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Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Easter Day Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Easter Day Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Easter Day Isaiah 25.6-9 Philippians 15.1–11 Mark 16.1-8 After all the horror, and the crowds and the noise of the day of Jesus’s crucifixion, this chapter of Mark’s Gospel starts quietly. We have already seen these women at the crucifixion scene, but we hardly noticed them there…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Second Sunday of Advent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Second Sunday of Advent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday of Advent Isaiah 40.1–11 2 Peter 3.8–15a Mark 1.1–8 If John the Baptist was going to raise up the valleys and flatten out the mountains, he started in the right place. Jericho lies a long way below the road-sign that says ‘sea level’; Jerusalem, a long way abo…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Easter Day Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Easter Day Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Easter Day Isaiah 25.6-9 1 Corinthians 15.1-11 John 20.1-18 This Gospel reading is not, as one writer has suggested, ‘a sanitized story about a trip to a garden and a lovely surprise’. If Easter is in any sense the happy ending after a sad story, that is the least important thing…
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 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, …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - An Explanation is called for
Acts for Everyone part 1 - An Explanation is called for
by SPCK - N T Wright
An Explanation is Called for Acts 3.11-16 ‘How did you do that?’ I stood beside the car as it spluttered into life. I had fiddled and jiggled with everything I could, and hadn’t been able to make it start. (This, I should say, was a long time ago, in the days when you could poke …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Restoration and Refreshment
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Restoration and Refreshment
by SPCK - N T Wright
Restoration and Refreshment Acts 3.17-26 I remember a hot, hot walk in the Scottish highlands. (It’s true: there are times, even at altitudes of 4,000 feet, when you can be just as hot in Scotland as anywhere in Europe.) We climbed Braeriach and Cairn Toul, the third and fourth h…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 19 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 19 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 19 Isaiah 50.4-9a James 3.1-12 Mark 8.27-38 The disciples are quite enjoying the discussion, to begin with. Every- where they’ve been with Jesus, they have heard speculation. People must have asked them, over and over again, ‘Who is your master? Where does he get his power…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - God's Rescue Plan
Acts for Everyone part 1 - God's Rescue Plan
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Rescue Plan Acts 2.37-41 It’s one thing to discover you are driving along the wrong road. It may be frustrating, and even embarrassing if you have people in the car who thought you knew where you were going. But you can at least admit the mistake, turn round and set off aga…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 16 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 16 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 16 Exodus 1.8—2.10 Romans 12.1–8 Matthew 16.13–20 How do slaves get free? By living the present in the light of the future. The midwives, and Moses’ mother, act out of defiant hope. Moses, destined to lead Israel through the …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - More than He Bargained for
Acts for Everyone part 1 - More than He Bargained for
by SPCK - N T Wright
There was once a young man who sneaked into church hoping nobody would notice him. The only reason he’d come was because he was keen on a girl who sang in the choir, and he hoped that if he was in the service he’d be able to see her at the end of the service and ask her out. He w…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 17 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 17 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 17 Jeremiah 15.15–21 Romans 12.9–21 Matthew 16.21–8 Oh dear. Now it’s crunch time. Justification by grace through faith is fine. A theology of grace alone, which emphasizes our inability to achieve our own salvation, is central…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 17 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 17 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 17 Exodus 3.1–15 Romans 12.9–21 Matthew 16.21–28 Peter, like Moses, hid his face, afraid to look upon God. He wanted to see God’s messianic movement launched, but not like this; Moses had wanted to see Israel liberated, and h…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Day of Pentecost Acts 2.1-21 Romans 8.22-27 John 15.26-27; 16.4b-15 The Holy Spirit has been in danger in recent years of becoming the soppy one of the Trinity. Think about it for a bit – the Holy Spirit doesn’t go off and do uncomfortable and challenging things like getting cruc…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 4.5-12 1John 3.16-24 John 10.11-18 Today’s readings are deeply challenging. Christian mission has sometimes been done as though determined to prove that we are right and everyone else is wrong, whereas all of today’s writers think that Christians …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - David Speaks of Jesus' Resurrection
Acts for Everyone part 1 - David Speaks of Jesus' Resurrection
by SPCK - N T Wright
David Speaks of Jesus’ Resurrection Acts 2. 22-36 I watched the Press Gallery during the speech. For most of the time, the journalists looked bored. One was sharpening his pencil; another was varnishing her nails. Then, quite suddenly, all that changed. Notebooks were seized, sho…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B