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Hymn: How safe is that? God owns us and protects us
Hymn: How safe is that? God owns us and protects us
by Andrew Pratt
How safe is that? God owns us and protects us. While life is cruel this shepherd knows the flock. We could not gain or earn the love that holds us. The grace of God is solid, like a rock. We cannot wander where God's love is absent. The universe is furnished with God's care. When…
LWPT Meditations - Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
LWPT Meditations - Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
by Susan Thorne
Meditation- 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 2nd Samuel 6: 1-5, 12b-19 Psalm 24 Ephesians 1: 3-14 Mark 6: 14-29 We should never try to explain the mind of God nor attempt to comprehend the means whereby he acts, but in reading the first chapter of the letter to the Ephesians …
LWPT Meditations - Sixth Sunday in Lent - Year C
LWPT Meditations - Sixth Sunday in Lent - Year C
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – 6th Sunday in Lent Year C Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 19:28-40 When Jesus made arrangements for a colt to be available for him to ride into Jerusalem at the start of his last week on earth, he was planning a demonstration of royal powe…
Hymn/song: Always missing, never grasping
Hymn/song: Always missing, never grasping
by Andrew Pratt
(Doubting Thomas after Leonard Cohen’s song 'Suzanne' which has the line: '…and Jesus was a sailor...') Always missing, never grasping, hope amid this shifting sea, coast and haven seem remote now, too far off to harbour me. Yet those fishermen are telling news that I can't compr…
Hymn: Sinews of hope hold creation together
Hymn: Sinews of hope hold creation together
by Andrew Pratt
Sinews of hope hold creation together, we are created for life, not for death; love is our source and the end of our living, God’s consummation beyond final breath. Verses 2-3 follow Tune: BEDE Metre: 11.10.11.10 Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 14/6/2012 Stainer & Bell Ltd, Lo…
Hymn: Who rules the world just like a king
Hymn: Who rules the world just like a king
by Andrew Pratt
Who rules the world just like a king within our present time and space? Who has the power of life and death, of healing or withholding grace. As politicians seek our votes, exposing or obscuring truth, sometimes their language loses rhyme, while arguments become obtuse. Just what…
In our end is our beginning
In our end is our beginning
by Andrew Pratt
In our end is our beginning, cosmic riddle of our birth, why the Alpha and Omega came in flesh and came to birth. Death will no more signal ending, love survives beyond this life, not diminished or extinguished by our common human strife. Verses 3-4 follow Tune: DIJON Metre: 8.7.…
Monologue: The gilded gates closed
Monologue: The gilded gates closed
by Andrew Pratt
Monologue: The gilded gates closed With a hiss and a whisper the gilded gates slid closed. The car beyond crunched the gravel as its bodywork mirrored the slant, evening sun. Safe. House like a fortress. So much to lose. So much effort spent in accumulating wealth. Affluent. Sign…
Hebrews for Everyone - Faith that Looks Beyond Death
Hebrews for Everyone - Faith that Looks Beyond Death
by SPCK - N T Wright
Faith that Looks Beyond Death Hebrews 11.13-22 ‘Dad, will you walk on ahead just a bit?’ They were going into the middle of town on a Saturday morning. Why would his 14-year-old daughter ask him to walk ahead, rather than beside her as he had been doing? He meekly obeyed. (Always…
Hebrews for Everyone - Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah
Hebrews for Everyone - Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah
by SPCK - N T Wright
Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah Hebrews 11.7-12 ‘The starry heaven above us’ was one of the two central facts upon which the great philosopher Immanuel Kant based his view of God. (The other was ‘the moral law within us’.) From the earliest recorded times, humans have …
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus and Peter
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus and Peter
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus and Peter John 21.15-19 He had offered to help clear up after the dinner party. Indeed, he was eager to do so. We gave him a towel and he worked away with us, wiping pans and jugs. But he was still excited after the events of the day, and his mind wasn’t really on the job. …
Mark for Everyone - Marriage and the Resurrection
Mark for Everyone - Marriage and the Resurrection
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 12.18–27 Marriage and the Resurrection... ...After the death of Princess Diana in 1997, ‘books of remembrance’ were placed in public buildings throughout Britain, and indeed in many other parts of the world, particularly in churches and cathedrals, so that …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.14a, 36–41 1 Peter 1.17–23 Luke 24.13–35 Today’s readings bubble over with the excitement of the new moment that has dawned in Israel’s story, in the world’s story, with the resurrection. It isn’t merely that God is offering a new kind o…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - Warnings and Greetings
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - Warnings and Greetings
by SPCK - N T Wright
Warnings and Greetings ROMANS 16.17-24 It had been a difficult meeting. Several complex issues had been on the table, some of them involving delicate political issues, others involving money. It was right at the end of a busy university term, and everyone was tired and inclined t…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - On Watching Your Son Die
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - On Watching Your Son Die
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Watching Your Son Die Genesis 21: 15-32 Today I read about the death of the young son of the leader of the opposition party in the U.K. parliament. The boy had been born with cerebral palsy and a severe form of epilepsy, and in a sense his parents had been watching him die all…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Then He Died
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Then He Died
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Then He Died Genesis 5: 1-20 Three years ago, a friend of ours died. When he was about thirty, he developed a brain tumor. He had surgery and recovered, he fell in love, and I preached at his wedding. Then, within weeks the tumor reappeared. He died before he and his bride finish…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Who Can Lay Hands On Yahweh's Anointed and Get Away With It?
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Who Can Lay Hands On Yahweh's Anointed and Get Away With It?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Who Can Lay Hands on Yahweh’s Anointed and Get Away with It? 1 Samuel 26: 1- 28: 2 This past weekend the U.S. Congress passed a bill designed to reform health care in the nation. By the time you read this we will know more about how it all works out. You may not approve of Congre…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A