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Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Lent - Year A Genesis 2.15–17; 3.1–7 Romans 5.12–19 Matthew 4.1–11 The devil, we are told, is the father of lies. Here, in the wilderness, or in Eden, what is on offer is nothing but lies. Look at the cunning of the tempter. First of all, the really basic appr…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Sundays Before Advent The Fourth Sunday Before Advent Micah 3.5–12 1 Thessalonians 2.9–13 Matthew 24.1–14 ‘That was a really depressing morning,’ said one disciple to another, leaning back in the sparse shade of the olive tree to keep out of the mi…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Advent - Year A Isaiah 7:10–16 Romans 1:1–7 Matthew 1:18–25 Why won’t King Ahaz ask God for a sign? The reason he gives sounds like a good religious response, but the tone of the story makes it clear that it isn’t. What he says is ‘I will not put the Lord to …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.42–7 1 Peter 2.19–25 John 10.1–10 It is easy to telescope these verses from St John’s Gospel with verses 11–18. The second parable is also about sheep, and it is much clearer and more vivid, beginning as it does with Jesus’s statement, …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany - Year A 1 Kings 17.8–16 1 Corinthians 1.18–31 John 2.1–11 Most of us think we would like the kind of communication with God that Elijah has. The narrator of 1 Kings tells us, very matter-of-factly, that God tells Elijah to do something, and Elijah g…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year A 1 Samuel 16.1–13 Ephesians 5.8–14 John 9.1–41 All the time we are called to try and find the difficult balance between faithfulness to God’s known work in the past, and prophetic discernment of God’s new work now. Faced with a completely new cha…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time The Last Sunday After Trinity Leviticus 19.1–2, 15–18 1 Thessalonians 2.1–8 Matthew 22.34–46 1 Thessalonians is almost certainly the oldest document in the New Testament. As in so many other things, Paul is a pioneer. It is hard for u…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Sundays Before Advent The Second Sunday Before Advent Zephaniah 1.7, 12–18 1 Thessalonians 5.1–11 Matthew 25.14–30 The word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’, and Christians believe that, in Jesus Christ, the whole world is offered the good news of God’…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday Before Lent - Year A Genesis 1.1–23 Romans 8.18–25 Matthew 6.25–34 Today’s Gospel reading reminds us how important it is not simply to take all passages of Scripture and apply them directly to ourselves, as though they had no original context and no intervening …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Advent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Advent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Advent - Year A Isaiah 11:1-10 Romans 15:4–13 Matthew 3:1–12 Paul’s letter to the Romans is the most formal that he wrote. He is writing to a church that he does not know, and in whose setting up and history he has not played a part. But he is writing as one …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Christmas - Year A Jeremiah 31:7–14 Ephesians 1:3–14 John 1:1–18 . It is very difficult, in the middle of the school run or the supermarket shop, to remember that in us God is fulfilling the whole purpose of creation. It is even more difficult to look at the …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Easter - Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Easter - Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.14a, 22–32 1 Peter 1.3–9 John 20.19–31 What makes people believe? Probably the reasons are as numerous as the people who give them. Today’s readings provide just a few examples. In the Gospel, we have two sets of responses. First of all…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 49.1–7 1 Corinthians 1.1–9 John 1.29–42 To be called by God is a thing of joy and terror, in about equal measures. The Corinthians are largely experiencing the excitement, at present, but their walk of discipleship will certainly lead…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Lent - Year A Genesis 12.1–4a Romans 4.1–5, 13–17 John 3.1–17 This passage from John’s Gospel is one where we usually just concentrate on the edited highlights, like, for example, the wonderful statement about the freedom and power of the Holy Spirit, or ver…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Seventh Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 1.6–14 1 Peter 4.12–14; 5.6–11 John 17.1–11 Poor disciples. What they have been through over the last few weeks! What wild swings of emotion they have had to deal with. First of all the horrors of Good Friday, with the anguish they felt …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Sixth Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 17.22–31 1 Peter 3.13–22 John 14.15–21 It is hard to tell if Paul’s famous speech at the Areopagus is a triumph or a disaster of evangelism. He has done his preparation well – one of the basic rules of preaching. He has walked around the c…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Sunday Next Before Lent - Year A Exodus 24.12–18 2 Peter 1.16–21 Matthew 17.1–9 What is the purpose of the transfiguration of Jesus? Is it supposed to reassure and confirm or baffle and alarm? And who is it for? Is it for Jesus himself, or for the disciples? Matthew, like Luk…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Advent Year A