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Hymn: You're not far from God's Kingdom
Hymn: You're not far from God's Kingdom
by Michael Docker
You're not far from God's Kingdom If in Christ's hope you live And work for this world's goodness, And humbly learn to give. His light will always lead you To follow in His way - His Kingdom's life inspire you To seek His face today. You're not far from God's Kingdom If justice i…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 25 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 25 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 25 Jeremiah 31.7-9 Hebrews 7.23-28 Mark 10.46-52 Some theologies sound a bit vague about what happens to Jesus after the resurrection. His work is completed, once for all, on the cross, he is vindicated by the Father through the resurrection, and that’s that. Then, dependi…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Easter Day Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Easter Day Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Easter Day Isaiah 25.6-9 1 Corinthians 15.1-11 John 20.1-18 This Gospel reading is not, as one writer has suggested, ‘a sanitized story about a trip to a garden and a lovely surprise’. If Easter is in any sense the happy ending after a sad story, that is the least important thing…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Easter Day Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Easter Day Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Easter Day Mark 16.1-8 or John 20.1-18 Gaze at the women, determined to do women’s work, and to honour the body of their friend. They come to anoint him with spices, not thinking ‘This is useless, why bother?’ They do not look for miracles, only the performance of a tradition. Bu…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Easter Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Easter John 20.19-31 Gaze on Jesus. He looks exhausted and worn out, as if he’s been on a long journey. But there is no mistake, it is certainly him. He’s appeared when he was least expected. Gaze on the disciples, nervous and jittery. What a state the discip…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 9 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 9 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 9 Mark 6: 1-13 Gaze on all the preparations we make for a journey these days. Count the suitcases, shoulder bags, plastic bags, camera cases and picnic hampers that we pile into the back of the car. Today we even need ‘SatNav’ to find our way for us. Gone are the days when…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - An Explanation is called for
Acts for Everyone part 1 - An Explanation is called for
by SPCK - N T Wright
An Explanation is Called for Acts 3.11-16 ‘How did you do that?’ I stood beside the car as it spluttered into life. I had fiddled and jiggled with everything I could, and hadn’t been able to make it start. (This, I should say, was a long time ago, in the days when you could poke …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Look Upon Their Threats
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Look Upon Their Threats
by SPCK - N T Wright
Look upon Their Threats Acts 4. 23-31 In the early summer of 1989, I went to Jerusalem to teach, and to work on a couple of books, one of which was about Jesus himself. One day, sitting in my borrowed room at St George’s Cathedral, I was struggling with a few pages I was trying t…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time The Last Sunday After Trinity Leviticus 19.1–2, 15–18 1 Thessalonians 2.1–8 Matthew 22.34–46 1 Thessalonians is almost certainly the oldest document in the New Testament. As in so many other things, Paul is a pioneer. It is hard for u…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 16 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 16 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 16 1 Kings 8.[1,6,10-11]22-30, 41-43 Ephesians 6.10-20 John 6.56-69 Jesus returns, at the end of the long ‘bread of life’ discourse, to the central thrust. Don’t look for more loaves and fishes; look for the different dimension of life which the Son of Man offers, the dime…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 24 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 24 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Ordinary Time - Proper 24 Exodus 33.12–23 1 Thessalonians 1.1–10 Matthew 22.15–22 The multiple echoes of Exodus 33 bounce around the New Testament. The first letter to the Thessalonians, held by many to be the first surviving Christian writing, offers another reminder that the go…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 15 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 15 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 15 Isaiah 56.1, 6–8 Romans 11.1–2a, 29–32 Matthew 15.10–28 This strange story of the Canaanite woman clearly scratches an itch for Matthew’s readers. If you put this version and Mark’s version side by side (Mark 7.24–30), you w…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 22 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 22 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 22 Mark 10: 2-16 Gaze on a wedding photograph, and see all the families gathered together, the generations, from great grandmother in a wheelchair to toddler running around collecting the confetti. Gaze on the bride and groom. These days they are unlikely to be blushing, e…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Here Comes the Power
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Here Comes the Power
by SPCK - N T Wright
Here Comes the Power Acts 2. 1-4 Sometimes a name, belonging to one particular person, becomes so attached to a particular object or product that we forget where it originally came from. The obvious example is ‘Hoover’: in England at least we speak of ‘the Hoover’ when we mean ‘t…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Glossary
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Glossary
by SPCK - N T Wright
GLOSSARY Acts for Everyone Part 2 age to come, see present age apostle, disciple, the Twelve ‘Apostle’ means ‘one who is sent’. It could be used of an ambassador or official delegate. In the New Testament it is sometimes used specifically of Jesus’ inner circle of twelve; but Pau…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B