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A time to reconsider
A time to reconsider
by Andrew Pratt
Epiphany 3 year A Isaiah 9: 1 - 4; Matthew 4: 12 – 23 Hymn: A time to reconsider A time to reconsider, to pause, to reassess; when crisis comes with challenge, how can God come to bless? And yet a light is shining, we cannot understand that at this time of turning God sharpens wh…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Horse and Chariots of Fire Around Elisha
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Horse and Chariots of Fire Around Elisha
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Horses and Chariots of Fire around Elisha 2 Kings 6:8-23 Over recent years the way I pray has been revolutionized by the awareness from the Prophets that when we pray we are taking part in debates in God’s cabinet in heaven. Stories like the one about Micaiah in 1 Kings 22 illust…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Is It the End, or Is There Hope
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Is It the End, or Is There Hope
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Is It the End, or Is There Hope? 2 Kings 24:17-25:30 On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was sitting on my patio when one of my neighbors passed and told me that a plane had flown into one of the Twin Towers in New York. I went indoors and watched transfixed for a while (I di…
Exodus and Leviticus - One Kind of Fear Turns to Another
Exodus and Leviticus - One Kind of Fear Turns to Another
by SPCK - John Goldingay
One Kind of Fear Turns to Another EXODUS 13: 17- 14: 31 This weekend our rector is on a discernment retreat, and next weekend he is away preaching at a church in another city. I was a bit slow on the uptake, and someone else had to whisper to me that this is code for his wonderin…
Exodus and Leviticus - Picking Up the Story
Exodus and Leviticus - Picking Up the Story
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Picking Up the Story EXODUS 1: 1-14 As I write in the month of May, the TV series are running down or working their way to the kind of cliffhanger I referred to in the introduction, hoping to keep us in suspense for the fall: “Get out of that problem/threat”! One or two long-runn…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Advent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Advent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Advent - Year A Isaiah 35:1–10 James 5:7–10 Matthew 11:2–11 In last Sunday’s Gospel reading (Matthew 3. 1–12), John the Baptist arrives to herald the beginning of Jesus’s adult ministry. He is incredibly rude to the people who flock to hear him preach their ju…
Exodus and Leviticus - Rock of Ages Cleft For Me
Exodus and Leviticus - Rock of Ages Cleft For Me
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Rock of Ages Cleft for Me EXODUS 33: 12-23 In the County of Somerset in the West of England there is a canyon called Cheddar Gorge (yes, where the cheese comes from). One day in 1763 a young minister was caught in a tumultuous thunderstorm in the cliffs nearby. The minister, Augu…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Great Sacrifice Baal
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Great Sacrifice Baal
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Great Sacrifice for Baal 2 Kings 10:1-35 Each August 30 in my home city of Birmingham, England, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the martyrdom of a woman called Margaret Ward. In the reign of Elizabeth I, when it was against English law to practice the Roman Catholic fait…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - What to Do with Tricky Mail
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - What to Do with Tricky Mail
by SPCK - John Goldingay
What to Do with Tricky Mail 2 Kings 19:1-37 I used to be the principal of a seminary in England; being a principal is a cross between being a president and a provost in the United States. From Monday to Friday my assistant would open the mail, but on Saturday I would do so and th…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - You Can Disguise, but You Can't Hide
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - You Can Disguise, but You Can't Hide
by SPCK - John Goldingay
You Can Disguise, but You Can’t Hide 1 Kings 22:24- 2 Kings 1:1 A friend of mine recently became attracted to a woman I also know, and he arranged to have lunch with her last week, taking with him his mental list of questions he felt he needed to ask of a potential wife. Being sm…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How to Undo a Reform
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How to Undo a Reform
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Undo a Reform 2 Kings 22:1-23:24 The first time I visited the United States, I came to give a week’s guest lectures in a seminary. People must have thought the lectures were OK, because they were then interested in offering me a job, but it wasn’t a moment when I could thi…
Poem/Meditation: Crazy, ragged, ranting prophet
Poem/Meditation: Crazy, ragged, ranting prophet
by Andrew Pratt
Poem/Meditation: Crazy, ragged, ranting prophet Crazy, ragged, ranting prophet, least that's how some people saw him, eating locusts and wild honey, sweeping hypocrites before him. Standing by the raging river, raging at unrighteousness forces, calling weak and powerful to him, s…
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