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Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Christ the King Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Christ the King Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Christ the King Daniel 7.9-10, 13, 14 Revelation 1.4b-8 John 18.33-37 Philip Pullman’s brilliant His Dark Materials trilogy ends with the words ‘and then we’ll build . . . The republic of heaven.’ This is the vision that Lyra holds out to us after all she has learned and suffered…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Christmas Day Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Christmas Day Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Christmas Day Isaiah 62.6–12 Titus 3.4–7 Luke 2.1–20 In these verses from Isaiah there is a great sense of subdued excitement, of restlessness, of purposeful movement a little distance away, as the dawn breaks. Actually, this would probably describe almost any household with chil…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Day of Pentecost Acts 2.1-21 Romans 8.22-27 John 15.26-27; 16.4b-15 The Holy Spirit has been in danger in recent years of becoming the soppy one of the Trinity. Think about it for a bit – the Holy Spirit doesn’t go off and do uncomfortable and challenging things like getting cruc…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Easter Day Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Easter Day Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Easter Day Isaiah 25.6-9 Philippians 15.1–11 Mark 16.1-8 After all the horror, and the crowds and the noise of the day of Jesus’s crucifixion, this chapter of Mark’s Gospel starts quietly. We have already seen these women at the crucifixion scene, but we hardly noticed them there…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Palm Sunday Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Palm Sunday Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Palm Sunday Isaiah 50.4–9a Philippians 2.5–11 Mark 14.1—15.47 It is as though there are any number of parallel stories in Mark’s account of the trial and death of Jesus. The characters in each story are largely unaware of the others, though they may interact with each other to so…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 1 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 1 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 1 Isaiah 40.21–31 1 Corinthians 9.16–23 Mark 1.29–39 There are two complicated, separate yet related themes running through today’s readings. The first is to do with proclamation – all three passages talk about the ways in which God makes himself known to us. The second is…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 10 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 10 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 10 Amos 7: 7-15 Ephesians-1: 3-14 Mark 6: 14-29 ‘The letter to the Ephesians sets the life of the Christian Church in the context of the cosmic plan of God. The letter will go on to give quite detailed advice about how Christians should live together, day to day, but it is…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 11 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 11 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 11 Jeremiah 23: 1-6 Ephesians-2: 11-22 Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56 In today’s reading from Mark’s Gospel, we get a strong sense of the enormous pressure Jesus and the disciples were under at this point in his ministry. Jesus is at the height of his popularity and although his con…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 12 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 12 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 12 2 Kings 4. 42-44 Ephesians 3: 14-21 John 6: 1-21 The story of the feeding of the five thousand is found in all four Gospels, making it one of the best attested of Jesus’s miracles. John’s Gospel sometimes uses memories and stories that clearly come from different source…
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 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 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 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 Reflections - Year B - Proper 17 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 17 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 17 Deuteronomy 4.1-2, 6-9 James 1. 17-27 Mark 7. 1-8, 15, 21-23 We rather value versatility and unpredictability in people. To say that someone is predictable is to imply that they are boring and hidebound. I suspect that this actually reflects the comparative security and…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 18 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 18 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 18 Isaiah 35. 4-7a James 2.1-17 Mark 7. 24-37 I suppose it’s comforting, in an Eeyore-ish kind of way, to know that ours is not the only generation of Christians to think that belief is simply a matter of the words you use, and that it doesn’t need to affect ordinary life …
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 19 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 19 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 19 Isaiah 50.4-9a James 3.1-12 Mark 8.27-38 The disciples are quite enjoying the discussion, to begin with. Every- where they’ve been with Jesus, they have heard speculation. People must have asked them, over and over again, ‘Who is your master? Where does he get his power…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 2 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 2 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 2 2 Kings 5.1–14 1 Corinthians 9.24–27 Mark 1.40–45 Mark’s Gospel is almost certainly the oldest of the four Gospels. Matthew and Luke seem to know it and depend upon it for some of their information, though they do also have independent sources of their own. It is possibl…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 20 Year B