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Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Second Sunday of Easter - Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Second Sunday of Easter - Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.14a, 22–32 1 Peter 1.3–9 John 20.19–31 Jesus’ resurrection scattered new meanings all around, like light reflecting a thousand ways off a priceless jewel. The first thing was the validation of Jesus’ messianic ministry. His powerful dee…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fifth Sunday of Lent (Passiontide begins) Isaiah 43.16–21 Philippians 3.4b–14 John 12.1–8 Two stark characterizations from John: the full-blown devotion of Mary and the brooding cynicism of Judas. (On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I think this may perhaps be the same story …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Epiphany Nehemiah 8.1–3, 5–6, 8–10 1 Corinthians 12.12–31a Luke 4.14–21 Read the text, and give the sense. Both matter. The first is given, there on the page. The second is risky, a matter of prayer and the Spirit, a deep breath and taking the plunge. History …
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday after Ash Wednesday Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday after Ash Wednesday Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
HURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Matthew 3; focused on 3.1–12 1 When a couple get married, there is so much to learn. Not so much the immediate and obvious things – favourite foods, musical tastes, good ideas for holidays, and so on. There are deeper things that make each one of us m…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Wednesday: Second Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Wednesday: Second Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 2: WEDNESDAY Matthew 11; focused on 11.1–19 Jesus is here being put on the spot. Today, when interviewers try to force politicians to say things they didn’t really want to let out, they tend to prevaricate, to ignore the question, or even to tell downright lies. We have pri…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: Third Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: Third Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 3: THURSDAY Matthew 16; focused on 16.21–28 The unique city of Venice is now mainly a tourist destination. People come from all over the world to be amazed at its canals, its tiny side-streets, and the wonderful churches, mansions and art galleries. But in the days before ai…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Wednesday: Fourth Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Wednesday: Fourth Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 4: WEDNESDAY Matthew 21.1–22; focused on 21.1–17 We reach Palm Sunday in Matthew’s story ten days before we get there in our own Lenten journey. It’s just as well. There is so much packed between Palm Sunday and Good Friday that it’s important to get advance notice of what’s…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Saturday: Week 5 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Saturday: Week 5 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 5: SATURDAY Matthew 26.14 —27.66 It isn’t me, is it? The great story, well known yet little known, bursts upon us in a deeply disturbing scene: friends at the table discovering that one of them is to be a traitor. We often wonder what it was that made Judas do it. Perhaps w…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: Week 5 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: Week 5 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 5: SUNDAY Psalm 130 The deep distress we sense as we read this Psalm has, paradoxically perhaps, given great hope to millions down the years. No matter how deep we have sunk, no matter what sorrows or tragedies we may encounter, the Psalms have been there before us. Not only…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 5 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 5 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 5 Hosea 5.15—6.6 Romans 4.13–25 Matthew 9.9–13, 18–26 ‘I knew the great Apostle Paul. Buy me a drink, and I’ll tell you all about him. I used to act as his secretary, sometimes, which I knew, even then, was a great honour. Of…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year A 1 Samuel 16.1–13 Ephesians 5.8–14 John 9.1–41 All the time we are called to try and find the difficult balance between faithfulness to God’s known work in the past, and prophetic discernment of God’s new work now. Faced with a completely new cha…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Epiphany Isaiah 43.1–7 Acts 8.14–17 Luke 3.15–17, 21–2 The first three Gospels all have the story of Jesus’ baptism by John in very similar words. John’s version of events, as so often, is slightly different – you might like to go and have a look at it in John…
The Things He Carried - 8. A Broken Heart
The Things He Carried - 8. A Broken Heart
by SPCK - Stephen Cottrell
THE THINGS HE CARRIED 8. A Broken Heart He carried a heart that was about to be broken. That was how he eventually died. He carried his heart, open and vulnerable, from Jordan to Jerusalem, from Gethsemane to Golgotha. And then it was broken: broken by the savagery of the death h…
The Things He Carried - 5. The Hopes of God
The Things He Carried - 5. The Hopes of God
by SPCK - Stephen Cottrell
HE THINGS HE CARRIED 5. The Hopes of God He carried the hopes of God. This is how he had come to see it – searching the scriptures, sucking the marrow of wisdom from the very bones of his faith. That God had spent everything to try and create community with his beloved; that is, …
The Things He Carried - 7. Our Sorrows
The Things He Carried - 7. Our Sorrows
by SPCK - Stephen Cottrell
THE THINGS HE CARRIED 7. Our Sorrows He carried our sorrows. Nothing was too small for him. All the fragments were gathered up. And nothing was too large or too heavy. He carried the tiny, casual disappointments, the lost hopes and shattered dreams that reverberate through a life…
The Living God - Getting some help: C.S. Lewis and Dorothy L. Sayers
The Living God - Getting some help: C.S. Lewis and Dorothy L. Sayers
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Getting some help: C. S. Lewis and Dorothy L. Sayers After an initial period as an atheist, Lewis developed a faith in God in 1930 and moved towards a definite Christian commitment late in 1931. As he began to explore his faith he clearly gave some thought to the idea of the Trin…
The Living God - Going deeper into reality: the Trinity and ‘surface faith’
The Living God - Going deeper into reality: the Trinity and ‘surface faith’
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Mystery or muddle? The Trinity 5 Going deeper into reality: the Trinity and ‘surface faith’ Now some will read these words and rightly wish to raise an objection. Their faith is simple; and they like it that way. They trust in God and believe firmly that they’ve been redeemed thr…
The Living God - Forebears of faith: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob