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Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 21 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 21 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 21 Numbers 11.4-6, 10-16, 24-29 James 5.13-20 Mark 9.38-50 Moses has had enough of the people. He has led them out of slavery, and they have been saved and protected by God’s strength throughout. They have seen the waters of the sea part just for them, they have seen water…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 22 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 22 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 22 Genesis 2. 18-24 Hebrews 1.14; 2.5-12 Mark 10.2-16 It is very tempting to go straight for the second half of the passage from Mark’s Gospel set for today, and just speculate, if possible with some sentimentality, about what Jesus meant by ‘theirs is the Kingdom of Heave…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 23 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 23 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 23 Amos 5.6-7, 10-15 Hebrews 4:12-16 Mark 10.17-31 Is it just me, or are the readings actually getting harder at this time of year? Not only more difficult to understand, but also more sombre? Certainly, today’s reading from Hebrews has taken large quantities of caffeine, …
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 24 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 24 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 24 Isaiah 53.4-12 Hebrews 5.1-10 Mark 10.35-45 There is an extraordinary consistency in what the New Testament tells us about the mission of Jesus Christ. At the heart of all the great biblical accounts of why the Son comes and how he saves us is the cross. No New Testamen…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 25 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 25 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 25 Jeremiah 31.7-9 Hebrews 7.23-28 Mark 10.46-52 Some theologies sound a bit vague about what happens to Jesus after the resurrection. His work is completed, once for all, on the cross, he is vindicated by the Father through the resurrection, and that’s that. Then, dependi…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 3 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 3 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 3 Isaiah 43.18–25 2 Corinthians 1.18–22 Mark 2.1–12 Our capacity to respond wrongly to God is endless. All three of today’s readings focus primarily on the generosity of God, but they also all have as a backdrop the stubborn stupidity of our response. The miracle that Jes…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 4 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 4 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 4 Deuteronomy 5: 12-15 2 Corinthians 4: 5-12 Mark 2: 23- 3:6 Today’s passages send out an alarmingly confusing set of messages. On the one hand, Deuteronomy tells us how vital it is to keep the Sabbath, while Jesus seems to suggest that we can sit a bit more lightly to tha…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 5 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 5 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 5 Genesis 3: 8-15 2 Corinthians 4: 13-5: 1 Mark 3: 20-35 Things are moving at a relentless pace for Jesus in these early chapters of Mark’s Gospel. Already he is being followed everywhere he goes by large crowds of people. Already he has made bitter enemies out of the loca…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 6 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 6 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 6 Ezekiel 17: 22-24 2 Corinthians 5: 6-17 Mark 4: 26-34 Paul’s argument in this section of 2 Corinthians is complex and far- reaching. He is putting forward a whole new theory of reality and knowledge. Christians, he argues, carry their own reality system around with them,…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 7 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 7 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 7 Job 38: 1-11 2 Corinthians 6: 1-13 Mark 4: 35-41 In today’s readings we have two different, and potentially incompatible, views of how God works. The reading from Job and the reading from the Gospel seem to have one vision, which is of the colossal and unquestionable pow…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 8 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 8 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 8 Wisdom of Solomon 1-13-15; 2: 23, 24 2 Corinthians 8:7-15 Mark 5: 21-43 ‘Do not fear, only believe,’ Jesus says to Jairus. It’s easier said than done, of course, with his daughter dead and the house full of the sound of wailing mourners. It’s also quite ironic, in that i…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 9 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 9 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 9 Ezekiel 2:1-5 2 Corinthians 12: 2-10 Mark 6: 1-13 ‘This passage of 2 Corinthians has caused enormous speculation down the ages. It is tantalisingly full of hints about Paul, which may have made sense to his readers but which we can only fill out with hyperactive imaginin…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Easter Acts 8.26-40 1John 4.7-21 John 15.1-8 The writings of John, both in the Gospel and the epistles, are bafflingly determined not to come down on one side or the other of the ‘chicken or egg’ question. Which comes first, love of God or love of our neighbou…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Lent Jeremiah 31.31–34 Hebrews 5.5–10 John 12.20–33 At last a nice easy covenant. At last, Jeremiah seems to be suggesting, God will give up trying to teach us things and just zap us, changing us so that it becomes natural to us to know God. We won’t need to b…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Advent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Advent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Advent Isaiah 64.1–9 1 Corinthians 1.3–9 Mark 13.24–37 A monk comes to his abbot, seeking enlightenment. He questions the abbot eagerly and impatiently, firing questions at him. But the abbot says, ‘Just look.’ The monk is very disappointed, ‘I’m always lookin…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Christmas Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Christmas Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Christmas Isaiah 61.10—62.3 Galatians 4.4 –7 Luke 2.15–21 Galatians is one of the most moving of all Paul’s epistles. Paul is fighting for his calling in this epistle. The fight is partly for himself, because if he is wrong, and God has not called him to be an…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Baptism of Christ - The First Sunday of Epiphany Genesis 1.1–5 Acts 19.1–7 Mark 1.4–11 What is nothingness? We have no concept of it. Our image of it consists of the absence of things that we can picture and describe, which is very different from the nothingness before creati…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Lent Year B