The Living God - God and suffering: understanding and coping
The Living God - God and suffering: understanding and coping
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
An almighty God: power, compassion and suffering 3 God and suffering: understanding and coping Two great questions arise whenever someone is confronted with suffering, whether in their own lives or the lives of those who matter to them. How can I make sense of this? And how can I…
The Living God - God as a person: four insights
The Living God - God as a person: four insights
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
A personal God: love and faithfulness 2 God as a person: four insights Appreciating that God is personal is central to a right understanding of the creeds. Let’s look at four insights that will help us grasp this more fully. First, in speaking of God as a person we’re making it c…
Journeying With Mark Year B - Easter
Journeying With Mark Year B - Easter
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
6 Easter Exploring the text Probably one of the best-known features of Mark’s Gospel is its ending – or, depending on your perspective, its lack of ending. Unlike the other Gospels, the accounts of resurrection in Mark are sparse in the extreme. In Matthew an angel appears to Mar…
Journeying With Mark Year B - Christmas
Journeying With Mark Year B - Christmas
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
2 Christmas Exploring the text Mark’s Gospel provides slim pickings at Christmas time. Unlike the Gospels of Matthew and Luke it provides no run-up to the birth of Jesus and no account of the events surrounding his birth. It does not even, like John’s Gospel, provide a poetic int…
Journeying With Mark Year B - Passion - Holy Week
Journeying With Mark Year B - Passion - Holy Week
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
5 Passion – Holy Week Exploring the text The Revised Common Lectionary’s decision to intersperse Mark’s Gospel with John’s Gospel is nowhere more frustrating than in Holy Week. As we noted in the Introduction, Mark’s Gospel builds from the moment that John the Baptist bursts on t…
Journeying With Mark Year B - Lent
Journeying With Mark Year B - Lent
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
4 Lent Exploring the text During Lent we prepare ourselves for the Passion of Christ, looking forward to that time when Jesus’ suffering and death will bring redemption to the world. In Mark’s Gospel, we discover that we are not the only ones expecting Jesus’ death: Jesus too loo…
Journeying With Mark Year B - Ordinary Time
Journeying With Mark Year B - Ordinary Time
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
7 Ordinary Time Exploring the text The aim of Mark’s Gospel is to introduce us to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There are many ways in which we can encounter him – for example, through his calling of his followers or in the moments of great revelation at the baptism, transfigurat…
Journeying With Mark Year B - Advent
Journeying With Mark Year B - Advent
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
1 Advent Exploring the text The season of Advent is about waiting, both for the Jesus who came to earth as a baby and for the victorious, risen and ascended Christ who will return to earth as King. One of the challenges of Advent is to keep our vision fixed not only on the more t…
Journeying With Mark Year B - Epiphany
Journeying With Mark Year B - Epiphany
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
3 Epiphany Exploring the text In the season of Epiphany we celebrate the revelation of God in the world, and in particular his revelation to the Magi in Matthew’s Gospel. Yet again this idea seems to run counter to Mark’s Gospel, which appears on the surface to be more concerned …
the greatest prayer - Our Father in Heaven
the greatest prayer - Our Father in Heaven
by SPCK - John Dominic Crossan
2 Our Father in Heaven Our Father which art in heaven . . . Our Father in heaven . . . Matthew 6:9, NRSV Her name was Babatha and she lived in Maoza, on the southern tip of Israel’s Dead Sea coast. She was illiterate, wealthy, and financially very competent, moving easily within …
the greatest prayer - Your Kingdom Come
the greatest prayer - Your Kingdom Come
by SPCK - John Dominic Crossan
4 Your Kingdom Come Thy kingdom come. Matthew 6:10, KJV Your kingdom come. Matthew 6:10, NRSV Hesiod was a Greek pessimist for whom the wineglass of history was half empty—and getting emptier. Around the start of the seventh century BCE his Works and Days proposed that humanity h…
the greatest prayer - Pray Then in This Way
the greatest prayer - Pray Then in This Way
by SPCK - John Dominic Crossan
1 Pray Then in This Way We do not know how to pray as we ought. Romans 8:26 There is a design team for airports whose special job is the location of public electricity outlets in passenger terminals. Their job is to make them…
the greatest prayer - Prologue The Strangest Prayer
the greatest prayer - Prologue The Strangest Prayer
by SPCK - John Dominic Crossan
PROLOGUE The Strangest Prayer The Lord’s Prayer is Christianity’s greatest prayer. It is also Christianity’s strangest prayer. It is prayed by all Christians, but it never mentions Christ. It is prayed in all churches, but it never mentions church. It is prayed on all Sundays, bu…
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus the good shepherd: the door of the sheep
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus the good shepherd: the door of the sheep
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Jesus the Good Shepherd: door of the sheep When I worked in the Holy Land with St George’s College, Jerusalem, we often took groups to the Sinai desert to camp overnight under the stars on the way down to St Catherine’s monastery. It was an amazing experience. Quite often I would…
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and Healing: The New Creation
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and Healing: The New Creation
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
10 Jesus and Healing I wonder if you’ve ever played any part in healing somebody. Have you ever had a role in helping somebody become whole? I don’t mean ‘Have you ever performed a miracle?’ as much as ‘Do you think in terms of healing and behave as if healing were possible?’ Do …
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus Christ today
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus Christ today
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
8 Jesus Christ today: ‘Who is Jesus Christ for us today?’ This is the famous question asked by Dietrich Bonhoeffer from his cell in Tegel military prison, Germany, during the last 18 months of his life. Bonhoeffer had been arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis in April 1943. He wa…
52 Reflections on Faith - Passion Sunday: responding to God