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…
Living stones
Living stones
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: Living stones Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A 1 Peter 2: 2-10 Some stones were never meant for building,?? being sharp and flinty; jagged and easily broken. Unreliable. Others are round and smooth. They slip and slide, one against another: never bound together. Always moving.…
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 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 …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Ascension!
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Ascension!
by SPCK - N T Wright
Ascension! Acts 1.9-14 We were having supper with some friends who had recently moved to western Canada. ‘So,’ my wife began, ‘does Vancouver feel like home?’ ‘It’s not home,’ replied the wife energetically. ‘It’s heaven!’ ‘Well, my dear,’ commented her husband, a theologian, rep…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.14a, 36–41 1 Peter 1.17–23 Luke 24.13–35 In his poem, ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’,1 W. B. Yeats pictures a man so consumed with longing for home that even in the middle of a busy street, all he hears is the sound of the lake, more real …
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, …
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 9 Year A
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 9 Year A
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 9 - Year A Meditation on Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30 Gaze on these children playing in the marketplace. Children are the same the whole world over, and in every era. Today they would be in the home corner, playing make- believe games. ‘Let’s play weddings,’ says Kelly, who’s …
Imagining the Lectionary: palms and passion
Imagining the Lectionary: palms and passion
by David Perry
Imagining the Lectionary: Palms and Passion Reflection accompanying images “O Jesus forsaken today” and “Jesus is crucified” Whichever way we look at it, the final phase of the Lenten journey towards Easter is the supreme test of our mettle as disciples. Do we continue alongsid…
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 20 Year A
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 20 Year A
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 20 - Year A Meditation on Matthew 20: 1-16 Gaze on that very British pastime, a queue. We queue for buses, we queue at the checkout, and we wait patiently in line to buy our ticket at the cinema. Remember the old-fashioned system in banks and post offices? The first to arr…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Easter Sunday Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Easter Sunday Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Easter Sunday - Year A Jeremiah 31.1–6 Colossians 3.1–4 John 20.1–18 Real life is something so unusual that we can barely recognize it. Occasionally, we get a glimpse of it and it touches us with awe: the birth of a baby, for example, or listening to a perfectly performed piece o…
Many gifts
Many gifts
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: Many gifts (1 Corinthians 12: 3b-13) If any one person could embody all the graces; all the compassion and understanding; all the wisdom and gifts of ministry that Jesus had, then there would be no need for so many gifts to be given by the Spirit to build up the church. B…
Reflection on John 17: 1-11
Reflection on John 17: 1-11
by Marjorie Dobson
Reflection on John 17: 1-11 Ascension John 17: 1-11 Facing the biggest crisis of his life, with friends ready to betray him and enemies waiting to execute him, Jesus still took time to pray. Though he anticipated death, he believed that God’s glory would be shown as death was d…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Sixth Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 17.22–31 1 Peter 3.13–22 John 14.15–21 In a spectacular (and presumably heavily abbreviated) speech, Paul takes on culturally sophisticated Athens with the new upside-down wisdom. He begins on their own territory, with the altar to the Unk…
Intercessions for Years A, B and C Book - Lent 5 (Passion Sunday) – Year A
Intercessions for Years A, B and C Book - Lent 5 (Passion Sunday) – Year A
by SPCK - Ian Black
Lent 5 (Passion Sunday) – Year A In your loving-kindness, O God Have mercy and hear our prayer. Jesus, our resurrection and our life, raise our vision and centre it on your eternity. Breathe into your Church the vitality of your Spirit . . . Taken from Intercessions for Years A, …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.14a, 36–41 1 Peter 1.17–23 Luke 24.13–35 Today’s readings bubble over with the excitement of the new moment that has dawned in Israel’s story, in the world’s story, with the resurrection. It isn’t merely that God is offering a new kind o…
Prayers for Easter Day