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Lent for Everyone Year A - Monday: Week 5 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Monday: Week 5 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 5: MONDAY Matthew 24; focused on 24.15 –28 Browsing in an old library the other day, I came upon a book of cartoons from the late nineteenth century. They were political satires, commenting on the affairs of state of the time. Several different politicians were lampooned; al…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Friday: Week 5 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Friday: Week 5 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 5: FRIDAY Matthew 26.1–13 Time to become a fly on the wall again, this time in a little house just two or three miles east of Jerusalem. If you’re in the old city of Jerusalem first thing in the morning, the chances are that when the sun rises it will come up right through B…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Christmas Eve/Christmas Day Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Christmas Eve/Christmas Day Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
?Christmas Eve/Christmas Day - Year A Isaiah 9:2–7 Titus 2:11–14 Luke 2:1–20 Luke starts what is to be one of the world’s most famous narratives on the world stage, as it is traditionally recounted. He starts with emperors and governors, who are, after all, the people who make hi…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Day of Pentecost Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Day of Pentecost Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Day of Pentecost Genesis 11.1–9 Acts 2.1–21 John 14.8–17 The story of the Tower of Babel continues the theology of sin that is found in Genesis 2 and 3, in the story of the Fall. Eve and Adam’s desire to seize for themselves a knowledge that properly belongs to God alone is at th…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Sixth Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 17.22–31 1 Peter 3.13–22 John 14.15–21 It is hard to tell if Paul’s famous speech at the Areopagus is a triumph or a disaster of evangelism. He has done his preparation well – one of the basic rules of preaching. He has walked around the c…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Lent Isaiah 43.16–21 Philippians 3.4b–14 John 12.1–8 Our Lenten readings have now brought us face to face with what this season is about. We are attempting, with some discipline, to prepare ourselves for Good Friday and Easter. At the start of Lent, with the s…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Lent Deuteronomy 26.1–11 Romans 10.8b–13 Luke 4.1–13 Proust’s great theme is that without memory there is no character or understanding. One of the things that is so appealing about his work is that the small memories are at least as significant as the huge …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Easter Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Easter Exodus 14.10–31; 15.20–1 Acts 5.27–32 John 20.19–31 People are very good at doubting. We seem to be able to move with effortless ease from the utmost certainty to the utmost doubt within moments. In the reading from Exodus today, just remember what has…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Epiphany Isaiah 62.1–5 1 Corinthians 12.1–11 John 2.1–11 The story of the wedding at Cana is an intriguing one. The dynamic between Jesus and his mother is fascinating, as is the nature of the miracle. The Gospels that emerged in the first few Christian centu…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Seventh Sunday of Easter Ezekiel 36.24–8 Acts 16.16–34 John 17.20–6 The verses chosen from Ezekiel for today are a beautiful and encouraging picture of the restoration of Israel, but they urgently need to be read in the light of the verses immediately before and after them. T…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Sixth Sunday of Easter Ezekiel 37.1–14 Acts 16.9–15 John 14.23–9 The clue to Ezekiel’s famous vision of the dry bones comes in verse 11. What Ezekiel has been hearing from the people all around him is a despair that is like death. ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Lent Genesis 15.1–12, 17–18 Philippians 3.17—4.1 Luke 13.31–5 Conversations between God and Abraham are always worth listening to. You can’t help noticing that God likes Abraham, and talks to him, man to man, and that Abraham talks freely, even cheekily to Go…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday before Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday before Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday Before Lent Genesis 2.4b–9, 15–25 Revelation 4 Luke 8.22–5 If you go straight from today’s Genesis reading to the reading from Revelation, you could almost imagine that the history of God’s relations with people had been one of unbroken communion. From the intim…
The Living God - Discerning wisdom: works of art and the creation
The Living God - Discerning wisdom: works of art and the creation
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Creator of heaven and earth 4 Discerning wisdom: works of art and the creation One of my memories of my time as an undergraduate at Wadham College, Oxford, is admiring the portrait of Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723) that adorned the panelled walls of the college’s dining hall. I…
the greatest prayer - Prologue The Strangest Prayer
the greatest prayer - Prologue The Strangest Prayer
by SPCK - John Dominic Crossan
PROLOGUE The Strangest Prayer The Lord’s Prayer is Christianity’s greatest prayer. It is also Christianity’s strangest prayer. It is prayed by all Christians, but it never mentions Christ. It is prayed in all churches, but it never mentions church. It is prayed on all Sundays, bu…
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and Healing: The New Creation
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and Healing: The New Creation
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
10 Jesus and Healing I wonder if you’ve ever played any part in healing somebody. Have you ever had a role in helping somebody become whole? I don’t mean ‘Have you ever performed a miracle?’ as much as ‘Do you think in terms of healing and behave as if healing were possible?’ Do …
52 Reflections on Faith - Pentecost: a deep fire inside