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The Lion's World - Preface The Lion's World
The Lion's World - Preface The Lion's World
by SPCK - Rowan Williams
Preface The Lion’s World I came late to Narnia; despite an obsessively bookish childhood in a Christian household, Lewis’s books somehow did not cross the radar until I had discovered his works of apologetic as a teenager. I had read The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, The …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 16 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 16 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 16 Isaiah 58.9b–14 Hebrews 12.18–29 Luke 13.10–17 Can the leader of the synagogue hear himself? Has he any idea what he sounds like? You can feel the silence that ripples out of the crowd as their religious leader tries to persuade them that what they have seen is wrong an…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 15 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 15 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 15 Isaiah 5.1–7 Hebrews 11.29—12.2 Luke 12.49–56 This Lukan passage is high on the list of Things We Would Rather Jesus Hadn’t Said. It’s not gentle, it’s not meek and mild; it’s not even nice. Parents and children at loggerheads, in-laws getting across one another – what …
The Lion's World - 5 - The silent gaze of truth The Lion's World
The Lion's World - 5 - The silent gaze of truth The Lion's World
by SPCK - Rowan Williams
The silent gaze of truth Being told your story by Aslan doesn’t compel your assent. The pain of being confronted with what you have done in all its detail is acute, as we have seen, and it should not surprise us if some will not accept it. In such a case, there is ultimately no s…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 2 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 2 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 2 2 Kings 5.1–14 1 Corinthians 9.24–27 Mark 1.40–45 Mark’s Gospel is almost certainly the oldest of the four Gospels. Matthew and Luke seem to know it and depend upon it for some of their information, though they do also have independent sources of their own. It is possibl…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 3 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 3 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 3 Isaiah 43.18–25 2 Corinthians 1.18–22 Mark 2.1–12 Our capacity to respond wrongly to God is endless. All three of today’s readings focus primarily on the generosity of God, but they also all have as a backdrop the stubborn stupidity of our response. The miracle that Jes…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday of Advent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday of Advent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday of Advent - Year A Isaiah 11:1-10 Romans 15:4–13 Matthew 3:1–12 ‘His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord’ (Isaiah 11.3).Yes, no doubt, but the Hebrew word for ‘delight’ actually means ‘smell’. This may be just a metaphor, borrowed perhaps from the cultic co…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 9: 1-4 1 Corinthians 1: 10-18 Matthew 4: 12-23 Was Jesus waiting for a signal? The Gospels agree that he didn’t begin to announce the Kingdom until he heard that John had been arrested. Something about that sinister moment told him tha…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany - Year A 1 Kings 17: 8-16 1 Corinthians 1: 18-31 John 2: 1-11 The third day; it would be. John does nothing by accident. New creation bursts in upon a village wedding, itself a sign of hope. Wine is to water as the new world is to the old; bubbling u…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 10 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 10 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 10 Amos 7.7–17 Colossians 1.1–14 Luke 10.25–37 If you like word-development, you’ll love Samaritans. Start with a geographical designation: people who live in the hill country, between Galilee and Judaea. Develop to discrimination: the pre-exilic Judaeans speaking of their…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 12 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 12 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 12 Hosea 1.2–10 Colossians 2.6–19 Luke 11.1–13 Part of the prophetic vocation seems to have been to carry the pain of the message in one’s own soul. Thus it was, at least, with Hosea. Married to a prostitute, he felt not only the pain of Israel but also the pain of God, se…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 9 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 9 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 9 2 Kings 5.1–14 Galatians 6.1–16 Luke 10.1–11, 16–20 Going out like lambs amid wolves hardly makes sense in any culture. Only Jesus could propose something so apparently hare-brained yet strangely powerful. Only he, knowing himself to be utterly vulnerable, yet protected …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 42: 1-9 Acts 10: 34-43 Matthew 3: 13-17 John’s baptism can easily seem a mere introduction, the soon-to-be-forgotten starting point. The early Church clearly didn’t see it like that, since John continues to haunt the story in all four …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday Before Advent Malachi 4.1–2a 2 Thessalonians 3.6–13 Luke 21.5–19 Warnings against idleness seem irrelevant in our culture. Those who have work seem to have more and more of it; those who don’t seem stuck in a trap. No doubt there are shades of grey, and some man…
Walking Backwards to Christmas - Chapter 6 Martha
Walking Backwards to Christmas - Chapter 6 Martha
by SPCK - Stephen Cottrell
Chapter 6 Martha Walking Backwards to Christmas In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Easter Sunday Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Easter Sunday Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Easter Day Isaiah 65.17–25 1 Corinthians 15.19–26 Luke 24.1–12 ‘It seemed to them an idle tale.’ In Jesus’ world, nobody thought of ‘resurrection’ as happening to one person within ongoing history. It would happen at the very end, when God would raise all his people to share in…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 17 Year C