Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 16 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 16 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 16 Isaiah 51.1–6 Romans 12.1–8 Matthew 16.13–20 There seems to be a bit of a break in the argument at this point in Romans. Chapters 9––11 are Paul’s attempt to give some kind of coherent shape to God’s activity in choosing fir…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Easter Day Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Easter Day Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Easter Day Isaiah 25.6-9 1 Corinthians 15.1-11 John 20.1-18 This Gospel reading is not, as one writer has suggested, ‘a sanitized story about a trip to a garden and a lovely surprise’. If Easter is in any sense the happy ending after a sad story, that is the least important thing…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - I Want to Know What Love Is
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - I Want to Know What Love Is
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Want to Know What Love Is Genesis 29:32-30:3 I have just read a review of a TV program about polygamy in the United States. It incidentally notes how one motivation for polygamy is that it can be a route to more children and more money, which fits with the assumptions about pol…
Monologue: Not me!
Monologue: Not me!
by Andrew Pratt
Monologue: Not me! What's that you say? You saw me just the other night? You can't be right! And Freda saw me too? She was with you? Oh no... you are mistaken. I turned to walk away, but something, nagging, made we want to stay. A wasp was buzzing in my head and later, resting in…
LENT MEDITATION 3 Ah! Lord, with trembling I confess
LENT MEDITATION 3 Ah! Lord, with trembling I confess
by Andrew Pratt
LENT HYMN MEDITATION 3 - Based on the Hymn 'Ah! Lord, with trembling I confess' by Charles Wesley. From the book 'Inextinguishable Blaze' also by Andrew Pratt - Click Here Extract: Anyone who has lived in a close relationship with another person for a long time will know that 'th…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Coveting Can Kill
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Coveting Can Kill
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Coveting Can Kill JOSHUA 7: 16-26 Today (as I am writing this) is Black Friday, when the stores hope to get their books into the black as the year draws toward an end. People will have been lining up all night or will have got up at crazily early hours to get a plasma TV for a hu…
Exodus and Leviticus - Pharaoh Flip-Flop
Exodus and Leviticus - Pharaoh Flip-Flop
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Pharaoh Flip-Flop EXODUS 9: 22-35 In the rough and tumble of U.S. politics, you have to be very careful about changing your mind, or you may be accused of flip-flopping. It’s appropriate that there should be a term for an unprincipled change of mind or change of policy, one that …
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: Week 1 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: Week 1 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 1: SUNDAY Psalm 32 A long time ago, when I had just learnt to drive, I ran out of petrol on a lonely country road. I gratefully accepted some fuel from a nearby farmer. What he didn’t tell me was that it was a mixture designed not for a car, but for a lawn mower. I got back …
52 Reflections on Faith - Prayer: Listening to God
52 Reflections on Faith - Prayer: Listening to God
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
21 Prayer: Listening to God Prayer is sometimes defined as ‘talking to God’ and, on the face of it, that sounds as if it might be a helpful definition. What we’re doing when we’re talking to God is praying. The Oxford English Dictionary defines prayer as ‘a solemn and humble requ…
Jeremiah for everyone - Who Am I?
Jeremiah for everyone - Who Am I?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Who Am I? In a poem he wrote in prison, on his way to being executed by the Nazis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer asked the question, “Who am I?” Am I one person today, and tomorrow, another? Do I look brave to other people, though before myself I’m “a contemptibly woebegone weakling”?…
Psalms for Everyone - The Mystery of Sin
Psalms for Everyone - The Mystery of Sin
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Mystery of Sin Psalm 19 One of the Christians I know who have had affairs had three such relationships and got away with two without anyone knowing. Then some people discovered about the third (I don’t know what his wife might have suspected), which was how he came to be talk…
Echoing the Word - Blessing and dismissal
Echoing the Word - Blessing and dismissal
by SPCK - Paula Gooder & Michael Perham
21 Blessing and dismissal Although it may be argued that, after the blessing experienced in receiving the consecrated bread and wine of the Eucharist, no extra words of blessing at the conclusion of the service can add much to the service, a blessing by the president at the end o…
Echoing the Word - Eucharistic Prayer F
Echoing the Word - Eucharistic Prayer F
by SPCK - Paula Gooder & Michael Perham
14 Eucharistic Prayer F Prayer F is probably the richest prayer in terms of its theology and strong memorable images. Its origins lie in the fourth-century Eucharistic Prayer of St Basil, still in occasional use in the Eastern churches. In the West it has been experienced, in a v…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - A Mere Breath
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - A Mere Breath
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Mere Breath Psalm 144 Some years ago I did a little bit of research into tracing my ancestors. These were pre-Internet days, and the research involved poring over ancient volumes in the repository of such records in London. Sometimes I would discover another “John Goldingay” fr…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - God’s Time and Our Time