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Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Your Name Will Be Abraham
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Your Name Will Be Abraham
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Your Name Will Be Abraham Genesis 17: 1-6 Names are important. My middle name is Edgar, which was my father’s first name. When I was being baptized, family legend says my grandmother leaned over to my mother and asked why it was not also to be my first name. My mother allegedly r…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 10 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 10 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 10 Luke 10: 25-37 Gaze on the victim in this story, the traveller who has been mugged and beaten and left in a stinking alleyway, bleeding and sore, miles from home. Imagine you are that victim. Someone comes near and hears your moans. He peers down at you...
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 14 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 14 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 14 Luke 12: 32-40 Gaze on the vault of a bank, excavated deep below street level. It has triple walls made of steel and iron, and the doors are bolted and double locked. Only a few people know the combination of the safe inside. Stacked there, from floor to ceiling, are fl…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Epiphany John 2.1-11 Gaze on all the colours of this occasion . . . See the vibrant wedding robes; the table piled high with rich food, the pink of pomegranates, the shock of oranges, the purples of the grapes, the sheen of the olives. The excitement mounts. …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 3 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 3 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 3 Genesis 45.3–11, 15 1 Corinthians 15.35–8 Luke 6.27–38 These verses in Luke mark a shift in tone from the preceding verses. The ‘blessings and woes’ section that comes immediately before this passage is about what is ‘now’, it is about results. But now Jesus moves from t…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Third Sunday of Advent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Third Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Advent Zephaniah 3.14–20 Philippians 4.4–7 Luke 3.7–18 The book of Zephaniah is not, on the whole, cheerful reading, and almost everything about it is disputed by the various commentaries on it. No one is absolutely sure when it was written, despite its firm p…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Third Sunday of Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Third Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Lent Isaiah 55.1–9 1 Corinthians 10.1–13 Luke 13.1–9 On the face of it, today’s readings from Isaiah and Corinthians could hardly provide a greater contrast. The passage from Isaiah is lyrical, joyful, full of assurance, whereas Paul’s tone in 1 Corinthians 10…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Trinity Sunday Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Trinity Sunday Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Trinity Sunday Proverbs 8.1–4, 22–31 Romans 5.1–5 John 16.12–15 From very early on in the life of the Church, Christians read the figure of ‘Wisdom’ in Proverbs as a reference to Jesus. They assumed that God had already shown, in hints, characters and patterns of relating, what h…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday of Christmas - Year A Jeremiah 31: 7-14 Ephesians 1: 3-14 John 1: 1-18 C. S. Lewis said that it sometimes seemed an anticlimax to move from the broad poetic sweep of the Old Testament to the narrow focus and seemingly mundane concern of the New. No chance of tha…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Comment for the Faith
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Comment for the Faith
by SPCK - N T Wright
Contend for the Faith Judah 1-4 In my teens and my early twenties, one of my passions was rock-climbing. I wouldn’t say I was an utterly fearless climber; I had a proper respect for danger, and didn’t try to do things which were too far outside my competence. But I relished the c…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Creation Renewed and Patient Hope
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Creation Renewed and Patient Hope
by SPCK - N T Wright
Creation Renewed and Patient Hope ROMANS 8.18-25 I walked through the wood several times before I realized what the signpost meant. The wood was thick, with paths leading this way and that. I knew some of them quite well, and had my favourites among them. There was the one that l…
John for Everyone Part 1 - From Below of from Above
John for Everyone Part 1 - From Below of from Above
by SPCK - N T Wright
From Below or from Above John 8.21-29 ‘The house is on fire! Get up at once!’ She burst into the dormitory where several of the other girls were sleeping. She dashed to the nearest bed and shook the sleeper violently. ‘Come on! There’s no time! You’ll be burnt alive!’ ‘Go back to…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus' Baptism
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus' Baptism
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus’ Baptism Matthew 3.11-17 It’s safe to say that John was as surprised as we are. Or at least, as we should be if we read this passage without knowing what’s coming. To get the flavour, imagine that we are going to a huge concert hall, packed to the doors with eager and excit…
Luke for Everyone - Reading the Signs of the Times
Luke for Everyone - Reading the Signs of the Times
by SPCK - N T Wright
Reading the Signs of the Times Luke 12.49-59 The great composer Ludwig van Beethoven used sometimes to play a trick on polite salon audiences, especially when he guessed that they weren’t really interested in serious music. He would perform a piece on the piano, one of his own sl…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Temptation in the Wilderness
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Temptation in the Wilderness
by SPCK - N T Wright
Temptation in the Wilderness Matthew 4.1-11 Jennifer went for a long walk in the woods. It had been an exhausting six months, and she needed time to think. She had concentrated on the campaign. Ever since her local party had told her, to her surprise, that they wanted her to be t…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The First and the Last
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The First and the Last
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First and the Last Matthew 19.23-30 ‘I’m telling you the truth,’ Jesus replied. ‘In God’s great new world, when the son of man sits on his glorious throne, all of you who have followed me will sit on twelve thrones – yes, you! – and rule over the twelve tribes of Israel. 29An…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Healing of the Leper and the Centurion's Servant