Lectionary Reflection Year C - Christmas Day/Christmas Eve Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Christmas Day/Christmas Eve Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Christmas Day/Christmas Eve Isaiah 52.7–10 Hebrews 1.1–4 John 1.1–14 What difference would it make if the Christmas story were not true? If God had not come to be born, live and die as a human being? Today’s readings shout out that the Christmas story is the key to what the world…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 15 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 15 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 15 Isaiah 56.1, 6–8 Romans 11.1–2a, 29–32 Matthew 15.10–28 This strange story of the Canaanite woman clearly scratches an itch for Matthew’s readers. If you put this version and Mark’s version side by side (Mark 7.24–30), you w…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 14 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 14 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 14 1 Kings 19.9–18 Romans 10.5–15 Matthew 14.22–33 There is something about us that is deeply resistant to the grace of God. It’s not that we don’t believe in him, or wish to follow him, or that we consciously reject him, but w…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 15 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 15 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 15 Proverbs 9-1-6 Ephesians 4. 25-5.2 John 6: 35, 41-51 ‘You are what you eat’, so the saying goes. Our modern western culture is wise to the fact that food is not all the same, and will not all be good for you. We are now very anxious about food additives, very aware of p…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 13 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 13 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 13 Exodus 16. 2-4, 9-15 Ephesians 4. 1-16 John 6: 24-35 This is a very revealing set of questions and answers between Jesus and the people following him. It tells us a lot about what the people thought they were looking for in Jesus, and gives us one of Jesus’s own central…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 15 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 15 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 15 Jeremiah 23.23–9 Hebrews 11.29—12.2 Luke 12.49–56 Hebrews continues its great description of faith in today’s reading. From Moses down to the relatively recent past in the Maccabean revolts, the author of Hebrews reminds his readers of the story that they have inherited…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 14 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 14 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 14 1 Kings 19-4-8 Ephesians 4. 25-5.2 John 6: 35, 41-51 On the grounds that there is no point in telling someone to do something if they are already doing it, the Ephesian community must be quite like a church you know well. It is interesting how much of this section is co…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 16 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 16 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 16 Joshua 24. 1-2a,14-18 Ephesians 6. 10-20 John 6: 56-69 Peter’s tale: That’s about the only time I ever remember being sure that I’d got it right. Oh, I don’t mean that I had doubts about what came out of my mouth when I was preaching to people after the Lord had risen. …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 13 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 13 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 13 Ecclesiastes 1.2, 12–14; 2.18–23 Colossians 3.1–11 Luke 12.13–21 Today’s three readings just are depressing, so brace yourselves. It’s partly because the image of the virtuous life that they present is so obviously unattainable, and partly because they seem to epitomize…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 12 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 12 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 12 Genesis 18.20–32 Colossians 2.6–15 Luke 11.1–13 This story from Genesis is often told as though it is about Abraham bargaining with God. Abraham, the generous and merciful, pleads with God, the bloodthirsty and violent, and gradually manages to calm God down and get him…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Sixth Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 17.22–31 1 Peter 3.13–22 John 14.15–21 It is hard to tell if Paul’s famous speech at the Areopagus is a triumph or a disaster of evangelism. He has done his preparation well – one of the basic rules of preaching. He has walked around the c…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Epiphany Isaiah 43.1–7 Acts 8.14–17 Luke 3.15–17, 21–2 The first three Gospels all have the story of Jesus’ baptism by John in very similar words. John’s version of events, as so often, is slightly different – you might like to go and have a look at it in John…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday Before Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday Before Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday Before Advent Isaiah 1.10–18 2 Thessalonians 1.1–12 Luke 19.1–10 The temptation with today’s three readings is to go straight for the story of Zacchaeus. It’s warm, vivid and has a happy ending. But the other two readings remind us that Zacchaeus’ choice is not …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Christmas Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Christmas Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Christmas 1 Samuel 2.18–20, 26 Colossians 3.12–17 Luke 2.41–52 To get the full picture of what is going on in the reading from 1 Samuel, we really need the verses that the lectionary chooses to leave out. The story is actually about different kinds of sonship.…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Advent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Advent Jeremiah 33.14–16 1 Thessalonians 3.9–13 Luke 21.25–36 Intelligent waiting seems to be the theme of these three readings – not a bad theme for the start of Advent, but definitely to be distinguished from Aunt Juley in Forster’s Howard’s End, who goes th…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Epiphany Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Epiphany Isaiah 60.1–6 Ephesians 3.1–12 Matthew 2.1–12 The wise men have always had enormous appeal. Everything about them has been elaborated in poetry and story. They have become kings; they have been depicted as representing youth, maturity and old age; they have been give…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Easter Genesis 22.1–18 Acts 11.1–18 John 13.31–5 The verses from St John’s Gospel come at the turning point of the Last Supper. Judas has just left the room, and there is now no going back. A sense of urgency seems to overtake Jesus after this. The supper is…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C