Jane Williams
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday of Easter Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Easter Acts 3.12-19 1John 3.1-7 Luke 24.36b-48 A puzzled seeker writes: I’ve been interested in this Jesus movement for years, but I’m no closer to understanding it now that I’m an old man than I was all those years ago in Jerusalem. It started when my uncle t…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday of Easter Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Easter Acts 4.32–35 1 1 John 1.1—2.2 John 20.19–31 The recent popularity of The Lord of the Rings has helpfully given new vitality to the word ‘fellowship’. The people who make up the ‘fellowship of the ring’ are not natural allies. They have little in comm…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Easter Day Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Easter Day Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Easter Day Isaiah 25.6-9 Philippians 15.1–11 Mark 16.1-8 After all the horror, and the crowds and the noise of the day of Jesus’s crucifixion, this chapter of Mark’s Gospel starts quietly. We have already seen these women at the crucifixion scene, but we hardly noticed them there…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Palm Sunday Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Palm Sunday Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Palm Sunday Isaiah 50.4–9a Philippians 2.5–11 Mark 14.1—15.47 It is as though there are any number of parallel stories in Mark’s account of the trial and death of Jesus. The characters in each story are largely unaware of the others, though they may interact with each other to so…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Lent Jeremiah 31.31–34 Hebrews 5.5–10 John 12.20–33 At last a nice easy covenant. At last, Jeremiah seems to be suggesting, God will give up trying to teach us things and just zap us, changing us so that it becomes natural to us to know God. We won’t need to b…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Lent Numbers 21.4-9 Ephesians 2.1–10 John 3.14–21 The imagination nourished by the Bible immediately springs into action at the mention of snakes. In Numbers, they may be real rather than metaphorical, but that does not prevent them from carrying heavy symbol…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday of Lent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Lent Exodus 20.1-17 1 Corinthians 1.18-25 John 2.13-22 Are Exodus and 1 Corinthians in direct conflict with each other? Do they give wholly irreconcilable pictures of the nature of God and our response to it? The God of the Ten Commandments is, surely, a God w…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday of Lent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Lent Genesis 17.1–7, 15, 16 Romans 4.13–25 Mark 8.31–38 The Old Testament readings for Lent this year are encouraging us to think about covenants. Last week we had the covenant with Noah, this week we have Abraham, and next week – let me give you a sneak prev…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Lent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Lent Genesis 9.8–17 1 Peter 3.18–22 Mark 1.9–15 When God makes his covenant with creation after the flood, it is a covenant not just with Noah and his family, or even with all future human beings, but with ‘every living creature that is with you’ (v. 10). What…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Sunday Next Before Lent 2 Kings 2.1–12 2 Corinthians 4.3–6 Mark 9.2–9 Elijah is taking part in his own funeral procession. Everywhere he goes, people come out to watch him, the coffin, go past. The people do not speak to him. It’s almost as though they think that he has alrea…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday Before Lent Proverbs 8.1, 22–31 Colossians 1.15–20 John 1.1–14 The Sunday lectionary readings do, on the whole, allow us to focus on the central Christian belief that God does all things out of love towards his creation. Even when the readings focus on the suffe…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 3 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 3 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 3 Isaiah 43.18–25 2 Corinthians 1.18–22 Mark 2.1–12 Our capacity to respond wrongly to God is endless. All three of today’s readings focus primarily on the generosity of God, but they also all have as a backdrop the stubborn stupidity of our response. The miracle that Jes…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 2 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 2 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 2 2 Kings 5.1–14 1 Corinthians 9.24–27 Mark 1.40–45 Mark’s Gospel is almost certainly the oldest of the four Gospels. Matthew and Luke seem to know it and depend upon it for some of their information, though they do also have independent sources of their own. It is possibl…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 1 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 1 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 1 Isaiah 40.21–31 1 Corinthians 9.16–23 Mark 1.29–39 There are two complicated, separate yet related themes running through today’s readings. The first is to do with proclamation – all three passages talk about the ways in which God makes himself known to us. The second is…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Deuteronomy 18.15–20 Revelation 12.1–5a Mark 1.21–28 ‘If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this greatre, I will die’ (Deuteronomy 18.16). This, according to Deuteronomy, is the source of prophecy. The people of God hav…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Epiphany Genesis 14.17–20 Revelation 19.6–10 John 2.1–11 We are created to praise God. We cannot trulynd our existence in any other way, and neither can the created world, which longs to re-echo to the sound of human voices raised in songs of praise to their c…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Epiphany 1 Samuel 3.1–10 Revelation 5.1–10 John 1.43–51 The beginning of chapter 3 of 1 Samuel says, in a very matter-of- fact way, ‘the word of the Lord was rare in those days.’ 1 Samuel has already begun to paint a picture – centred round Eli and the once-f…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year B