John for Everyone part 2 - Glorify the Son
John for Everyone part 2 - Glorify the Son
by SPCK - N T Wright
Glorify the Son John 17.1-8 Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is full of action. Ghosts, murders, love scenes, plots, accidental killings, betrayals, recriminations and more plots. The play highlights the indecision of the hero when faced with huge problems, and this results in pauses he…
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus Prays for His People
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus Prays for His People
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Prays for His People John 17.9-19 In the newspapers recently a mother was punished by the courts. She had left her two young children entirely by themselves, while she went off for a foreign holiday with her new boyfriend. (The father, it seems, was nowhere to be found.) It…
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 5 Year A
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 5 Year A
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 5 - Year A Meditation on Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26 Gaze on Matthew, sitting in his tax booth. He’s snappily dressed in the latest trend, ooks like a city trader with designer shades hiding his eyes, a wide tie round his neck; a striped suit and Italian leather shoes complete…
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 7 Year A
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 7 Year A
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 7 - Year A Meditation on Matthew 10: 24-39 Gaze on yourself in a mirror. If you are young, your face is open, unlined, your skin fresh and clear, and your eyes are bright. Whether you wear your hair long or cropped, bobbed or short, it is thick and glossy. Do you see the f…
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 6 Year A
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 6 Year A
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 6 - Year A Meditation on Matthew 9: 35 – 10.8 Gaze on the harassed and helpless, the dislocated and forgotten of our societies – like commuters without a train, milling around on the platform, tired after a long day standing on their feet serving in a shop for not much mor…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 9 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 9 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 9 Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20 Gaze on yourself as you arrive in a town for the first time. Have you booked your hotel room ahead, or are you leaving it to chance? Recall the strange street signs, the one-way system that confuses and traps you, and the difficulty in finding a plac…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 5 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 5 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 5 Luke 7: 11-17 Gaze on a funeral scene in Britain – everyone is in their best clothes, dark, sombre and formal. People make an effort to contain their emotions and no one wants to ‘break down’ in public. We put on a brave face and give thanks for the life lost. If it is a…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 8 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 8 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 8 Luke 9: 51- 62 Gaze on the sort of journeys we make today, on all the preparation and paraphernalia we acquire. We need tickets and passports, hotel reservations, luggage and currency. We surround ourselves with so much security, and so much comfort, and find it hard to …
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 7 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 7 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 7 Luke 8: 26- 39 Gaze on all that is unclean in this story: the man himself, the tombs he lived in, and the pigs feeding on swill, caked with mud. Gaze on the vagrants of our cities today: the men stretched out on newspaper in the shop doorways; bag ladies pushing trolleys…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 6 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 6 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 6 Luke 7: 36- 8: 3 Gaze at the dinner party and all the guests reclining on couches, facing the table, their legs stretched out behind them. This is how it is that the woman can stand behind Jesus at his feet, bathe them with her tears, dry them with her hair, and smother …
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Advent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Advent Luke 3.1-6 Gazing on the Gospels year C Gaze on a lone hiker, setting out on a long distance walk in the Lake District, or Scottish highlands, perhaps. Imagine it’s you, dressed in the latest Gore-Tex® to keep out the wind and rain, waterproof trousers…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Easter Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Easter John 20.19-31 Gaze on the faces of the disciples, their jaws clenched, eyes half shut, pictures of defeat. So far we have been gazing on expressions of fright and grief, of doubt and confusion. They’ve seen the stone rolled away, and they’ve seen the e…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday before Advent Luke 22: 5-19 Gaze on the Temple again. This time look up at all the gold that burns in the sunlight, and shouts out its wealth. Look at the gigantic bunches of golden grapes adorning a central archway – each grape cluster as tall as a man. Was Her…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Epiphany John 2.1-11 Gaze on all the colours of this occasion . . . See the vibrant wedding robes; the table piled high with rich food, the pink of pomegranates, the shock of oranges, the purples of the grapes, the sheen of the olives. The excitement mounts. …
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fourth Sunday of Lent Luke 15.1-3, 11b-32 Gaze on the father pacing his lemon groves each evening, climbing to the highest point of his land to scan the horizon. And at last he sees a dot, growing ever more distinct, ever more familiar. Gaze on the elder son, the outsider loo…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Lent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Lent Luke 13.31-35 Gaze on Jerusalem today, in greater need than ever of her children being gathered together in harmony. It is a city divided between Jew and Muslim, Jew and Christian, with no-go areas armed by guns. Churches are locked. Doubt and suspicion …
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Seventh Sunday of Easter John 17.20-26 Gaze on the disciples, trudging down the hillside after the Ascension, overwhelmed by the shock of losing the presence of Jesus yet again. Will absence make the heart grow fonder, or will it be a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’? Some…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday before Lent Year C