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Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Seventh Sunday of Easter John 17:6-19 Gaze on the face of Jesus, rapt with attention. At this point, he is so deep in prayer that the disciples dare not fidget or interrupt such a holy moment. They do not cough or break the stillness of Jesus, who is directing his entire ener…
Transforming Preaching - Language to listen to
Transforming Preaching - Language to listen to
by SPCK - David Heywood
3 A step-by-step guide to sermon preparation Language to listen to A sermon is a spoken event. The ‘sermon’ is not the script, even where that script is available to take away and read, but the event in which the sermon is delivered and the congregation responds. That event takes…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 22 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 22 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 22 Isaiah 5.1–7 Philippians 3.4b-14 Matthew 21.33–46 The people listening to the story of the vineyard would have responded to it on a number of different levels. Some of them would have recognized this vineyard from Isaiah 5 a…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 13 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 13 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 13 Genesis 32.22–31 Romans 9.1–5 Matthew 14.13–21 A well-known bishop wrote a book not long ago called Limping into the Sunrise. It was, of course, alluding to this story of Jacob; which was all very well, except that at the …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 10 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 10 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 10 Genesis 25.19–34 Romans 8.1–11 Matthew 13.1–9, 18–23 The next chapter of Genesis offers a striking echo to this parable: Isaac sowed seed, and reaped a hundredfold, for the Lord blessed him(26.12). But the key background, …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 8 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 8 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 8 Genesis 22.1–14 Romans 6.12–23 Matthew 10.40–42 Perhaps precisely because it is one of the darkest of all Bible stories, the tale of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah has left deep imprints in Judaism and Christianity. Chil…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Third Sunday of Easter Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Third Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Easter Acts 3.12-19 1 John 3.1-7 Luke 24.36-48 The ancient world knew all about ghosts, visions, apparitions, and spooks. Ancient literature has plenty of people being found alive after being supposed dead, plenty of spirits of the dead returning to haunt, spy…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Christ the King Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Christ the King Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Christ the King Daniel 7.9-10, 13, 14 Revelation 1.4b-8 John 18.33-37 Philip Pullman’s brilliant His Dark Materials trilogy ends with the words ‘and then we’ll build . . . The republic of heaven.’ This is the vision that Lyra holds out to us after all she has learned and suffered…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Christmas Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Christmas Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Christmas Isaiah 61.10—62.3 Galatians 4.4 –7 Luke 2.15–21 Galatians is one of the most moving of all Paul’s epistles. Paul is fighting for his calling in this epistle. The fight is partly for himself, because if he is wrong, and God has not called him to be an…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday Before Advent Daniel 12.1-3 Hebrews 10.11-14 [15-18] 19-25 Mark 13.1-8 The lady in the icon shop may not have understood my English, let alone my Greek. Did she have an icon of Jesus’ resurrection? Yes, she said, pointing at the wall behind her head. There it wa…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The First Sunday of Epiphany Mark 1.4-11 Gaze on a modern-day baptism by total immersion. It might take place in a river, or in a special pool built into a church. The candidates are dressed in clean, crisp white shirts and trousers, and have prepared long and hard for this day…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 3 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 3 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 3 Isaiah 43.18–25 2 Corinthians 1.18–22 Mark 2.1–12 Forgiveness is always shocking, even when it’s God who’s doing it. Indeed, that’s often the worst: in a paradox whose only solution is the depth of human pride, we shrink from the undeserved, and hence humbling, grace a…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Third Sunday of Epiphany John 2.1-11 And remember, we are still in the season of Epiphany – the showing forth of Jesus to the world. And this is where we find the proper significance of this story. Consider the difference between the meaning of the words ‘sign’ and ‘miracle…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Epiphany John 1.43-51 Consider what would make you go, on a friend’s say-so, to meet someone who has influenced him or her. Consider what it would take to make you move from ‘come and see’ to ‘follow me’. Consider how much more courage it takes to ‘follow’ …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Gazing on the Gospel - Year B The Second Sunday of Christmas John 1.(1-9,) 10-18 Gaze on an illuminated manuscript. See how the page is full of gold leaf, which lights up the word. When an idea is illuminated for us, it confers vision far greater than sight, as Jesus does of God.…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday Before Advent Year A