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Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday of Advent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday of Advent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Advent Isaiah 61.1–4, 8–11 1 Thessalonians 5.16–24 John 1.6–8, 19–28 So at last, after weeks of foreboding, of warnings that the coming of the Lord is not something to take lightly or to meet with unprepared, now at last the excitement begins to mount. First o…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First Sunday of Epiphany Genesis 1.1–5 Acts 19.1–7 Mark 1.4–11 Wind and water. Light and dark. Heaven and earth. The beginning. There is a quiet joy about the opening of Genesis. Quiet, not because it’s only slightly exciting, but because we know at once that these are the …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Day of Pentecost Acts 2.1-21 Romans 8.22-27 John 15.26-27; 16.4b-15 It is one of the striking features of the New Testament that Luke, Paul and John, so very different as writers and theologians, sing in rich harmony when it comes to the Spirit. At the heart of the music is the…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Trinity Sunday Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Trinity Sunday Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Trinity Sunday Isaiah 6:1-8 Romans 8.12-17 John 3:1-17 John Donne, the great seventeenth-century Anglican poet, said in his Litanie that the doctrine of the Trinity is ‘Bones to Philosophy, but milk to faith’.1 Bones and milk are both provided by today’s readings. The belief that…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 12 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 12 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 12 Genesis 29.15–28 Romans 8.26–39 Matthew 13.31–33, 44–52 ‘All things work together for good to those who love God.’ Probably not the first thought that sprang to Jacob’s mind the morning after his wedding, on discovering ho…
New Testament Prayer for Everyone - The Inheritance and the Spirit
New Testament Prayer for Everyone - The Inheritance and the Spirit
by SPCK - N T Wright
PART 2 PRAYERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT PRAYERS OF PAUL THE INHERITANCE AND THE SPIRIT Ephesians 1: 11-14 Not far from where I was born there is an ancient castle. It stands imposingly, high above the banks of a river, defying anyone to attack it. These days, the likely attacks come …
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Suffering and Blessing and Judgment
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Suffering and Blessing and Judgment
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Suffering and Blessing and Judgment (1 Peter 3: 13- 5: 11) The author encourages those who suffer with the assurance of God’s blessing and of God’s future judgment of evil and of good. Here, unlike in 2:21–25, both Christ’s passion and his resurrection are cited, in such phrases …
Echoing the Word - Eucharistic Prayer A
Echoing the Word - Eucharistic Prayer A
by SPCK - Paula Gooder & Michael Perham
9 Eucharistic Prayer A Eucharistic Prayer A, although now one of the eight prayers in Common Worship Order One, was in earlier versions the only alternative to a prayer derived from the 1662 rite. In its first version as the Eucharistic Prayer in ‘Series 2’, it drew considerably …
LWPT Meditations - Ash Wednesday - Year A
LWPT Meditations - Ash Wednesday - Year A
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – Ash Wednesday Year A Isaiah 58:1-12 Psalm 51:1-17 2nd Corinthians 5 ;20b-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 It is a common practice among Christians to “give up something for Lent” – quite often it is chocolate; not exactly a necessity. It is also becoming popular to have a “…
Hymn: A shade for the nations and fruit for the earth
Hymn: A shade for the nations and fruit for the earth
by Andrew Pratt
A shade for the nations and fruit for the earth, a focus for people, a mark of their worth; the sign of a cedar, a hope set up high, for grace would be present, this wasn't a lie. Abandoned in exile, or so it would seem, the prophet had spoken of more than a dream. Dejected and h…
Hymn: Life needs our care, not foolish indiscretion
Hymn: Life needs our care, not foolish indiscretion
by Andrew Pratt
Life needs our care, not foolish indiscretion, the willingness to guard against our greed; but still the world has need to learn the lesson: extravagance puts want ahead of need. God gives the Spirit to correct direction, to guide us from the drunkenness of thought that fuels a w…
Intangible strands bind your people together
Intangible strands bind your people together
by Andrew Pratt
Intangible strands bind your people together, as one in your Body, so wonderf'lly made, close joined by humanity, sisters and brothers, yet fractured and broken, you find us dismayed; For we have not trusted the person of Jesus, the risks that he took, the example You gave. When …
Hymn: Divided nations but one parent
Hymn: Divided nations but one parent
by Andrew Pratt
Divided nations but one parent, the God of one and God of all; and now in praise and joyful worship as nations sing, each voice will call. Then through the wealth of grace and glory, may God's own Spirit fill each heart, until in Christ we all are rooted, within one ground to bea…
Hymn: The Psalmist calls for new songs praising God
Hymn: The Psalmist calls for new songs praising God
by Andrew Pratt
The Psalmist calls for new songs praising God but we prefer familiar words and ways. We hold and cage and mould God to our will, defending customs smothering our praise. A world-wide pool of images and grace informs our faith, re-vitalises hope, and so our view, so narrow and obs…
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - God's Strange Wisdom