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A Bit Like Jesus - Care for the leper
A Bit Like Jesus - Care for the leper
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 4 Care 21 Care for the leper A Bit Like Jesus A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately the l…
A Bit Like Jesus - Compassion and assisted suicide
A Bit Like Jesus - Compassion and assisted suicide
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 3 Compassion Compassion and assisted suicide If compassion really is crucial and central should we not legalize assisted suicide in Britain? As I write, this question is being frequently asked in newspapers, magazines and on television. For some years Dignity in Dying (in th…
A Bit Like Jesus - The Policeman's Dilemma
A Bit Like Jesus - The Policeman's Dilemma
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 3 Compassion The Policeman’s Dilemma Five years ago I served on a panel of religious representatives giving evidence to a Select Committee on Assisted Dying. One of the committee members asked us all to respond to the following story: An armed policeman chanced upon a bad ro…
A Bit Like Jesus - Stories We Value
A Bit Like Jesus - Stories We Value
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 1 Stories We Value Understanding Stories Forty years ago our family spent a year in Papua New Guinea living in a remote area without roads. I was teaching in the theological college and Jenny was working in the local hospital. Our son was a toddler and our daughter just a ba…
A Bit Like Jesus - Reversing the Prosperity Gospel
A Bit Like Jesus - Reversing the Prosperity Gospel
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 6 Humility Reversing the Prosperity Gospel One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, ‘Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slav…
A Bit Like Jesus - Healing stories and parables
A Bit Like Jesus - Healing stories and parables
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 1 Stories We Value Healing stories and parables Can I make an assumption about you as a reader of this Lent Book? I may well be wrong, but I assume that you are slightly intrigued by what it means to be ‘a bit like Jesus’. I should explain...
A Bit Like Jesus - Values from stories
A Bit Like Jesus - Values from stories
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 1 Stories We Value Values from stories Why did Jesus not give us a set of moral laws? I suspect that for many of us it would have been so much easier had he done so. Imagine for a moment that the Gospels were full of moral laws, dos and don’ts, like parts of Leviticus in the…
A Bit Like Jesus - Hypocrisy and aids
A Bit Like Jesus - Hypocrisy and aids
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 2 Hypocrisy Hypocrisy and AIDS Within the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats both those who did and those who did not give priority to the vulnerable are mystified. ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And w…
A Bit Like Jesus - The parable of the prodigal, his brother and their compassionate Father
A Bit Like Jesus - The parable of the prodigal, his brother and their compassionate Father
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 3 Compassion Healing and compassion Then Jesus said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathe…
A Bit Like Jesus - Moral passion
A Bit Like Jesus - Moral passion
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 4 Care Moral passion There is one feature common to these different examples of care. It is passion. Care is not seen as just a part of one’s job, something that can be codified, or (even worse) as an arbitrary life-style choice. This is passionate care, driving remarkable p…
A Bit Like Jesus - The founder of the Samaritans
A Bit Like Jesus - The founder of the Samaritans
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 4 Care The founder of the Samaritans Chad Varah, Rector of St Stephen, Walbrook and founder of the Samaritans, died aged 95 on 8 November 2007. The very next day The Times published a full-page obituary. There cannot be many Anglican clergy, other than archbishops, who might…
A Bit Like Jesus - Compassion and God
A Bit Like Jesus - Compassion and God
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 3 Compassion Compassion and God If God is seen as wholly compassionate, we in turn should have compassion for each other and for the world that God has entrusted to us. Compassion should be central for us as human beings because God is already compassionate towards us. This …
A Bit Like Jesus - The story of the Caring Samaritan
A Bit Like Jesus - The story of the Caring Samaritan
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 4 Care The story of the Caring Samaritan Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all you…
A Bit Like Jesus - Humility between faiths
A Bit Like Jesus - Humility between faiths
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 6 Humility Humility between faiths From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him,…
A Bit Like Jesus - Hypocrisy and paedophile priests
A Bit Like Jesus - Hypocrisy and paedophile priests
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 2 Hypocrisy Hypocrisy and paedophile priests Forget about my petty scruples concerning Ash Wednesday. It is time to take a much stronger example of religious hypocrisy. For instance, the shameful way that for generations senior clergy in a number of churches covered up for t…
A Bit Like Jesus - Practise what you preach
A Bit Like Jesus - Practise what you preach
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 2 Hypocrisy Practise what you preach Those who regularly deliver sermons in church should live in fear of this proverb. It might have been designed for us. Do we really live up to what we preach? A common factor in many of the uses of the word ‘hypocrite’ in the first thre…
A Bit Like Jesus - Religious hypocrisy