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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 …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Christ the King Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Christ the King Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Christ the King Jeremiah 23.1–6 Colossians 1.11–20 Luke 23.33–43 Today’s passages might, on a superficial reading, simply be making the fairly standard point that Christ’s kingship and authority are a challenge to most human understandings of power. That’s a good and important po…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 18 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 18 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 18 Deuteronomy 30.15–20 Philemon 1–21 Luke 14.25–33 Which of your letters would you like preserved for a couple of millennia? Philemon is one of the most ‘domestic’ of the documents of the New Testament, and it is impossible not to read it like an unfinished novel. What ha…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Cry from Sodom
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Cry from Sodom
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Cry from Sodom Genesis 18: 16-20 Any day I write, there are cries arising from the world. To test that statement, I just went to get today’s newspaper. On the front page is a photo of a woman who lost a leg and whose husband and son died in a NATO bombing in Afghanistan. In t…
friends, FOES and families - If any of you is without sin: the woman taken in adultery
friends, FOES and families - If any of you is without sin: the woman taken in adultery
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
If any of you is without sin: The woman taken in adultery John 8.1-11 Merciful Father, may I never judge another, for I only know part of their story. Years ago the story of the woman taken in adultery might have sounded archaic, an example of harsher times, and unconnected with …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Christ the King Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Christ the King Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Christ the King Jeremiah 23.1–6 Colossians 1.11–20 Luke 23.33–43 Shepherds, shepherding stories, and shepherding metaphors abound throughout the Bible, as one would expect in that culture. The creative thing in Israel’s traditions, though, was the development of ‘the shepherd’ as…
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - The First And The Last
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - The First And The Last
by SPCK - N T Wright
5 THE RENEWAL OF THE WORLD THE FIRST AND THE LAST Matthew 19: 23-30 Once, as a boy, I watched a large party of hunters on horseback chasing a fox over open country. Even if you disapprove of foxhunting, as many do, it was a fine sight on a cold wintry day. Down the hillside they …
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Everything Came True
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Everything Came True
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Everything Came True JOSHUA 20:1- 21:43 Less than three weeks ago I received one of those standard e-mails from a student: she did not think she would be able to finish her coursework by the deadline. Except that it was not the standard e-mail. She had been told that she had a br…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Miriam the Prophet, Aaron the Priest, Moses the Teacher
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Miriam the Prophet, Aaron the Priest, Moses the Teacher
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Miriam the Prophet, Aaron the Priest, Moses the Teacher NUMBERS 12: 1-15 The movie Live and Become is the story of a boy among the Ethiopian Falasha Jews airlifted to Israel at the time of the Marxist revolution in the 1980s. Except that Schlomo (Solomon) is not a Jew but a Chris…
Job for Everyone - On Learning From the Past
Job for Everyone - On Learning From the Past
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Learning from the Past Job 8: 1-22 The other Saturday we were sitting in a restaurant by the ocean, and a woman came to talk to us who is a student at the seminary. This particular beach is an hour away, so I asked her if she lived nearby. She explained that she came here on S…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday Before Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday Before Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday Before Advent Isaiah 1.10–18 2 Thessalonians 1.1–12 Luke 19.1–10 The temptation with today’s three readings is to go straight for the story of Zacchaeus. It’s warm, vivid and has a happy ending. But the other two readings remind us that Zacchaeus’ choice is not …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Advent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Advent Malachi 3.1–4 Philippians 1.3–11 Luke 3.1–6 The passage from Malachi and the passage from Luke go together well. At first glance, the alternative reading from Baruch (5.1–9) matches the Luke passage even better, since Luke and Baruch both seem to be qu…
Poem: Hear the echoes of the scripture
Poem: Hear the echoes of the scripture
by Andrew Pratt
Poem: Hear the echoes of the scripture Hear the echoes of the scripture in the parting of the waters, see Elijah in the whirlwind, see Elisha, looking, waiting. See Elisha take the mantle, see Elisha strike the water, faith and action moving forward, faith is passed from hand to …
Prophets challenge words and actions
Prophets challenge words and actions
by Andrew Pratt
Prophets challenge words and actions, things we do and things say, lift the veil and prompt the conscience, show our deeds the light of day. Verses 2-3 follow Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 19/1/2014 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, www.stainer.co.uk. Please include any re…
We build up walls to sanctify possession
We build up walls to sanctify possession
by Andrew Pratt
We build up walls to sanctify possession, then cage the things that bolster wealth and greed, but death will level rich and poor together, will nullify religion, race and creed. Verses 2-3 follow Tune: INTERCESSOR; HIGHWOOD Metre: 11.10.11.10 Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 15…
What a scandal, such forgiveness