Lectionary 03/11/2024
- Proper 26 (31) - Year B
Lectionary Readings
Related Products
Neighbour
Neighbour
by One Small Barking Dog
A thought provoking movie about who is our neighbour? Suitable as a sermon or discussion starter, a visual prayer or a conclusion to a service on Love your Neighbour. About One Small Barking Dog OSBD (one small barking dog) began its life within a Church based urban youth work se…
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Sunday: Week 5 in Lent Year B
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Sunday: Week 5 in Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B WEEK 5 SUNDAY... ...‘Sticks and stones may break my bones,’ goes the old jingle, ‘but words will never hurt me.’ It’s a lie. Don’t believe it. Words are far, far more powerful than anything else. A sword can maim or kill, but only in the crudest of f…
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Wednesday: Fifth Week in Lent Year B
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Wednesday: Fifth Week in Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B WEEK 5 WEDNESDAY... ...James stared at the machine doubtfully. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Looks quite clever, but I can’t see how it can ever actually work.’ His brother, who had spent all winter building the new machine – they were farmers, and neede…
Mark for Everyone - The Most Important Commandment
Mark for Everyone - The Most Important Commandment
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 12.28–34 The Most Important Commandment... ...If the house is on fire, what will you grab as you escape? Your children, of course, if they can’t walk themselves. Your wallet. Your computer. Your passport and personal documents. A precious photograph. The wr…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday Before Advent Deuteronomy 6.1-9 Hebrews 9.11-14 Mark 12.28-34 For once the lectionary hits the jackpot. These readings dovetail perfectly, revealing powerfully the continuity and discontinuity between Christianity and the Old Testament. The key is the bit we mig…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fourth Sunday before Advent Mark 12: 28-34 Gaze on Jesus still in the Temple after hours of debate. Imagine him standing in the outer Temple courts where the doves are fluttering and goats bleating and penned ready for sacrifice. Five hundred years old, the Temple is the gold…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday Before Advent Deuteronomy 6.1-9 Hebrews 9.11-14 Mark 12. 28-34 Person A: Do I love God? Well, why should I? What’s God ever done for me? I’ve worked hard all my life and nobody’s ever given me a thing. There are people out there born with everything they’ll ever…
Hebrews for Everyone - The Sacrifice of the Messiah
Hebrews for Everyone - The Sacrifice of the Messiah
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Sacrifice of the Messiah Hebrews 9.11-14 The first time we moved house we could hardly believe our luck. We went from a basement flat to a house above ground. The flat had been damp, even to the point of growing fungus on the walls; the house was warm and snug. We had had no …
Hebrews for Everyone - The Finished Achievement of the Messiah
Hebrews for Everyone - The Finished Achievement of the Messiah
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Finished Achievement of the Messiah Hebrews 10.11-18 Many of us in the modern world do our work sitting down. I’m sitting at a desk as I write this; I’m aware that my posture isn’t perfect, that I’m in danger of getting stiff shoulders, and that if I took more time to walk ar…
Hebrews for Everyone - So - Come to Worship
Hebrews for Everyone - So - Come to Worship
by SPCK - N T Wright
So- Come to Worship! Hebrews 10.19-25 I watched as my mother came in from shopping, carrying several bulging bags. She called me to help get the rest from the car. I couldn’t think why she’d bought so much food, but I fetched and carried and unloaded as best I could. Then I remem…
Poem: Saintliness
Poem: Saintliness
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: Saintliness The loss will hurt, but memories linger on and when the pain begins to ease and tears are drying – even if only for a time – the legacy that love has left begins to demonstrate its value, as words and looks and shared experiences drift through the troubled mind …
Hymn: Here in the midst of greatest loss
Hymn: Here in the midst of greatest loss
by Andrew Pratt
Here in the midst of greatest loss, reflecting on what might have been, Naomi gave a kiss of peace, a kiss of comfort, yet release, but Ruth would learn what love could mean, yes she would learn what love could mean. The love these women would exchange was not ephemeral or weak, …
Poem: Ruth
Poem: Ruth
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: Ruth Today I look with love upon this child - the baby that I never thought to bear - and, when he hears the story of my life, he’ll know he owes his being to God’s care. Those days in Moab seem so long ago, my family home a strange and distant place, for I have learned to …
Hymn: The narrative of Godly love
Hymn: The narrative of Godly love
by Andrew Pratt
The narrative of Godly loveresists attempts to test or prove and yet exceeds our wildest dreams, while we put trust in human schemes. Verses 2-3 follow Tune: GONFANLON ROYAL Metre: LM Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 8/10/2012 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, www.stainer.co…
Hymn: God has broken walls of heartache
Hymn: God has broken walls of heartache
by Andrew Pratt
God has broken walls of heartache, entered disability, challenged concepts that estrange us in our vulnerability. Gone the curtain of the temple, gone the altar where priests stood, now we stand within the presence of the one we name as God. Verses 3-5 follow Tune: ALL FOR JESUS …
Hymn: What does it mean to love our God
Hymn: What does it mean to love our God
by Andrew Pratt
What does it mean to love our God,to see the Christ in those around, to seek God's heaven on this earth, while all around is shaking ground? How can we face the present time of chaos that we meet and find, while Jesus says we need to love with all our soul, our strength and mind?…
Poem/meditation: Offering sacrifice
Poem/meditation: Offering sacrifice
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem/meditation: Offering sacrifice We do not offer sacrificial animals on a stone altar. We look on such things as being primitive and of historical interest only. We do not spill blood in order to appease our God, even though blood was spilt for our sakes as the cross of Jesus …
Revelation for Everyone - The Great Rescue
Revelation for Everyone - The Great Rescue
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Great Rescue Revelation 7.9-17 I stopped sleepwalking some time in my mid-twenties, but I can still remember the mixture of fear and excitement I used to feel when, eventually, I would wake up. In my dream, I had been in a room, in a house, in a corridor, somewhere which was …
LWPT Meditations - Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
LWPT Meditations - Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
by Susan Thorne
Meditation - 31stSunday in Ordinary Time Year B Hebrews 9 v 11-14 Mark 12 v 28-34 Burnt offerings and the sacrifice of animals formed an essential element of Jewish worship. It was impossible to approach God or to atone for sin unless blood was shed (Hebrews 9 v 22). On atonemen…
Beatitudes for today
Beatitudes for today
by Colin Smith
Beatitudes for today This short meditation was written in response to a challenge to write some Beatitudes to reflect today’s concerns in contemporary Western society. As such it should be seen as stimulus material whose main purpose is to promote thought. Essentially, it is sati…
Blessed are the merciful
Blessed are the merciful
by Colin Smith
Traditional stained glass window in St Johns Methodist Church Hayfield depicting the beatitude “Blessed are the merciful. Image suitable for use in a PowerPoint slide (see below) PowerPoint Slide Size- This image is full size which is 1865 x 3575 pixels and 1.2MB The ideal way to…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:32
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:32
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 119:32 Freedom. We may not have been born free, but for freedom we were made and redeemed. Walking near our cottage where I was convalescing I penned these couplets: Free as a fly that dodges the swat, free as a fish that misses the plot, Free as the wind that snaps the twi…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:34, 36
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:34, 36
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 119:34, 36 Like the eye, the heart can wander. Sometimes it seems as if the eye has the heart on a lead! Like pushing a child on a tricycle and constantly needing to reset the direction with the handlebars, so the heart needs steering. We have to set the heart’s direction w…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:111-112
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:111-112
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 119:111, 112 The word of God comes to us in several ways. Supremely in Jesus who was ‘the Word made flesh’ (cf. John 1.14). Without the Bible Jesus is a contentless word. It is Scripture that gives substance and meaning to his life, death and resurrection. Jesus’ own atti…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119: 10-11
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119: 10-11
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 119. 10, 11 It is one thing to think a thought, it is quite another to bury it and hide it in the heart. Years ago people would learn verses of the Bible off by heart; sadly this is no longer in vogue educationally. Pity! We deprive ourselves. Memorizing a verse, meditating…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Listen, Israel
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Listen, Israel
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Listen, Israel Deuteronomy 6: 1-25 Many people in the West in the twenty-first century find it hard to believe there is one truth or one God; they find it easier to believe that there are lots of versions of the truth or angles on the truth. We all then choose a “truth” that make…
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - The Most Important Commandment
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - The Most Important Commandment
by SPCK - N T Wright
3 THE GREAEST OF THE VIRTUES THE MOST IMPORTANT COMMANDMENT Mark 12: 28-34 If the house is on fire, what will you grab as you escape? Your children, of course, if they can’t walk themselves. Your wallet. Your computer. Your passport and personal documents. A precious photograph. …
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How Naomi's Life Falls Apart
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How Naomi's Life Falls Apart
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How Naomi’s Life Falls Apart RUTH 1:1-9 One Sunday in the church to which we belonged in England that story was the set Old Testament passage on a day when I was due to preach. My default instinct is to look to the Old Testament passage as the one on which to preach (someone has …
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Choice
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Choice
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Choice RUTH 1:10-19a When my wife’s multiple sclerosis was first diagnosed, I wrote to tell her pastor, who had also been a mentor of mine. I remember reading his reply. He told us how that morning he happened to have been studying the story of Jesus’ making the water into wi…
Psalms for Everyone - When Life Continues to Be Darkness
Psalms for Everyone - When Life Continues to Be Darkness
by SPCK - John Goldingay
When Life Continues to Be Darkness Psalm 43 I’ve just been reading a Darfuri refugee’s account of how he came to be in a camp in Chad. As a farmer in Sudan he was tortured by the application of a clothes iron to his back, his legs, his hands, and his head because the members of o…
The Living God - Images as windows into God
The Living God - Images as windows into God
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Which God Are We Talking About? 1 Images as windows into God A picture is worth a thousand words.’ Being able to show someone a picture of a beautiful scene, a complicated piece of machinery or a pet cat goes a long way towards making up for the limitations of human words. So per…
Rhythms of remembering - Lent - Wednesday Morning Prayer
Rhythms of remembering - Lent - Wednesday Morning Prayer
by SPCK - Hannah Ward & Jennifer Wild
LENT - Wednesday Morning Prayer Blessed are you, O God: you made us to care for the earth. The earth is God’s and all that is in it, the world and all who dwell therein. For it is God who founded it upon the sea and made it firm upon the rivers of the deep...
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - God’s Laws as the Way to Blessing
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - God’s Laws as the Way to Blessing
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God’s Laws as the Way to Blessing Psalm 119: 1-24 After church today, a friend asked me a question that had arisen out of a conversation he’d had with a co-worker. My friend was surprised that the co-worker was willing to work seven days a week—what about the commandment concerni…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Standing on the Promises
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Standing on the Promises
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Standing on the Promises Psalm 119: 25-48 Yesterday I got our congregation to write out their thanksgivings, uncertainties, and commitments for the coming year, in line with the plan I mentioned in connection with Psalm 105. Just before doing so, I realized that there was another…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Teach Me
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Teach Me
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Teach Me Psalm 119: 49-72 I’m grading student papers, and one effect that has on me (alongside making me want to commit suicide) is to make me puzzle over what it is that enables people to learn. There are people who have read the Scriptures with fresh eyes, seen things they had …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Raising the Ceiling of Our Hope
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Raising the Ceiling of Our Hope
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Teach Me Psalm 119: 49-72 I’m grading student papers, and one effect that has on me (alongside making me want to commit suicide) is to make me puzzle over what it is that enables people to learn. There are people who have read the Scriptures with fresh eyes, seen things they had …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - I Can Be Wiser Than My Professor
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - I Can Be Wiser Than My Professor
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Can Be Wiser Than My Professor Psalm 119:97-120 After my class on the Prophets last night, we invited the students back to our home for scones and tea, and during the conversation one of them asked what I enjoyed most about teaching. My response was that I love sending people a…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Faithful Master
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Faithful Master
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Faithful Master Psalm 119:121-144 One of my former colleagues used to delight to talk about her first appointment with her boss. His opening words to her were “How can I serve you?” “What can I do for you?” “How can I help you do your job?” In a way the questions seem smarmy …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Appeal of the Lost Sheep
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Appeal of the Lost Sheep
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Appeal of the Lost Sheep Psalm 119:145-176 A Bedouin herdsman tells of how he was tending a flock of goats in the Judean wilderness near the Dead Sea. Before sleeping, the herdsmen would count their flocks, but for some reason this herdsman failed to do the count for two days…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Don’t Trust in Leaders
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Don’t Trust in Leaders
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Don’t Trust in Leaders Psalm 146 I remember the winter’s day when I announced to the students at the theological college in England where I used to be the principal that I would be leaving the coming summer. To my surprise, it aroused a feeling of anxiety among a number of studen…
Four Gospels, One Jesus - Jerusalem - the lion's lair or robber's den?
Four Gospels, One Jesus - Jerusalem - the lion's lair or robber's den?
by SPCK - Richard A Burridge
Jerusalem – the lion’s lair or robbers’ den? The Temple, Mark 11—13 Mark’s gospel is like a symphony in three movements: we rushed through the first half in a flurry of activity, power and conflict, healings and exorcisms (1—8.26); the second movement was an interlude at a slower…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Book V
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Book V
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Book V (Psalms 107-150) Book V of the Psalter opens with Psalm 107, a community hymn celebrating God’s graciousness in delivering the community of faith from exile in Babylon. The psalmist says: “Let the redeemed of YHWH say so, those he redeemed from trouble and gathered in from…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Main Point
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Main Point
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
The Main Point Hebrews 04: 14-10: 39 The central section consists in large part a series of technically sophisticated allegorical arguments from Scripture arguing that Jesus is a suitable and effective high priest, indeed, the great high priest of “the true tent that the Lord, an…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Risk of Serving the Powerless
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Risk of Serving the Powerless
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
The Risk of Serving the Powerless Chapters 11–16, set in Jerusalem, parallel chapters 1–8, set in and around Galilee; each section has a major speech of Jesus in the middle: chapter 4 (parables) and chapter 13 (eschatological discourse)…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Prelude to the Passion of Jesus
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Prelude to the Passion of Jesus
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
The Prelude to the Passion of Jesus Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is marked with a curiously ambiguous story, the so-called triumphal entry. On the way into the city, the people welcome him with honor, although their reference to “the coming kingdom [realm] of our ancestor David” (…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Mark's gospel A Drama in Three Acts
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Mark's gospel A Drama in Three Acts
by BRF - Dick France
MARK’S GOSPEL- A DRAMA in THREE ACTS After a prologue which sets the scene, Mark’s story unfolds in three main sections, each of which has a distinct geographical setting: 1:1–13 Prologue (set in ‘the wilderness’) 1:14—8:21 Act 1: Galilee 8:22—10:52 …
52 Reflections on Faith - Maundy Thursday: washing the feet
52 Reflections on Faith - Maundy Thursday: washing the feet
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Maundy Thursday: washing the feet Maundy Thursday is the first of the three holy days leading up to Easter. Christians usually think of it as the day when the Eucharist was instituted. Jesus ate a meal with his disciples in Jerusalem the night before he died, thereby inaugurating…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Naomi’s Homecoming
The Women's Bible Commentary - Naomi’s Homecoming
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Naomi’s Homecoming Prologue: Journey to Moab (Ruth 1:1–5) The opening verses briefly recount the migration of a Judean family to Moab. Moab holds the possibility of life when Bethlehem (literally, “house of bread”) has been depleted by famine. But leaving home is often fraught wi…
Fresh Thoughts for Sunday - Fresh Thoughts For Sunday Issue 88 01/11/15
Fresh Thoughts for Sunday - Fresh Thoughts For Sunday Issue 88 01/11/15
by Twelvebaskets Ltd
A selection of commentary, reflection and prayer ideas from various Christian authors and the full bible texts from the NRSV for this week's lectionary. NOW INCLUDING SERIALISED BOOKS FROM SPCK AND CONTRIBUTIONS FROM BRF. Check below for details. Subscribe to Fresh Thoughts For S…
glimpses of glory - Third Sunday of Advent - Year C
glimpses of glory - Third Sunday of Advent - Year C
by SPCK - David Adam
The Third Sunday of Advent Good and gracious God, grant us a glimpse of your glory, That we may rejoice in your presence and abide in peace; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen…
The Act of Prayer Year C - Proper 5 - Year C
The Act of Prayer Year C - Proper 5 - Year C
by BRF - John Birch
Proper 5 Year C Opening prayer In our meeting together, let us remember that we worship you, the God who created this world, the God who spoke through his prophets, led his people from captivity to liberty, healed the sick, fed the hungry and was faithful even when rejected…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Construction of a Shared Story
The Women's Bible Commentary - Construction of a Shared Story
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Construction of a Shared Story The first of the Moses speeches, Deuteronomy 1:1–4:43, consists of two sections: a “historical review” (Deut. 1–3) and a sermonic interpretation of the commandment against idolatry…
Fresh Thoughts For Sunday - Fresh Thoughts For Sunday Issue 244