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Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 18 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 18 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 18 Ezekiel 33.7–11 Romans 13.8–14 Matthew 18.15–20 I suppose we can take comfort from the fact that today’s passage from Matthew needed to be written at all, because you don’t need to give advice where it is already being follo…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 19 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 19 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 19 Genesis 50.15–21 Romans 14.1–12 Matthew 18.21–35 It is very annoying to think that God may have different standards of judgement from ours. All three of today’s readings warn that the obvious surface reaction to one particul…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 20 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 20 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 20 Jonah 3.10—4.11 Philippians 1.21–30 Matthew 20.1–16 Did Jonah ever get the point? The author deliberately chooses an open ending. Jonah knows his God quite well, but that doesn’t mean he has to like him. He thinks God is rid…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 21 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 21 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 21 Ezekiel 18.1–4, 25–32 Philippians 2.1–13 Matthew 21.23–32 ‘Don’t forget the bring-and-buy sale next week; the ladies’ group will meet on Thursday to continue their excellent work on the worn-out hassocks; and by the way, don…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 22 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 22 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 22 Isaiah 5.1–7 Philippians 3.4b-14 Matthew 21.33–46 The people listening to the story of the vineyard would have responded to it on a number of different levels. Some of them would have recognized this vineyard from Isaiah 5 a…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 23 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 23 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 23 Exodus 32.1–14 Philippians 4.1–9 Matthew 22.1–14 The party was ready, the guests were on the way, but somehow they got distracted. Today’s gospel fits Exodus 32 like a glove, forming a combined warning. Readers of Exodus p…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 24 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 24 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 24 Isaiah 45.1–7 1 Thessalonians 1.1–10 Matthew 22.15–22 The question as weapon is one of the oldest techniques in controversy. You will hear it used to perfection most mornings on the radio. The art is to find the question to …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 4 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 4 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 4 - Year A Deuteronomy 11.18–21, 26–28 Romans 1.16, 17; 3.22b–31 Matthew 7.21–29 These are frightening words from Jesus in today’s Gospel reading. He imagines a group of people who truly believe they are his followers and yet are mistaken. These people perform mighty acts …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 5 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 5 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 5 Hosea 5.15—6.6 Romans 4.13–25 Matthew 9.9–13, 18–26 ‘I knew the great Apostle Paul. Buy me a drink, and I’ll tell you all about him. I used to act as his secretary, sometimes, which I knew, even then, was a great honour. Of…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 6 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 6 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 6 Exodus 19.2–8a Romans 5.1–8 Matthew 9.35—10.8 Christians know that, through the work of God in Christ, made real to them by the Holy Spirit, the world is a different place. We are, to use Paul’s characteristic phrase, ‘justif…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 7 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 7 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 7 Jeremiah 20.7–13 Romans 6.1b–11 Matthew 10.24–39 The prophet Jeremiah lived through times of enormous political upheaval. His long career, lasting about 40 years, saw a good king, a couple of bad kings, a weak king and the fo…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 8 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 8 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 8 Jeremiah 28.5–9 Romans 6.12–23 Matthew 10.40–42 Ours is an age with a great deal of interest in ‘spirituality’. We have rediscovered that ‘spirituality’ is good for us and, like exercise and a low-fat diet, we pursue it, but …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 9 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 9 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 9 Zechariah 9.9–12 Romans 7.15–25a Matthew 11.16–19, 25–30 The first half of chapter 11 of Matthew’s Gospel is Jesus’s tribute to John the Baptist. John is in prison, longing to know if he has stepped aside for nothing, aching …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 7.55–60 1 Peter 2.2–10 John 14.1–14 What are we Christians supposed to feel about the world we live in? All three of today’s readings suggest that, at the very least, the world is not our home. Stephen dies as though death is irrelevant, w…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Lent - Year A Ezekiel 37.1–14 Romans 8.6–11 John 11.1–45 There is a story that St Francis once got up to preach, looked down at the hushed, expectant faces below him and said, ‘God has not given me anything to say to you.’ And with that, he blessed the people,…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Advent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Advent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Advent - Year A Isaiah 2:1–5 Romans 13:11–14 Matthew 24:36–44 Reflection on the first Sunday in Advent year A In The Magician’s Nephew, one of his Narnia books, C. S. Lewis describes a wood, which the children reach by magic. It is a kind of no-place, which Po…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Christmas Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Christmas Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Christmas - Year A Isaiah 63:7–9 Hebrews 2:10–18 Matthew 2:13–23 Isaiah and Hebrews show us God’s way of being in the world, a way that should be blindingly obvious to us at Christmas. Isaiah is reminding the people of all that God has done for them throughout…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A