SPCK - Judith Dimond
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 7 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 7 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 7 Mark 4: 35-41 Gaze on the sea in stormy weather. Hear the roar of the gale crashing against the sails at full stretch and the creak of the feeble wooden hull. Watch the disciples, bailing out in vain. The rain is lashing their faces, soaking their clothes. Hear the fear …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 6 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 6 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 6 Mark 4: 26-34 Gaze on a vegetable patch at the bottom of the garden, or better still a full-sized allotment, with the gardener’s rickety shed in one corner, a watering can outside the door. Gaze on the rows of neat plants: pale lime-green lettuce leaves, baby leeks like …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 5 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 5 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 5 Mark 3: 20-35 Gaze on the family of Jesus, his mother Mary and his brothers, worried out of their wits by rumours reaching them high in their mountain home in Nazareth. Not only is Jesus upsetting the authorities, but he’s not even looking after himself. ‘He’ll make hims…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 4 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 4 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 4 Mark 2:23- 3:6 Gaze on a wheat field, glowing under the sun, ready for harvest. The stalks are bowing down almost in prayer, ready for reaping. The field is so full and sturdy and dense that all the footpaths that run across it are hidden. So Jesus walks straight through…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 21 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 21 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 21 Mark 9: 38-50 Gaze on Archbishop Cranmer, being led to the stake to die by fire because he would not act against his conscience. In many ways the sixteenth century was more like the time of Jesus than it is ours. Cranmer would have understood more fully the risks and da…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 20 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 20 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 20 Mark 9: 30-37 Gaze on the disciples, a ragged band trudging along and always on the move. So often they are confused by their leader, yet always in awe of him and often afraid to ask, afraid to look the fool. Now he’s made that frightening prediction about ending on a v…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 19 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 19 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 19 Mark 8: 27-38 Gaze on a group of men and women, looking forward to supper, walking casually along the road towards Caesarea Philippi. What are they talking about – the weather, perhaps or the latest lovesick comrade, or maybe the political scandal of the continued occup…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 18 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 18 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 18 Mark 7: 24-37 Gaze on the miles and miles Jesus covers in this story, wandering around the perimeter of Galilee, unwilling to return to where he is so well known. For there, some want him king, and some want him killed. Gaze on Jesus trying to remain unrecognized. Why w…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 15 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 15 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 15 John 6: 51-58 Gaze on a typical communion service. In some churches people sit patiently in their pew before being stewarded to the rail. In others, people get up and go when it suits them. There is the circle of people around the altar – the elderly and arthritic stand…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 17 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 17 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 17 Mark 7.1– 8, 14, 15, 21–23 Gaze on Jesus’ hands wiping the dust of the journey away. Large, tough hands, rough from years of carpentry; prone to splinters, cut from slips of the saw, nails blackened from a slipped hammer. Hands that poured water for friends, drew in the…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 16 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 16 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 16 John 6: 56-69 Gaze on Simon Peter. He is standing near to Jesus, and is spokesman yet again for the disciples. He is the first to speak, yet again perhaps too readily. Hear his exclamation: ‘To whom shall we go?’ Listen to his tone of voice. Is he dogmatic or pleading, …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 14 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 14 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 14 John 6: 35, 41-51 Gaze on Jesus trying to reason with the crowd. See how very human this story is, how the crowd’s mood swings from worship and surprise to doubt and grumbling so quickly. Listen to the ripples of argument and the shocked whispers, for this man’s claims …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 13 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 13 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 13 John 6: 24-35 Gaze on Jesus by the campfire burning on the beach; or in the upper room; or on the shore with the five thousand. What is that in his hands? Almost always, it is bread. Bread broken and the crumbs at his feet which the birds will swoop for as he moves away…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 12 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 12 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 12 John 6: 1-21 Gaze on the crowd expecting to see more miraculous cures and wondering who will be healed next. They are in for a shock, for instead they all become part of a miracle, for today Jesus is not concerned for their aches and pains but for their hunger. Taste th…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 11 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 11 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 11 Mark 6.30–34, 53–56 Gaze at the crush as people lean forward and grab the cloak that wraps around the shoulders of one extraordinary man. They stretch out to touch it, they push and shove to get near the front, to stroke his tunic and finger the hem. It is almost as if …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Christ the King Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Christ the King Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Christ the King John 18: 33-37 Gaze on the gaudy colours of the luxurious Imperial Palace, the wealth of velvet and silk, armour and flags, which decorate the towers and gates that keep the people out. Gaze on the hierarchy of officials and servants, there to make visible the Emp…
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…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Third Sunday before Advent Year B