SPCK - Robin Gill
A Bit Like Jesus - The Policeman's Dilemma
A Bit Like Jesus - The Policeman's Dilemma
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 3 Compassion The Policeman’s Dilemma Five years ago I served on a panel of religious representatives giving evidence to a Select Committee on Assisted Dying. One of the committee members asked us all to respond to the following story: An armed policeman chanced upon a bad ro…
A Bit Like Jesus - Compassion and assisted suicide
A Bit Like Jesus - Compassion and assisted suicide
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 3 Compassion Compassion and assisted suicide If compassion really is crucial and central should we not legalize assisted suicide in Britain? As I write, this question is being frequently asked in newspapers, magazines and on television. For some years Dignity in Dying (in th…
A Bit Like Jesus - Jesus and the disabled woman
A Bit Like Jesus - Jesus and the disabled woman
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 2 Hypocrisy Jesus and the disabled woman Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her,…
A Bit Like Jesus - Healing stories and parables
A Bit Like Jesus - Healing stories and parables
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 1 Stories We Value Healing stories and parables Can I make an assumption about you as a reader of this Lent Book? I may well be wrong, but I assume that you are slightly intrigued by what it means to be ‘a bit like Jesus’. I should explain...
A Bit Like Jesus - Compassion in healthcare
A Bit Like Jesus - Compassion in healthcare
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 3 Compassion 15 Compassion in health care A Bit Like Jesus Some of the new and exciting developments in medical science – especially in the area of genetics and stem cell research – raise complex ethical issues. Developments in patient care also raise old problems in new for…
A Bit Like Jesus - The parable of the prodigal, his brother and their compassionate Father
A Bit Like Jesus - The parable of the prodigal, his brother and their compassionate Father
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 3 Compassion Healing and compassion Then Jesus said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathe…
A Bit Like Jesus - Healing and Compassion
A Bit Like Jesus - Healing and Compassion
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 3 Compassion Healing and compassionAs they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. There were two blind men sitting by the roadside. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, ‘Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!’ The crowd sternly ordered them to b…
A Bit Like Jesus - Learning from hypocrisy
A Bit Like Jesus - Learning from hypocrisy
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 2 Hypocrisy Learning from hypocrisy Gene Robinson, the elected Bishop of New Hampshire, was not invited to attend the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Bishops. It was considered that his committed but gay partnership would make his presence too offensive to others within the Angli…
A Bit Like Jesus - Practise what you preach
A Bit Like Jesus - Practise what you preach
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 2 Hypocrisy Practise what you preach Those who regularly deliver sermons in church should live in fear of this proverb. It might have been designed for us. Do we really live up to what we preach? A common factor in many of the uses of the word ‘hypocrite’ in the first thre…
A Bit Like Jesus - Hypocrisy and aids
A Bit Like Jesus - Hypocrisy and aids
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 2 Hypocrisy Hypocrisy and AIDS Within the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats both those who did and those who did not give priority to the vulnerable are mystified. ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And w…
A Bit Like Jesus - Hypocrisy and paedophile priests
A Bit Like Jesus - Hypocrisy and paedophile priests
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 2 Hypocrisy Hypocrisy and paedophile priests Forget about my petty scruples concerning Ash Wednesday. It is time to take a much stronger example of religious hypocrisy. For instance, the shameful way that for generations senior clergy in a number of churches covered up for t…
A Bit Like Jesus - Religious hypocrisy
A Bit Like Jesus - Religious hypocrisy
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 2 Hypocrisy Religious hypocrisy This accusation against religious people is especially strong in the first three Gospels. Within the New Testament the term ‘hypocrite’ is found only in these Gospels. It is always found on the lips of Jesus himself. And it is typically direct…
A Bit Like Jesus - Values from stories
A Bit Like Jesus - Values from stories
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 1 Stories We Value Values from stories Why did Jesus not give us a set of moral laws? I suspect that for many of us it would have been so much easier had he done so. Imagine for a moment that the Gospels were full of moral laws, dos and don’ts, like parts of Leviticus in the…
A Bit Like Jesus - Life Stories
A Bit Like Jesus - Life Stories
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 1 Stories We Value Life stories On my shelves I have an inherited collection of original Henty novels. Written for boys in Victorian England they remained popular in the early twentieth century and are still collectable today. G. A. Henty was a self-taught historian who wrot…
A Bit Like Jesus - Healing Stories rather than miracle stories
A Bit Like Jesus - Healing Stories rather than miracle stories
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 1 Stories We Value Healing stories rather than miracle stories The problem is that many will see the Gospel stories as miracle stories. So are they really healing stories? Here, for example, is the first such story in Mark 1.21–28: They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbat…
A Bit Like Jesus - Family Stories
A Bit Like Jesus - Family Stories
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 1 Stories We Value Family Stories Stories are particularly important for families. We tell and retell stories about where and when we were born, about holidays shared, about birthday and Christmas parties enjoyed long ago, about grandparents and great-grandparents no longer …
A Bit Like Jesus - Family Stories
A Bit Like Jesus - Family Stories
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 1 Stories We Value Family Stories Stories are particularly important for families. We tell and retell stories about where and when we were born, about holidays shared, about birthday and Christmas parties enjoyed long ago, about grandparents and great-grandparents no longer …
A Bit Like Jesus - Stories We Value