Holy Communion for the fourth Sunday before Lent: celebrant the Revd Tola Badejo.

First reading: 1 Corinthians 15. 1-11
Gospel: Luke 5. 1-11

The central Gospel event described in today's service is the 'Miraculous draught of dishes', the extraordinary event in which Jesus the carpenter tells experienced Galilean fishermen where to cast their nets. How easily they could have told him to face facts (there are no fish to be caught) or to stick to the trade he understood. The story is essentially about faith: doing as Jesus says, however unconventional or apparently pointless, can lead to profound results.

A linking characteristic of the two readings is sheer physicality; both are rooted in the material world, where the resurrected Jesus appeared in person and fishermen wrestle with overladen nets. This reality is powerfully represented in the Rubens painting above.