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Lectionary Reflection Year C - Christmas Day/Christmas Eve Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Christmas Day/Christmas Eve Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Christmas Day/Christmas Eve Isaiah 52.7–10 Hebrews 1.1–4 John 1.1–14 What difference would it make if the Christmas story were not true? If God had not come to be born, live and die as a human being? Today’s readings shout out that the Christmas story is the key to what the world…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 13 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 13 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 13 Ecclesiastes 1.2, 12–14; 2.18–23 Colossians 3.1–11 Luke 12.13–21 Today’s three readings just are depressing, so brace yourselves. It’s partly because the image of the virtuous life that they present is so obviously unattainable, and partly because they seem to epitomize…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 12 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 12 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 12 Genesis 18.20–32 Colossians 2.6–15 Luke 11.1–13 This story from Genesis is often told as though it is about Abraham bargaining with God. Abraham, the generous and merciful, pleads with God, the bloodthirsty and violent, and gradually manages to calm God down and get him…
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 …
Poem: The Psalmist reckoned fools were unbelieving
Poem: The Psalmist reckoned fools were unbelieving
by Andrew Pratt
Poem: The Psalmist reckoned fools were unbelieving The Psalmist reckoned fools were unbelieving, but faith, like fashion, leaves to sink or swim. No God indeed? perhaps as others paint 'him'. No goddess either? Faith is just a whim? We look at life and context moulds our seeing, …
Poem: The wisdom of women: discernment of thought
Poem: The wisdom of women: discernment of thought
by Andrew Pratt
The wisdom of women: discernment of thought, with love's intuition that cannot be bought; how long will we limit these God given gifts while fudging church unity, fearful of rifts? All people are worthy and all have a place, all people are gifted with God-given grace, yet barrier…
The last word goes to God, and God
The last word goes to God, and God
by Andrew Pratt
The last word goes to God, and God is judge of all the earth, and yet in Christ there’s hope for all who share a human birth. This is no magic but a sign, for Christ who hung and died, was led to death because he loved, this could not be denied. Verses 3-5 follow Tune: MENDIP; LU…
What news is good? What words give hope?
What news is good? What words give hope?
by Andrew Pratt
What news is good? What words give hope? What sense of value do we feel when meeting with our God in Christ, what gives the sense, provides the seal? This seal of perfect love and faith, this hope of holiness and grace, the knowledge that our path is right, is given in our saviou…
Within the Areopagus
Within the Areopagus
by Andrew Pratt
Hymn: Within the Areopagus Sixth Sunday of Easter Acts 17: 22-31 Within the Areopagus debate was heated, talk was fast, Paul joined this lively interchange: debate goes on, the questions last. It was not easy to believe: the 'god' they worshipped was unknown. They harboured an un…
Within a world of many gods
Within a world of many gods
by Andrew Pratt
Hymn: Within a world of many gods Proper 11 year A Isaiah 44:6-8 Within a world of many gods that called for their attention, the people said the God of love was theirs beyond contention. Within a world where wealth or power tempt us to selfish living... Tune: ST COLUMBA (IRISH) …
The challenge seemed audacious
The challenge seemed audacious
by Andrew Pratt
Hymn: The challenge seemed audacious Proper 17 Year A Exodus 3: 1 – 15 The challenge seemed audacious, impossible to hear: a bush that kept on burning, love’s antidote to fear. A nameless God was calling and freedom was the goal. Could Moses bring redemption for every Hebrew soul…
Why put our faith in transient things
Why put our faith in transient things
by Andrew Pratt
Why put our faith in transient things Why put our faith in transient things, satanic mills of industry, the wealth that we accumulate, or even churches' history? The rites that we revere and praise, the hymns we sing, the prayers we pray, the actions we see as divine were human …
Luke for Everyone - The Distress of Jerusalem Predicted
Luke for Everyone - The Distress of Jerusalem Predicted
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Distress of Jerusalem Predicted Luke 21.20-33 At school we were sometimes made to write stories which included several very different characters and objects. ‘Write a story,’ the teacher might say, ‘including a rabbit, a telescope, a cathedral and a man with a wooden leg.’ Of…
Jesus Drives Out Demons
Jesus Drives Out Demons
by Dave Hopwood
A Matter of Life and Death Bible Ref: Matthew 8,9,& 11 -13; Mark 3&4; Luke 7&8 Each of the following sketches (scenes) can be used to form the basis for a complete act of worship or used as individual scenes on separate occasions. Each scene will require a narrator to read the li…
The Bread and the Wine and the New Covenant