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Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 24 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 24 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 24 Genesis 32.22–31 2 Timothy 3.14—4.5 Luke 18.1–8 This odd little parable in Luke gives us the key to all of today’s readings: they are about faithful endurance. The story of the judge and the woman is vivid and full of little ironies. The contrast is set up between the j…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany - Year A 1 Kings 17.8–16 1 Corinthians 1.18–31 John 2.1–11 Most of us think we would like the kind of communication with God that Elijah has. The narrator of 1 Kings tells us, very matter-of-factly, that God tells Elijah to do something, and Elijah g…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday Before Advent Malachi 4.1–2a 2 Thessalonians 3.6–13 Luke 21.5–19 The material in today’s reading from Luke can be found in a very similar form in Mark 13 and Matthew 24, and all are agreed that the temple is the trigger for these terrible sayings. Jesus seems to…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Easter Genesis 7.1–5, 11–18; 8.6–18; 9.8–13 Acts 9.36–43 John 10.22–30 Today’s passage from St John’s Gospel is part of the escalating conflict between Jesus and ‘the Jews’. From the magnificent opening verses of the Gospel, setting out the cosmic significanc…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.14a, 36–41 1 Peter 1.17–23 Luke 24.13–35 In his poem, ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’,1 W. B. Yeats pictures a man so consumed with longing for home that even in the middle of a busy street, all he hears is the sound of the lake, more real …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 24 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 24 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 24 Jeremiah 31.27–34 2 Timothy 3.14—4.5 Luke 18.1–8 The passages from 2 Timothy and Luke 18 both envisage God’s people hanging on, sustaining their energy and sense of direction, even though things seem to go from bad to worse. By contrast, Jeremiah 31 sees through the lon…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday Before Advent Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday Before Advent Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday Before Advent Job 19.23–27a 2 Thessalonians 2.1–5, 13–17 Luke 20.27–38 The overall theme (‘resurrection’) is obvious, but the detail is daunting. It seems a shame, as the translators’ footnotes say, that the Hebrew of Job 19.26 is ‘incomprehensible’. The old vers…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday in Lent Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday in Lent Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Lent Isaiah 55.1–9 1 Corinthians 10.1–13 Luke 13.1–9 Just in case anyone thought the Old Testament was all gloomy and the New cheerful, here are two passages of dire warning from the New Testament preceded by a warm, redeeming invitation from the Old. Underlyi…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Lent - Year A Genesis 2.15–17; 3.1–7 Romans 5.12–19 Matthew 4.1–11 The devil, we are told, is the father of lies. Here, in the wilderness, or in Eden, what is on offer is nothing but lies. Look at the cunning of the tempter. First of all, the really basic appr…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 9.1–4 1 Corinthians 1.10–18 Matthew 4.12–23 Corinth in the first century was a busy, loud, exciting place. It had been a reasonably wealthy trading centre for a couple of centuries at least, and that had attracted people of many religi…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 42.1–9 Acts 10.34–43 Matthew 3.13–17 Matthew’s is the only Gospel that shows any embarrassment about Jesus’s baptism by John the Baptist. In all of the Gospels, John knows that his baptism is a temporary measure, but he also knows that…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Easter Sunday Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Easter Sunday Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Easter Sunday - Year A Jeremiah 31.1–6 Colossians 3.1–4 John 20.1–18 Real life is something so unusual that we can barely recognize it. Occasionally, we get a glimpse of it and it touches us with awe: the birth of a baby, for example, or listening to a perfectly performed piece o…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 15 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 15 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 15 Jeremiah 23.23–9 Hebrews 11.29—12.2 Luke 12.49–56 Hebrews continues its great description of faith in today’s reading. From Moses down to the relatively recent past in the Maccabean revolts, the author of Hebrews reminds his readers of the story that they have inherited…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 13 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 13 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 13 Ecclesiastes 1.2, 12–14; 2.18–23 Colossians 3.1–11 Luke 12.13–21 Today’s three readings just are depressing, so brace yourselves. It’s partly because the image of the virtuous life that they present is so obviously unattainable, and partly because they seem to epitomize…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 12 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 12 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 12 Genesis 18.20–32 Colossians 2.6–15 Luke 11.1–13 This story from Genesis is often told as though it is about Abraham bargaining with God. Abraham, the generous and merciful, pleads with God, the bloodthirsty and violent, and gradually manages to calm God down and get him…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday Before Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday Before Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday Before Advent Isaiah 1.10–18 2 Thessalonians 1.1–12 Luke 19.1–10 The temptation with today’s three readings is to go straight for the story of Zacchaeus. It’s warm, vivid and has a happy ending. But the other two readings remind us that Zacchaeus’ choice is not …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Easter Genesis 22.1–18 Acts 11.1–18 John 13.31–5 The verses from St John’s Gospel come at the turning point of the Last Supper. Judas has just left the room, and there is now no going back. A sense of urgency seems to overtake Jesus after this. The supper is…
52 Reflections on Faith - God and the world: Separate or together