LWPT Meditations - Second Sunday of Easter - Year C
LWPT Meditations - Second Sunday of Easter - Year C
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – 2nd Sunday of Easter Year C Acts 5:27-32 Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 John 20:19-31 We call him “Doubting Thomas” for a single mistake that he made. Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, was not there when the Lord appeared to the rest of them after his resurrection…
LWPT Meditations - Second Sunday of Christmas - Year A
LWPT Meditations - Second Sunday of Christmas - Year A
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – Second Sunday of Christmas Yr A John 1 v 1-18 Ephesians 1 v 3-14 New Year is a time of looking back at what we have achieved and endured in the past year, and of looking forward, with some trepidation, to the year ahead. We shall certainly be facing some challenges, …
LWPT Meditations - Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A
LWPT Meditations - Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – 31st Sunday in Ordinary time Yr A Joshua 3: 7-17 Psalm 107; 1-7, 33-37 1 Thessalonians 2: 9-13 Matthew 23: 1-12 Jesus had silenced the Pharisees (Matthew 22 v 46) but they had not silenced him. The words in our gospel passage (Matthew 23 v 1-12) are the harshest sayi…
LWPT Meditations - Second Sunday of Easter - Year B
LWPT Meditations - Second Sunday of Easter - Year B
by Susan Thorne
Meditation - 2nd Sunday of Easter Year B 1st John 1: 1-2:2 John 20: 19-31 Apart from Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, Thomas is the most notorious of Jesus’ disciples. He is known universally as “Doubting Thomas”. I wonder how many of us sympathise with Thomas, or even identify with…
LWPT Meditations - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
LWPT Meditations - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
by Susan Thorne
Meditation- 30thSunday in Ordinary Time Year B Job 42 v 1-6, 10-17 Psalm 34 v 1-8 Hebrews 7 v 23-28 Mark 10 v 46-52 If, like Job, we have patiently endured and have read our way through the entire book with its long complaints, discourses and arguments, we finally reach the reso…
LWPT Meditations - Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
LWPT Meditations - Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
by Susan Thorne
Meditation - 31stSunday in Ordinary Time Year B Hebrews 9 v 11-14 Mark 12 v 28-34 Burnt offerings and the sacrifice of animals formed an essential element of Jewish worship. It was impossible to approach God or to atone for sin unless blood was shed (Hebrews 9 v 22). On atonemen…
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday of Advent - Year A
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday of Advent - Year A
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – Third Sunday of Advent Yr A Isaiah 35:1-10 Psalm 146:5-10 James 5:7-10 Matthew 11:2-11 John the Baptist had put his full faith in Jesus. He had foretold Jesus’ coming, heralded him as the Lamb of God, sent his own disciples to follow him. But John’s faith had not be…
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr B Jonah 3: 1-5, 10 Psalm 62: 5-12 1 Corinthians 7: 29-31 Mark 1: 14-20 This week’s Bible passages could all have been specially written for the difficult times in which we find ourselves now, with global financial disaster on the horizo…
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday of Easter - Year C
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday of Easter - Year C
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – 3rd Sunday of Easter Year C Acts 9:1-6 Psalm 30 Revelation 5:11-14 John 21:1-9 God is great at reversals; he can change disaster into rejoicing, mourning into gladness, death into life. Many of the Old Testament stories tell of eleventh-hour escapes, or of impossibl…
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday of Easter - Year B
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday of Easter - Year B
by Susan Thorne
Meditation - 3rd Sunday of Easter Year B Acts 3 v 12-19 1st John 3 v 1-7 Luke 24 v 36b-48 Three decades ago, the then Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins, caused near uproar among Christians with his statement that the resurrection of Jesus was just “a conjuring trick with bones”. I …
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday of Lent - Year B
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday of Lent - Year B
by Susan Thorne
Meditation - 3rd Sun of Lent Year B Exodus 20: 1-17 Psalm 19 1st Corinthians 1: 18-25 John 2: 13-22 In Exodus 20, God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments that were to form the basis of their Law. As present-day humans we don’t like laws much. One has only to observe how indi…
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday of Advent - Year B
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday of Advent - Year B
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – 3rd Sunday of advent Year B Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11 Psalm 126 Our lectionary reading from Isaiah (61 v 1-4, 8-11) provided Jesus with the words that began his ministry. It was the scroll of Isaiah from which he read in the synagogue at Nazareth, and he applied the words…
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C Nehemiah 8 v 1-3, 5-6, 8-10 Psalm 19 Luke 4 v 14-21 God’s Word is “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12) if we allow it to work in our lives. For those of us whose Bible-reading has become a duty rather than a joy, for those who “tun…
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday of Advent - Year C
LWPT Meditations - Third Sunday of Advent - Year C
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – Third Sunday of Advent Year C Zephaniah 3: 14-20 Isaiah 12: 2-6 Philippians 4: 4-7 Luke 3: 7-18 It is often the case that in prophesying about the fall of Jerusalem, the exile in Babylon, and the restoration of the people of Israel to their homeland, the prophets fin…
LWPT Meditations - Fifth Sunday in Lent - Year A
LWPT Meditations - Fifth Sunday in Lent - Year A
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – Fifth Sunday in Lent Year A Ezekiel 37:1-14 Psalm 130 Romans 8:6-11 John 11:1-45 This week’s lectionary readings are all about finding a solution, making the impossible possible... Created by Susan Thorne on behalf of LWPT (Leaders of Worship and Preachers' Trust) fo…
LWPT Meditations - Fifth Sunday in Lent - Year B
LWPT Meditations - Fifth Sunday in Lent - Year B
by Susan Thorne
Meditation - 5th Sunday in Lent Year B Jeremiah 31: 31-34 Psalm 51: 1-12 Hebrews 5: 5-10 John 12: 20-33 The lectionary readings for Passion Sunday are always a surprise and a challenge. We expect to hear an account of the Passion – the suffering of Christ on the cross – but inste…
LWPT Meditations - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A
LWPT Meditations - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr A Isaiah 58:1-9 Psalm 112:1-9 1st Corinthians 2:1-12 Matthew 5:13-20 Whenever I read what God says in Isaiah 58, I want to write it out and send a copy to every politician currently in power. Written centuries before the birth of Je…
LWPT Meditations - Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year B