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Imagining the Lectionary: Stay Alert (Proper 27A; Ordinary 32A)
Imagining the Lectionary: Stay Alert (Proper 27A; Ordinary 32A)
by David Perry
Imagining the Lectionary: Stay Alert (Proper 27A; Ordinary 32A) Reflection accompanying image “stay alert street living statue mime artist” So stay alert. You have no idea when he might arrive (Matthew 25:13) This living statue mime artist was making a valiant effort on the che…
Imagining the Lectionary: The utter incongruity of faith devoid of practical compassion (Proper 25A; Ordinary 30A)
Imagining the Lectionary: The utter incongruity of faith devoid of practical compassion (Proper 25A; Ordinary 30A)
by David Perry
Imagining the Lectionary: The utter incongruity of faith devoid of practical compassion (Proper 25A; Ordinary 30A) Reflection accompanying images “Autumn leaves in abandoned steel sink” A pile of autumn leaves in the bottom of a kitchen sink is a profoundly incongruous and unex…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 21 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 21 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 21 Exodus 17.1–7 Philippians 2.1–13 Matthew 21.23–32 It sounded like a trick, but for those with ears to hear it answered the authorities’ challenge head on. Jesus’ Temple action was an affront to the power of the chief pries…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 23 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 23 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Ordinary Time - Proper 23 Exodus 32.1–14 Philippians 4.1–9 Matthew 22.1–14 The party was ready, the guests were on the way, but somehow they got distracted. Today’s gospel fits Exodus 32 like a glove, forming a combined warning. Readers of Exodus perceive the golden calf incident…
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 Last Sunday After Trinity Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Last Sunday After Trinity Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Last Sunday After Trinity (proper 25) Job 42.1-6, 10-17 Hebrews 7.23-28 Mark 10.46b-52 Three very different prayers. Whatever we think of the ending of the book of Job (some scholars, inevitably, suppose it a later addition; some in our gloomy culture think it spoils the stor…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 8 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 8 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 8 Wisdom of Solomon 1-13-15; 2: 23, 24 2 Corinthians 8:7-15 Mark 5: 21-43 ‘Do not fear, only believe,’ Jesus says to Jairus. It’s easier said than done, of course, with his daughter dead and the house full of the sound of wailing mourners. It’s also quite ironic, in that i…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 8 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 8 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 8 2 Samuel 1.1, 17-27 2 Corinthians 8.7-15 Mark 5.21-43 Mark folds one story inside another, like someone tucking a second letter inside a first. (A Markan sandwich, some say; but food is important within the story itself, so let’s not confuse the issue.) As in 2 Samuel, a…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday Before Advent Daniel 12.1-3. Hebrews 10.11-25 Mark 13.1-8 All of today’s readings are set against the background of a disintegrating world, and all see that as something joyful. Daniel and Mark seem to be talking about the future, though there is no indication a…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 5 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 5 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 5 Mark 3: 20-35 Gaze on the family of Jesus, his mother Mary and his brothers, worried out of their wits by rumours reaching them high in their mountain home in Nazareth. Not only is Jesus upsetting the authorities, but he’s not even looking after himself. ‘He’ll make hims…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 8 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 8 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 8 Mark 5: 21-43 Gaze on a crowd in a big city. Picture the platform at the tube station, where everyone is determined to catch the next train home and they all push and shove. Once on, they stand squashed together unable to breathe, and cannot avoid clinging to each other’…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second before Advent Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second before Advent Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday before Advent Mark 13: 1-8 Gaze on the stones that are all that remains of the Temple today. They are huge slabs, glaring in the sun, lying there as a heap of blocks, tilted and abandoned where they fell. It is easy to imagine the massive walls and the moulded c…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fourth Before Advent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fourth Before Advent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday Before Advent Micah 3.5–12 1 Thessalonians 2.9–13 Matthew 24.1–14 Those of us who earn our living by speaking and writing about the Bible sometimes feel nervous in the presence of Micah and Paul. There is the apostle, doing his day job making tents, debating wit…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 22 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 22 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Ordinary Time - Proper 22 Exodus 20.1–4, 7–9, 12–20 Philippians 3.4b–14 Matthew 21.33–46 The parable of the wicked tenants tells the story of Israel in such a way as to highlight Jesus’ own work and fate as the plot’s denouement. But, as with many parables, and many great non-bib…
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 …
Job for Everyone - Covenant or Contract?
Job for Everyone - Covenant or Contract?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Covenant or Contract Job 1: 6-12 Yesterday the air-conditioning/heating maintenance office called. After we had a big problem with the air conditioning last year, I took out a maintenance contract to try to avoid a recurrence of problems of that magnitude, so I now pay a certain …
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Suffering and Blessing and Judgment