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Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Christ the King Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Christ the King Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Christ the King John 18: 33-37 Gaze on the gaudy colours of the luxurious Imperial Palace, the wealth of velvet and silk, armour and flags, which decorate the towers and gates that keep the people out. Gaze on the hierarchy of officials and servants, there to make visible the Emp…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Day of Pentecost John 15.26-27 16.4b-15 Gaze on the disciples at the back of the room, ones we don’t hear much about, Alphaeus or Thaddeus for instance. They’ve long stopped concentrating, and they give each other secret glances of puzzlement. Is it blasphemy to suggest they are …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Easter Day Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Easter Day Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Easter Day Mark 16.1-8 or John 20.1-18 Gaze at the women, determined to do women’s work, and to honour the body of their friend. They come to anoint him with spices, not thinking ‘This is useless, why bother?’ They do not look for miracles, only the performance of a tradition. Bu…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Palm Sunday Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Palm Sunday Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Palm Sunday: The Liturgy of the Palms Mark 11.1-11 or John 12.12-16 Gaze on donkeys plodding down arid hillsides in the Middle East or North Africa – they can still be seen today. At first they appear in the distance indistinguishable from the boulders – only their movement betra…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 1 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 1 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 1 Mark 1.29-39 Contemplate a solitary place where you can best pray. Where would you choose? Perhaps the sea shore, where you can hear God speak in the roar of the waves; or a wood where you hear him whisper in the rustle of the leaves; a garden, where you see his hope i…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 10 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 10 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 10 Mark 6: 14-29 Gaze on all the Herods of this world and all the gratuitous violence they unleash. Gaze on all the ethnic cleansing that has gone on down the ages – innocents massacred, women raped and the elderly displaced, staring at us every day from our newspapers, dr…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 11 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 11 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 11 Mark 6.30–34, 53–56 Gaze at the crush as people lean forward and grab the cloak that wraps around the shoulders of one extraordinary man. They stretch out to touch it, they push and shove to get near the front, to stroke his tunic and finger the hem. It is almost as if …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 12 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 12 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 12 John 6: 1-21 Gaze on the crowd expecting to see more miraculous cures and wondering who will be healed next. They are in for a shock, for instead they all become part of a miracle, for today Jesus is not concerned for their aches and pains but for their hunger. Taste th…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 13 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 13 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 13 John 6: 24-35 Gaze on Jesus by the campfire burning on the beach; or in the upper room; or on the shore with the five thousand. What is that in his hands? Almost always, it is bread. Bread broken and the crumbs at his feet which the birds will swoop for as he moves away…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 14 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 14 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 14 John 6: 35, 41-51 Gaze on Jesus trying to reason with the crowd. See how very human this story is, how the crowd’s mood swings from worship and surprise to doubt and grumbling so quickly. Listen to the ripples of argument and the shocked whispers, for this man’s claims …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 15 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 15 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 15 John 6: 51-58 Gaze on a typical communion service. In some churches people sit patiently in their pew before being stewarded to the rail. In others, people get up and go when it suits them. There is the circle of people around the altar – the elderly and arthritic stand…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 16 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 16 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 16 John 6: 56-69 Gaze on Simon Peter. He is standing near to Jesus, and is spokesman yet again for the disciples. He is the first to speak, yet again perhaps too readily. Hear his exclamation: ‘To whom shall we go?’ Listen to his tone of voice. Is he dogmatic or pleading, …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 17 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 17 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 17 Mark 7.1– 8, 14, 15, 21–23 Gaze on Jesus’ hands wiping the dust of the journey away. Large, tough hands, rough from years of carpentry; prone to splinters, cut from slips of the saw, nails blackened from a slipped hammer. Hands that poured water for friends, drew in the…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 18 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 18 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 18 Mark 7: 24-37 Gaze on the miles and miles Jesus covers in this story, wandering around the perimeter of Galilee, unwilling to return to where he is so well known. For there, some want him king, and some want him killed. Gaze on Jesus trying to remain unrecognized. Why w…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 19 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 19 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 19 Mark 8: 27-38 Gaze on a group of men and women, looking forward to supper, walking casually along the road towards Caesarea Philippi. What are they talking about – the weather, perhaps or the latest lovesick comrade, or maybe the political scandal of the continued occup…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 2 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 2 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 2 Mark 1.40-45 Gaze on this man, whom we know nothing about, except that he is a leper. We don’t know whether he’s old or young, rich or poor. Once someone was labelled ‘leper’, that was all that was important, and their individual identity was lost. His body and limbs a…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 20 Year B