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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 - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 4.5-12 1 John 3.16-24 John 10.11-18 The text about the rejected stone has itself become something of a stumbling stone. The point of the quotation from Psalm 118.22 is that, though Jesus appeared to the ‘builders’ of Judaism (the Chief Priests in …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Christ the King Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Christ the King Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Christ the King John 18: 33-37 Gaze on the gaudy colours of the luxurious Imperial Palace, the wealth of velvet and silk, armour and flags, which decorate the towers and gates that keep the people out. Gaze on the hierarchy of officials and servants, there to make visible the Emp…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fifth Sunday of Easter John 15.1-8 Gaze on a hillside covered in vines, their arms stretched out in rows, the branches clasped and intertwined. The bunches of grapes are pendulous, plump, ready to be picked. It is a glorious evening, and the scent of fruit is on the air. 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…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Sixth Sunday of Easter John 15:9-17 Gaze on a page of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript from around ad 800; study the Celtic knots and intricate spirals that adorn it. See the way the threads twist and loop together without end or beginning, how hard it is to unrav…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fifth Sunday of Easter Acts 8.26-40 1 John 4.7-21 John 15.1-8 If you like evangelism, you’ll love Philip’s story. A spirit-led meeting with a court official, who happens to be reading Isaiah 53 and asking the right questions. There is time to converse at leisure; there is wat…
New Testament Prayer for Everyone - To The Only Wise God
New Testament Prayer for Everyone - To The Only Wise God
by SPCK - N T Wright
PART 2 PRAYERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT PRAYERS OF PAUL TO THE ONLY WISE GOD Romans 16: 25-27 I watched as the children played in the swimming pool. The water was about four feet deep. Three of them stood side by side, with linked arms. Then they squatted down, with only their noses …
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Grace to You and Peace in God and Christ
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Grace to You and Peace in God and Christ
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Grace to You and Peace in God and Christ (1 Thessalonians 1: 1-10) Paul’s usual claim of apostolic authority (1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; Gal. 1:1) and his less acclaimed self-designation “slave of Christ” (Phil. 1:1; Rom. 1:1) are absent from his introduction. Instead, Paul simply n…
Traces of Glory Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year B
Traces of Glory Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year B
by SPCK - David Adam
The Fourth Sunday of Lent Lord, we seek to make our home in you, for in you is our hope, in you is our peace. May we abide in you as you are in us. Grant, O Lord, in turning to you we may find new vision, new strength and new love, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and rei…
Hymn: Christ has broken walls of heartache
Hymn: Christ has broken walls of heartache
by Andrew Pratt
Christ has broken walls of heartache, in one reconciling act. Could our living in this moment make this peace a present fact? Can the love of friend or stranger bridge the gulf of hate or fear? Is Christ seen in every neighbour? Is perception always clear? Verse 3 follows Tune: L…
Hymn: Hidden mysteries amaze us
Hymn: Hidden mysteries amaze us
by Andrew Pratt
Hidden mysteries amaze us, seed is sown then grows up high, swelling seas form mighty mountains, stars adorn the evening sky. Jesus saw in life a story, parables of love and grace, things of God and revelation, rooted, grounded in each place. Verses 3-4 follow Tune: GOTT WILL’S M…
Hymn: Life is tough, but God will hold us
Hymn: Life is tough, but God will hold us
by Andrew Pratt
Life is tough, but God will hold us through each hardship of our lives, when our hope is torn to ribbons grace is present, love survives. God will feed us bread of heaven, finest wine to slake our thirst. Those who grieve will know God's comfort, those who waited will be first.…
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…
Hymn: The dwelling of God, while transcendent almighty