Lectionary 05/10/2025
- Proper 22 /Ordinary 27 - Year C
Lectionary Readings
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Sometimes all justice seems a joke
Sometimes all justice seems a joke
by Andrew Pratt
1 Sometimes all justice seems a joke, we see love sink and drown, as anarchy and violence rule, the poor are trodden down. 2 And all is lost, audacious grace, seems vain, a hopeless thought; until we bring to mind again what Jesus lived and taught: 3 T…
Nothing Too Religious - Through this day of quiet and calm
Nothing Too Religious - Through this day of quiet and calm
by Marjorie Dobson
Through this day of quiet and calm let your peace sink into my soul. In this place, with time out of time, send your grace that I may be whole. Verses 2-3 follow Marjorie Dobson 8.8.8.8 (Irregular) Tune: Scarborough Fair (First published in Nothing Too Religious – Andrew Prat…
Prayer: Guarantees, glory and grit
Prayer: Guarantees, glory and grit
by Marjorie Dobson
Prayer: Guarantees, glory and grit Lord, forgive us for the times when we feel our lack of faith and ask for guarantees on the work we do. Forgive our lack of trust. Help us to read the signs that your work is continuing in us. Lord, forgive us for the times when we look for glor…
Imagining the lectionary: redevelopment on Story Street
Imagining the lectionary: redevelopment on Story Street
by David Perry
Imagining the Lectionary: redevelopment on story street (Proper 22C / Ordinary 27C) Reflection accompanying images Story Street 1, 2 & 3 Image: ‘Story Street 1’ Who is willing and able to invest in Story Street? The photograph poses a question which goes much deeper than the supe…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: Week 3 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: Week 3 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent For Everyone WEEK 3: SUNDAY Psalm 95 A small boy I knew asked his grandfather, a retired priest, what ‘worship’ meant. The old man paused. He was over 80 years of age, he said; he had been a clergyman most of his life; and he still found it hard to say exactly what ‘worshi…
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Man Born Blind
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Man Born Blind
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Man Born Blind John 9.1-12 I was just waking up, listening to the radio, when a news item caught my attention. Someone had been dismissed from their job for holding heretical views about the afterlife. I listened more intently. Who was it? What job had they been doing? Was it…
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Blind Man's Parents
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Blind Man's Parents
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Blind Man’s Parents John 9.13-23 John for Everyone The street lights weren’t working properly that night as my friend walked home late from work. As he took the short cut through the alleyway towards his own street, it was almost pitch dark. He knew the path well enough and w…
John for Everyone Part 1 - Is Jesus from God?
John for Everyone Part 1 - Is Jesus from God?
by SPCK - N T Wright
Is Jesus from God? John 9.24-34 One of the most depressing things about war is the way in which both sides routinely invoke God on their side. People now joke about the First World War, in which British army chaplains were praying to God for victory while a few hundred yards away…
John for Everyone Part 1 - Seeing and Not Seeing
John for Everyone Part 1 - Seeing and Not Seeing
by SPCK - N T Wright
Seeing and Not Seeing John 9.35-41 Who decides when the picture is in focus? I attended a lecture the other night in which the speaker showed us some wonderful colour slides of medieval paintings of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. The colour was magnificent; the interpretati…
Luke for Everyone - Forgiveness, Faith and Obedience
Luke for Everyone - Forgiveness, Faith and Obedience
by SPCK - N T Wright
Forgiveness, Faith and Obedience Luke 17.1-10 There is a famous story about a man who wrote a book with the title, Humility and How I Achieved It. The title is almost as self-contradictory as, in Jesus’ world, the phrase ‘the good Samaritan’ would have been. One of the paradoxes …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 22 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 22 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 22 Habakkuk 1.1–4; 2.1–4 2 Timothy 1.1–14 Luke 17.5–10 This central section of Luke’s Gospel is full of very uncomfortable reading. It starts at 9.51, when Jesus ‘set his face to go to Jerusalem’, and the ministry enters a new phase. Now everything he says and does is bein…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 22 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 22 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 22 Lamentations 1.1–6 2 Timothy 1.1–14 Luke 17.5–10 Paul, in prison, writes about power. Dangerous stuff, we say – tends to corrupt, and all that. Paul’s setting, and the work that got him there, guards him from misunderstanding. Tyrants speak of God’s power to validate th…
The Pastoral Letters - Rekindle the Gift!
The Pastoral Letters - Rekindle the Gift!
by SPCK - N T Wright
Rekindle the Gift! 2Timothy 1.1-7 There was snow outside, and the living room was cold when I came downstairs. I don’t know why I’d woken up early, but I now shivered as I huddled on the sofa and waited for one of my parents to follow me downstairs. (I can’t have been more than a…
The Pastoral Letters - Don't Be Ashamed
The Pastoral Letters - Don't Be Ashamed
by SPCK - N T Wright
Don’t Be Ashamed! 2Timothy 1.8-14 My grandfather was a clergyman, and like many of us who have to stand up and do things in front of other people he had a recurring nightmare. In his dream, he would find himself standing in the pulpit getting ready to preach a sermon, and look do…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 37: 4, 7, 32
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 37: 4, 7, 32
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 37. 4, 7, 32 The promise of God to give us our heart’s desires is conditional. When our heart is in tune with God’s heart and hence our will with his will then, as Jesus said, ‘Ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you’ (John 15.7 nrsv). The secret is to stay c…
LWPT Meditations - Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
LWPT Meditations - Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr C Lamentations 1:1-6 Psalm 137 2nd Timothy 1:1-14 Luke 17:5-10 These readings make no secret of the fact that to serve God is both challenging and testing. The apostle Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy from prison. It was not his…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 22 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 22 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 22 Luke 17: 5-10 Gaze on this poor worker with the sweat running down his face, and blisters on his hands, plodding back from the fields. The light is dimming and he’s returning to the farmhouse. How he longs to be able to bathe his tired limbs, drink cool water, and gaze …
Prayer: God, who weeps as we do
Prayer: God, who weeps as we do
by Marjorie Dobson
Prayer: God, who weeps as we do God, who weeps as we do when we see another city destroyed, another home shelled, another victim gunned down in the street, another suicide bomber creating death and injury, another column of refugees fleeing to a hazardous safety, another child dy…
Monologue/meditation: Lament
Monologue/meditation: Lament
by Andrew Pratt
Monologue/meditation: Lament Share all or part of the reading from Lamentations. The speaker, a modern day Jeremiah, is sitting on a stool, thinking. Raising his or her head, begins to speak... The rooftops were wet, shining in light that glinted between clouds. The damp mist of …
Willows hung with harps are weeping
Willows hung with harps are weeping
by Andrew Pratt
Willows hung with harps are weeping like the sorrow of our song, deep reflection of the mourning for the hurt of human wrong. Hurt which seems to have no ending, still rings on from age to age, still our human hearts are bleeding, still our grief takes centre stage. Verses 3-4 fo…
Poem: By the river
Poem: By the river
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: By the river There is something about rivers, something reflective, something that can bring tears and sorrow, something that tempts the suicidal and depressed, something immensely powerful, even in the smallest rushing stream, that provokes thoughtfulness and introspection…
Reflection: Paul and Timothy
Reflection: Paul and Timothy
by Marjorie Dobson
Reflection: Paul and Timothy Did Paul envy Timothy for his upbringing because he knew that it had led to a real devotion to the Christian cause, whereas Paul’s own background had first led him to the persecution of the Christians? Not the kind of envy that brings dissent, of cour…
Strange how we adorn with honours
Strange how we adorn with honours
by Andrew Pratt
Strange how we adorn with honours people doing what they should, while the one we count as master hung upon a cross of wood. Verses 2-3 follows Metre: 8 7 8 7 (Trochaic) Tune: ST OSWALD Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 18/9/2013 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, www.stainer.…
Poem: If you have faith
Poem: If you have faith
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: If you have faith If you have enough faith to trust the bus driver to get you safely to your destination: if you have enough faith to believe that your train will eventually arrive in the station: if you can trust the bakery to make your daily bread fresh and edible and can…
A seasonal sign of fruitful giving
A seasonal sign of fruitful giving
by David Perry
Image accompanying reflection Imagining the Lectionary: A seasonal sign of fruitful giving (Proper 22/ Ordinary 27) Year C TIP- PowerPoint Slide Size- The ideal way to insert into PowerPoint is:- Reduce the image size to 1024x768 pixels using your image editing software. (Will re…
Imagining the Lectionary:A seasonal sign of fruitful giving
Imagining the Lectionary:A seasonal sign of fruitful giving
by David Perry
A seasonal sign of fruitful giving (Proper 22/Ordinary 27) Year C Reflection accompanying image “A seasonal sign of fruitful giving” Walking our dog in the early morning sunshine I noticed the numerous empty horse chestnut fruits littering the path, lying open and highlighted so …
Psalms for Everyone - The Lowly Will Inherit the Land
Psalms for Everyone - The Lowly Will Inherit the Land
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Lowly Will Inherit the Earth Psalm 37: 1-20 The day before yesterday, in a demonstration that turned violent, the police station a quarter of a mile from where I lived as a child in Birmingham, England, and a quarter of a mile from my church there, was set on fire. One has a …
Psalms for Everyone - Did You Have Your Eyes Shut, Then?
Psalms for Everyone - Did You Have Your Eyes Shut, Then?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Did You Have Your Eyes Shut, Then? Psalm 37: 21-40 There’s a poem by Jacqueline Osherow in which she imagines a Jewish boy who has learned the Psalms by heart saying them at Auschwitz and puzzling over Psalm 37 (“Psalm 37 at Auschwitz,” in Dead Men’s Praise [New York: Grove Press…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Will You Just Shut Up and Listen?
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Will You Just Shut Up and Listen?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Will You Just Shut Up and Listen? Psalm 95 One of the most formative experiences of my life was being a chorister in the choir at the cathedral in my home city in England. I learned to sing and to read and write music, and I wouldn’t have become a music freak except for that expe…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Mindfulness, God’s and Ours
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Mindfulness, God’s and Ours
by SPCK - John Goldingay
His Commitment Is Forever Psalm 136 A former student of mine served as an armed forces chaplain in Iraq for two years after graduating from seminary. One week he called me from there. He had felt compelled to preach on the idea of God’s steadfast love. He remembered my explaining…
Four Gospels, One Jesus - What about the authors?
Four Gospels, One Jesus - What about the authors?
by SPCK - Richard A Burridge
What about the authors? Redaction and composition I cannot always read my favourite newspaper at coffee-time in our staff common room, because someone else has bagged it already! Never mind, there are others around, and reading various papers reveals their different styles and vi…
Four Gospels, One Jesus - Those who are burdened with heavy loads
Four Gospels, One Jesus - Those who are burdened with heavy loads
by SPCK - Richard A Burridge
Those who are burdened with heavy loads The ministry of the ox The keynote for Luke’s portrait of Jesus is set in his initial visit to the synagogue at Nazareth (4.16–30). Luke’s story is three times longer than the equivalent accounts which occur much later in Mark and Matthew (…
Enabling Church: inclusion of disabled people - Experiencing God in togetherness
Enabling Church: inclusion of disabled people - Experiencing God in togetherness
by SPCK - Gordon Temple and Lin Ball
4 Experiencing God in togetherness Genesis 2.18 –22; Psalm 68.5, 6; John 17.20 –23 Purpose: to explore God-given models of community; to consider the challenge of isolation and loneliness as a particular issue for disabled people…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Book I (Pss. 1-41)
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Book I (Pss. 1-41)
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Book I (Pss. 1-41) Book I opens, in Psalm 1, with words encouraging faithful meditation upon the Torah. The book continues in Psalm 2 with words of warning to the nations and their rulers to recognize the God of Israel as king over all. The psalms are framed (1:1 and 2:11) with t…
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…
glimpses of glory - Proper 3 - Year C
glimpses of glory - Proper 3 - Year C
by SPCK - David Adam
Proper 3 God of grace and glory, give us the gift of generosity, that we may reveal your love and forgiveness, and live in fellowship and peace with each other as we work for the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy …
The Act of Prayer Year C - Proper 3 - Year C
The Act of Prayer Year C - Proper 3 - Year C
by BRF - John Birch
Proper 3 Year C Opening prayer God of yesterday, today and for ever, we thank you for your loving care, protection and strength. As Joseph, once abandoned into slavery, was able with confidence to state that every part of his life was lived according to your will, so we ask that …
The Womens' Bible Commentary - “Why Do You Look On the Treacherous?”
The Womens' Bible Commentary - “Why Do You Look On the Treacherous?”
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
“Why Do You Look On the Treacherous?” The prophet bemoans the failure of his expectations, namely, that the sins of the nation’s leaders would be met by appropriate judgment and that God would judge the iniquities of Judah’s enemies as well…
Fresh Thoughts For Sunday - Fresh Thoughts For Sunday Issue 136
Fresh Thoughts For Sunday - Fresh Thoughts For Sunday Issue 136
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…
Times and Seasons - Full Service - Proper 22 (27) - Year C
Times and Seasons - Full Service - Proper 22 (27) - Year C
by Andrew Pratt and Marjorie Dobson
Full Service - Proper 22 (27) - Year C Service contents: Hymn: Dear Lord and Father of mankind or Come and find the quiet centre or Here in the silence of this place Prayer: God, who weeps as we do Reading: Psalm 137 Poem: By the river Hymn: My life flows on in endless song (abov…
Mission - Sheep among wolves
Mission - Sheep among wolves
by Colin Smith
This short (1180 word) reflection/sermon explores the implications of Jesus's statement (Matthew 10.16) that he was sending his disciples out to be as sheep among wolves. Lessons for today's disciples are indicated. Also given are reassurances and advice derived from their expect…
Jesus the Light of the world