Pastor John
A Practical Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel
Brian N. Tebbutt
Forewords by Christina Le Moignan and John Cox
Pastor John
A Practical Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel
Copyright © 2020 Brian N. Tebbutt. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
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paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-9312-0
hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-9313-7
ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-9314-4
Manufactured in the U.S.A. 08/14/20
The Scripture quotations contained herein, where they are not the author’s own translation, are taken from the Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version (RSV), copyright © 1946, 1952 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the United Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission.
Permissions are hereby gratefully acknowledged for poetry quotations as listed below.
For Siegfried Sassoon, “The Power and the Glory,” copyright © Siegfried Sassoon. Used by kind permission of the Estate of George Sassoon.
For Malcolm Guite, “John,” from Sounding the Seasons, copyright © 2012 Malcolm Guite, published by Canterbury Press. Used by kind permission of Hymns Ancient and Modern, [email protected].
For Jack Clemo, “Wedding Eve” and “Broad Autumn,” from Selected Poems. Used by permission of Special Collections, University of Exeter, UK.
For Fred Kaan, “God! When human bonds are broken,” copyright © 1989 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL (U.S. and Canada); Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, www.stainer.co.uk (rest of world). Used by kind permission of the publishers. All rights reserved.
For Brian Wren, “As man and woman we were made,” copyright © 1983 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL (U.S. and Canada); Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, www.stainer.co.uk (rest of world). Used by kind permission of Hope Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
R. S. Thomas, from Via Negativa, The Absence, Montrose, The Covenanters, The Fisherman, Chapel Deacon, The Woman, Ann Griffith, copyright © Orion Publishing Group, London. Used by kind permission of Orion Publishing Group.
For George Mackay Brown, The Collected Poems of George Mackay Brown, copyright © the Estate of George Mackay Brown. Used by kind permission of the Estate of George Mackay Brown. John Murray Publishers, [email protected].
For Christine
Without whom this work would not have been possible
Foreword
by Christina Le Moignan
Pastor John is a book that makes connections. The author’s primary concern is that readers of John’s gospel should be able to connect with what they read. They are offered twin approaches in making this connection. One is a reader-response approach to the text, in which the emphasis is on what readers personally find in the text as well as on the more detached analyses of academic writing. The other approach, coupled with the first, is a psychodynamic approach, which encourages readers to examine their own interior “feeling” responses to what they read, and to use the responses to grow in their own self-understanding and in faith. This growth is shown to involve connections between people’s emotional being, their personal identity, and their spiritual lives.
Thus, whilst Pastor John recognises the relevance of the narrator’s relationship with and pastoral concern for his own community, the primary focus is about the way in which John’s gospel can be used pastorally today. Throughout this book, the fundamental question addressed is how, through our reading and sharing the gospel text, Jesus gives himself to us.
The author is a Methodist minister who has sixty years’ experience in that role. As both preacher and pastor, he has consistently sought to connect biblical exegesis with pastoral care. He has also given particular emphasis in his ministry to developing group work; hence a connection made throughout this book between group study of a text and the personal development of its members, both individually and as a group.
Fruitful as all these connections are, they are not always easy to make. This book will make demands of its readers, not only in making intellectual links between ideas which may be new or unfamiliar, but in the more personal challenges of the self-examination which readers are invited to make. People are more than once exhorted to “have courage!” They will be well rewarded if they do. For the connection that this book most fundamentally has been written to facilitate is the one between its readers and the Christ whom Pastor John presents to us.
Foreword
by John Cox
Pastor John is a refreshingly radical and challenging book that takes the reader on a journey through the turbulent waters of developmental and psychodynamic concepts, pastoral theology, and biblical scholarship, towards a sharing of personal and group experience.
Yet faint not! Brian Tebbutt, as an experienced Methodist minister, will convincingly guide you through these cross currents and help you meet Pastor John. His companions on this journey include the origins of Methodism, especially the class meetings and hymns of Charles Wesley, as well as the Clinical Theology of psychiatrist Frank Lake.
Other writers have trodden this path before, but few (except perhaps the Swiss doctor Paul Tournier) have so successfully navigated these swirling waters of the personal response to the text, as well as the processes of the sharing group experience—each with ethical and clinical dilemmas for the leader and the led. Here is an opportunity for personal growth.
Recent rapprochement between psychiatric practice, faith, and spirituality in multifaith societies (evidenced from mental health journals) is creating a more fertile soil where some of the seeds scattered from this book could take root.
Psychiatrists, psychotherapists, and those from psychology of religion and counseling fields who are curious about the reasons for faith in a secular world will find Pastor John a very useful guide. For those of faith and those of none, the book provides a valuable exploration of “bibliotherapy.” I hope it will be read and studied by many inside and outside the church. They will be rewarded and enlightened—and may even taste the new wine!
Preface
This book is intended to stimulate reflection on St. John’s Gospel whilst at the same time facilitating reflection on oneself, in company. Both dimensions, a study of the Gospel and a study of self—that is, of our response to the text—go hand in hand, like a loving couple walking through life!
This book could be read by oneself alone, and it will bring, I hope, insight into the Gospel, and, with the discipline of honestly attending to the questions, will create personal insight and growth. But it is significant that the book has had its birth over many years in workshops, and this is reflected in the rolling format. It is not simply a commentary on John; it is a prompt, pointing to deep appreciation of the text along with an adventurous togetherness in Christian experience. Here is an invitation to a pilgrimage, solitary and shared, a journey with John and with each other. What is offered is a way of sharing faith in groups, with personal growth intrinsic to the experience.
The book is written