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friends, FOES and families - It is not by strength that one prevails: Hannah
friends, FOES and families - It is not by strength that one prevails: Hannah
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
It is not by strength that one prevails: Hannah 1 Samuel 1-2; Luke 2 Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed. (1 Samuel 2.3)...
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 13 Year A
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 13 Year A
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 13 - Year A Meditation on Matthew 14: 3-21 Gaze on this footsore crowd of people, who came out so enthusiastically, traipsing in the midday sun from their town and villages over the hills, down steep stony paths, to the shore. See the men scanning the lake, shielding their…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 19 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 19 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 19 Luke 15: 1-10 Gaze on the hunt for a set of lost keys. Your panic rises as you riffle through your handbag or pockets, searching for the door key. You’re locked out and it’s cold and wet. What can be worse than that?...
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 21 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 21 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 21 Luke 16: 19-31 Gaze on an icy landscape. The glacier is solid, twenty, forty, sixty feet (six, twelve or eighteen metres) deep, and so white it is somehow blue. But a chasm has opened up, wider than a person’s leap. Look down into the freezing darkness. Gaze on a gorge …
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Easter Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Easter John 20.19-31 Gaze on the faces of the disciples, their jaws clenched, eyes half shut, pictures of defeat. So far we have been gazing on expressions of fright and grief, of doubt and confusion. They’ve seen the stone rolled away, and they’ve seen the e…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Easter Genesis 7.1–5, 11–18; 8.6–18; 9.8–13 Acts 9.36–43 John 10.22–30 Today’s passage from St John’s Gospel is part of the escalating conflict between Jesus and ‘the Jews’. From the magnificent opening verses of the Gospel, setting out the cosmic significanc…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Divided Loyalties
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Divided Loyalties
by SPCK - N T Wright
Divided Loyalties 1 Corinthians 7.32-40 He came to see me both excited and distressed. He was one of the brightest students I had ever taught at that time; but he was also passionately involved in the plight of some of the poorest people in the world. Most of his fellow students …
Luke for Everyone - Jesus' Call to Watchfulness
Luke for Everyone - Jesus' Call to Watchfulness
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus’ Call to Watchfulness Luke 12.35-48 My most embarrassing moment of the year came while waiting at an airport to check in for a flight to Tel Aviv. I was leading a small pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and we had risen very early in the morning to get to the airport on time. We…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - More about the "Little Ones"
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - More about the "Little Ones"
by SPCK - N T Wright
More about the “Little Ones” Matthew 18.8-14 Our neighbour was walking by the beach one day, with her dog, when suddenly the dog stopped and sniffed, and looked puzzled and wary. She stopped too, but she couldn’t see anything. Then she looked hard at the rocks in front of the dog…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Requests for Prayer
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Requests for Prayer
by SPCK - N T Wright
Requests for Prayer 2 Thessalonians 3.1-5 Among all the strange dreams that visit us at night, one of the most frustrating – which happens to me quite frequently – is the dream of trying to run and discovering that it’s impossible to do so. My legs feel like lead: they become hop…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Last Supper
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Last Supper
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Last Supper Matthew 26.26-35 There is an article in the newspaper today about two families locked in a highly expensive legal battle. It’s all the sadder because they are next-door neighbours. The case turns on the right of one family to keep on the premises what by most peop…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - The Snares of the World and the Gift of God
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - The Snares of the World and the Gift of God
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Snares of the World and the Gift of God James 1.9-18 ‘Listen for the echo,’ said my friend. We were standing at the back of a great cathedral, and the choir was about to sing a powerful, beautiful anthem. Sure enough: the conductor knew what he was doing. As each part of the …
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Everyone Under Their Vines and Their Fig Trees
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Everyone Under Their Vines and Their Fig Trees
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Everyone under Their Vines and Their Fig Trees 1 Kings 4:20-5:18 A few weeks ago my son and his family were visiting, and we spent some great times sitting out in the shade eating bread and cheese and drinking wine while the children played in the pool. The eruption of a volcano …
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Entertaining Angels Unawares
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Entertaining Angels Unawares
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Entertaining Angels Unawares JUDGES 13:1- 25 Some friends of mine have just become pregnant. I am not accustomed to using that verb in the first-person plural; when I was young, it was only women who got pregnant, but now it is a joint operation. There is a certain appropriatenes…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - God's Flexibility
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - God's Flexibility
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God’s Flexibility NUMBERS 8: 5-9: 14 A woman came to talk to me after church two weeks ago. In the sermon I had described the way the Psalms invite us in prayer to appeal to God’s compassion, grace, and steadfast love, especially when we know we are in the wrong in relation to Go…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - God's Claim on Levi
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - God's Claim on Levi
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God’s Claim on Levi NUMBERS 3: 1-5: 4 Last night I was watching the “Extras” on the DVD of a movie called The Soloist, whose background is Skid Row in Los Angeles, ten minutes away from where I sit. It noted the contribution made by volunteers (of the kind I could be) to the need…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How to be a Dysfunctional Royal Family
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How to be a Dysfunctional Royal Family
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Be a Dysfunctional Royal family 1 Samuel 17: 55- 18: 16 Queen Elizabeth II declared 1992 her annus horribilis, her “horrible year.” The phrase is a riff on the expression annus mirabilis, “miracle year,” the phrase devised by the poet John Dryden to describe 1666, the year…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Nationalization