At various times in the history of the church, efforts have been made to harmonize, even homogenize, the gospels. The Diatessaron, a document created by an ascetic named Tatian in the second century, is one of the earliest examples of this kind of attempt. The church, over the centuries, decided to let four distinct voices stand, even if and when they disagree (and they sometimes do).

      The church has also decided that it is important for us to hear each of these voices. So we worship on Sunday guided by a three-year cycle called the Revised Common Lectionary, which is a schedule of readings used by many denominations. On any given Sunday, you could drop in on a church down the street or on the other side of the globe and hear the same readings that are being read at your home church.

      The lectionary is designed for a year-long focus on each of three gospels, Matthew, Mark, or Luke. They have been called the synoptic gospels, which literally means that they can be seen together, or alongside each other, in parallel tracks. (Syn is a prefix meaning with; optic has to do with being seen.) These three gospels follow a similar outline and share a great deal of material, though each one contains some unique material. In the course of the three lectionary years, we read a good chunk of the Gospel of John, which follows a different outline and represents both a different style of writing and a distinctive theological perspective on the story of Jesus.

      Which Brings Us to the Gospel of Matthew . . .

      This year in church, Year A, we will focus on the gospel attributed to Matthew. It’s the first of four gospels, placed in order of priority at an early point in the history of the church. Scholars disagree about the reasons for that placement. Most agree that the second one, the Gospel of Mark, is the earliest of the gospels, and that the Gospel of Matthew

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1