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Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 7 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 7 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 7 Job 38: 1-11 2 Corinthians 6: 1-13 Mark 4: 35-41 In today’s readings we have two different, and potentially incompatible, views of how God works. The reading from Job and the reading from the Gospel seem to have one vision, which is of the colossal and unquestionable pow…
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…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 6 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 6 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 6 Ezekiel 17: 22-24 2 Corinthians 5: 6-17 Mark 4: 26-34 Paul’s argument in this section of 2 Corinthians is complex and far- reaching. He is putting forward a whole new theory of reality and knowledge. Christians, he argues, carry their own reality system around with them,…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday Before Advent Deuteronomy 6.1-9 Hebrews 9.11-14 Mark 12.28-34 For once the lectionary hits the jackpot. These readings dovetail perfectly, revealing powerfully the continuity and discontinuity between Christianity and the Old Testament. The key is the bit we mig…
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 …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Day of Pentecost Acts 2.1-21 Romans 8.22-27 John 15.26-27; 16.4b-15 It is one of the striking features of the New Testament that Luke, Paul and John, so very different as writers and theologians, sing in rich harmony when it comes to the Spirit. At the heart of the music is the…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 7 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 7 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 7 1 Samuel 17.[1a, 4-11, 19-23] 32-49 2 Corinthians 6.1-13 Mark 4.35-41 Right from the start in Mark, Jesus is up against it. Tempted by Satan in the wilderness; shrieked at by benighted souls in the synagogue; criticized by the self-appointed religious experts. Now the se…
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 4 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 4 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 4 Mark 2:23- 3:6 Gaze on a wheat field, glowing under the sun, ready for harvest. The stalks are bowing down almost in prayer, ready for reaping. The field is so full and sturdy and dense that all the footpaths that run across it are hidden. So Jesus walks straight through…
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 - 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 Second Sunday of Advent Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Advent Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Gazing on the Gospel - Year B The Second Sunday of Advent Mark 1.1-8 Gaze on the people coming out to John in the wilderness. The parents are dragging along the children by their hand, and the old people are hobbling along trying to catch up. They know it won’t be easy to reach t…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Day of Pentecost John 15.26-27 16.4b-15 Gaze on the disciples at the back of the room, ones we don’t hear much about, Alphaeus or Thaddeus for instance. They’ve long stopped concentrating, and they give each other secret glances of puzzlement. Is it blasphemy to suggest they are …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fourth Sunday of Easter John 10.11-18 Gaze on the desolate mountains, the stony ground where sheep must scavenge for food, and the scant grass that only blazed in brief spring. Other dangers abounded, snakes lurked and wolves prowled and threatened the flocks and who was ther…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B