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Dialogue: Weariness
Dialogue: Weariness
by Marjorie Dobson
Dialogue: Weariness The weary older one Oh dear, I am so tired. And so fed up. And life seems so pointless. And I don’t know why I bother. Do you know, I’ve been working with that church for fifty years or more and what do I have to show for it? Not a lot. I’m not saying I can’t …
Reflection/Drama: Psalm 72 for today
Reflection/Drama: Psalm 72 for today
by Marjorie Dobson
Reflection/drama: Psalm 72 for today (can be read by several voices, but will work best with at least two) ‘He will judge in righteousness. He will defend the afflicted. He will save the children of the needy. He will crush the oppressor. He will be like showers watering the eart…
Poem/Reflection: Righteous anger
Poem/Reflection: Righteous anger
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem/Reflection: Righteous anger It’s easy to explode with indignant anger when it appears that someone else is in the wrong. How could they possibly do that? It’s totally evil. They ought to be locked up. It’s disgraceful! I wish I could get my hands on them. I’d soon show them …
Confrontation
Confrontation
by Marjorie Dobson
Confrontation Arrogant, exclusive, toffee-nosed, know-it-alls are a prime target for ridicule – and on the receiving end of plenty of it. But do they care? Not much. Usually they can easily retreat into their exclusivity, surround themselves with those of like minds and justify t…
Psalms for Everyone - Keep It Simple
Psalms for Everyone - Keep It Simple
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Keep It Simple Psalm 50 It’s kind of complicated being a church. It was brought home to me yesterday when for the first time I took the bunch of church keys that I recently inherited to go for a meeting with a couple whose baby we are going to baptize. There are fifteen keys. I n…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 21 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 21 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 21 Jeremiah 32.1–15 1 Timothy 6.6–19 Luke 16.19–end Among the many symbolic actions Jeremiah was commanded to perform, this one stands out as a sign, not of judgement, but of hope: hope for God’s restoration the other side of judgement. Resurrection hope, if you like. He i…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How Naomi's Life Falls Apart
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How Naomi's Life Falls Apart
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How Naomi’s Life Falls Apart RUTH 1:1-9 One Sunday in the church to which we belonged in England that story was the set Old Testament passage on a day when I was due to preach. My default instinct is to look to the Old Testament passage as the one on which to preach (someone has …
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Restoration and the Return of the Divine
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Restoration and the Return of the Divine
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Restoration and Return of the Divine (Ezekiel 25: 1- 48: 35) The oracles against the nations in chapters 25–32 form a kind of hinge in the book, as the scathing, judgment language against Israel comes to an end after the sign-action involving the lack of mourning observance for E…
LWPT Meditations - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A
LWPT Meditations - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr A Isaiah 58:1-9 Psalm 112:1-9 1st Corinthians 2:1-12 Matthew 5:13-20 Whenever I read what God says in Isaiah 58, I want to write it out and send a copy to every politician currently in power. Written centuries before the birth of Je…
LWPT Meditations - Second Sunday of Advent - Year C
LWPT Meditations - Second Sunday of Advent - Year C
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – Second Sunday of Advent Year C Malachi 3: 1-4 Luke 1: 68-79 Philippians 1: 3-11 Luke 3: 1-6 “Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a king and queen”. That is how fairy stories begin – no dates, no location, no names; nothing by which the story can be prov…
Hymn: Crooked wall and crooked people
Hymn: Crooked wall and crooked people
by Andrew Pratt
Crooked wall and crooked people, Amos pointed out the fact, called by God to hold a plumb-line, testing thought and word and act. Were they upright, understanding? Did they live by love and grace? Were they fair in all their dealings? Had God's loving left a trace? Verse 3 follow…
Like the marriage of a bridegroom
Like the marriage of a bridegroom
by Andrew Pratt
Like the marriage of a bridegroom Like the marriage of a bridegroom when the banquet is prepared, soon the bride will be arriving, all is waiting to be shared. All may come by invitation, all may share at God’s great feast, all are welcome, none excluded, come, the greatest and t…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - God's Coming Judgement Will Be Impartial, the Same for All
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - God's Coming Judgement Will Be Impartial, the Same for All
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Coming Judgment Will Be Impartial, the Same for All ROMANS 2.1-11 ‘Couldn’t we just give him one more chance?’ The young man had been working at the factory for just over a month. He was performing reasonably well, but there was a problem. He had a violent temper, and he wo…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Price the Family Begin to Pay
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Price the Family Begin to Pay
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Price the Family Begins to Pay 2 Samuel 12: 15b- 13: 14 At a concert last night a singer was telling us the background to a song about her grandfather. He was French-Canadian, spoke mostly in French, and died when she was a child. For both reasons she feels she never really g…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Christ the King Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Christ the King Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Christ the King Luke 23: 33-43 Gaze on the two other men, hanging on their crosses. Though we know nothing about their crimes, we may picture them as nasty, brutish men, surly, dirty and dishevelled even before this execution. Were they violent men who had spent a lifetime harmin…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 14 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 14 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 14 Isaiah 1.1, 10–20 Hebrews 11.1–3, 8–16 Luke 12.32–40 Stories about a master going away and returning would have been interpreted in Jesus’ world as stories about Israel’s God, YHWH. He had ‘gone away’ at the exile, as Ezekiel describes graphically. At no point in the ‘p…
Isaiah for Everyone - On Mixed Motives
Isaiah for Everyone - On Mixed Motives
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Mixed Motives Next week my wife and are to speak at a retreat for students aimed at helping people maintain a connection with God while they’re studying theology. I’m looking forward to this event because we have the experience of going through seminary and watching generation…
Nicodemus Muses on Experiencing a Death and No Rebirth