Gazing on the Gospels year c - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The First Sunday of Epiphany Luke 3.15-17, 21-22 Gaze at the audience in a theatre, all waiting expectantly for their favourite pop singer to stride on stage, the one and only who’s flown over from America for the first time in ten years; this is a once in a lifetime opportunity …
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fourth Sunday of Advent Luke 1.39-45 [46-55} Gaze on a woman in pregnancy. At the beginning, when the baby first moves, it is a secret known only to the mother, then shared with her partner, family and close friends, and in time, the domed belly will force all around to know …
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The First Sunday of Christmas Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The First Sunday of Christmas Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The First Sunday of Christmas Luke 2.41-52 Gaze on the chaos of a pilgrimage – the coaches lined up one by one in the car park, people trying to remember which their coach was, and do they recognize the driver? Imagine Mary and Joseph, missing Jesus, but confident he’s with anoth…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The First Sunday of Lent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The First Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The First Sunday of Lent Luke 4.1-13 Gaze on Jesus in the wilderness. Gaze on the harsh monochrome of fear and confusion, on the hard bed of stones that brings no comfort. Imagine forty days without the scent of grass, his feet cut raw against the ragged paths, as he searches for…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fourth Sunday of Easter John 10.22-30 Gaze on a rough, stormy day in Jerusalem. Our usual picture of the Holy Land is of sun and heat, and a life led in the open air, but there can be cold winds and rain, too. Jesus is sheltering in one of the inner courts of the Temple. It’s…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 5 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 5 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 5 Hosea 5.15—6.6 Romans 4.13–25 Matthew 9.9–13, 18–26 ‘I knew the great Apostle Paul. Buy me a drink, and I’ll tell you all about him. I used to act as his secretary, sometimes, which I knew, even then, was a great honour. Of…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year A 1 Samuel 16.1–13 Ephesians 5.8–14 John 9.1–41 All the time we are called to try and find the difficult balance between faithfulness to God’s known work in the past, and prophetic discernment of God’s new work now. Faced with a completely new cha…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 7 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 7 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 7 Jeremiah 20.7–13 Romans 6.1b–11 Matthew 10.24–39 The prophet Jeremiah lived through times of enormous political upheaval. His long career, lasting about 40 years, saw a good king, a couple of bad kings, a weak king and the fo…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Lent - Year A Genesis 2.15–17; 3.1–7 Romans 5.12–19 Matthew 4.1–11 The devil, we are told, is the father of lies. Here, in the wilderness, or in Eden, what is on offer is nothing but lies. Look at the cunning of the tempter. First of all, the really basic appr…
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Seventh Sunday of Easter - Year A Meditation on John 17: 1-11 Gaze on some of the earliest Christian paintings, the third-century frescos in the catacombs of Rome. On the wall of the catacomb of Priscilla is depicted a Christian worshipping God – standing upright with a praye…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 9.1–4 1 Corinthians 1.10–18 Matthew 4.12–23 Corinth in the first century was a busy, loud, exciting place. It had been a reasonably wealthy trading centre for a couple of centuries at least, and that had attracted people of many religi…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 42.1–9 Acts 10.34–43 Matthew 3.13–17 Matthew’s is the only Gospel that shows any embarrassment about Jesus’s baptism by John the Baptist. In all of the Gospels, John knows that his baptism is a temporary measure, but he also knows that…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Easter Sunday Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Easter Sunday Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Easter Sunday - Year A Jeremiah 31.1–6 Colossians 3.1–4 John 20.1–18 Real life is something so unusual that we can barely recognize it. Occasionally, we get a glimpse of it and it touches us with awe: the birth of a baby, for example, or listening to a perfectly performed piece o…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Christmas - Year A Jeremiah 31:7–14 Ephesians 1:3–14 John 1:1–18 . It is very difficult, in the middle of the school run or the supermarket shop, to remember that in us God is fulfilling the whole purpose of creation. It is even more difficult to look at the …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Christmas Eve/Christmas Day Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Christmas Eve/Christmas Day Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
?Christmas Eve/Christmas Day - Year A Isaiah 9:2–7 Titus 2:11–14 Luke 2:1–20 Luke starts what is to be one of the world’s most famous narratives on the world stage, as it is traditionally recounted. He starts with emperors and governors, who are, after all, the people who make hi…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Day of Pentecost Year C