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52 Reflections on Faith - Passion Sunday: responding to God
52 Reflections on Faith - Passion Sunday: responding to God
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
5 Passion Sunday: Responding to God In the summer of 2010, the famous Passion Play at Oberammergau in Bavaria, Germany, was performed for yet another very successful season. The residents of the village have presented their play of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection every…
Four Gospels, One Jesus - Creativity and inspiration
Four Gospels, One Jesus - Creativity and inspiration
by SPCK - Richard A Burridge
Creativity and inspiration Criticism of scripture Some of our actual readers may be feeling by now that this is all very exciting, but perhaps a bit much! It is usually a good idea in a picture gallery to sit down and take stock occasionally. So far, we have seen that the four go…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Sundays Before Advent The Second Sunday Before Advent Zephaniah 1.7, 12–18 1 Thessalonians 5.1–11 Matthew 25.14–30 The word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’, and Christians believe that, in Jesus Christ, the whole world is offered the good news of God’…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 5 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 5 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 5 Genesis 3: 8-15 2 Corinthians 4: 13-5: 1 Mark 3: 20-35 Things are moving at a relentless pace for Jesus in these early chapters of Mark’s Gospel. Already he is being followed everywhere he goes by large crowds of people. Already he has made bitter enemies out of the loca…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 1 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 1 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 1 Isaiah 40.21–31 1 Corinthians 9.16–23 Mark 1.29–39 Nobody in Corinth had seen it before. Nobody had thought of it. It wasn’t on their mental map, anymore than it is in our world. So when Paul wanted to tell them that as Christians, working out how to live in a pagan en…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Easter Day Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Easter Day Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Easter Day Isaiah 25.6-9 1 Corinthians 15.1-11 John 20.1-18 This Gospel reading is not, as one writer has suggested, ‘a sanitized story about a trip to a garden and a lovely surprise’. If Easter is in any sense the happy ending after a sad story, that is the least important thing…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 16 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 16 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 16 John 6: 56-69 Gaze on Simon Peter. He is standing near to Jesus, and is spokesman yet again for the disciples. He is the first to speak, yet again perhaps too readily. Hear his exclamation: ‘To whom shall we go?’ Listen to his tone of voice. Is he dogmatic or pleading, …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 14 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 14 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 14 John 6: 35, 41-51 Gaze on Jesus trying to reason with the crowd. See how very human this story is, how the crowd’s mood swings from worship and surprise to doubt and grumbling so quickly. Listen to the ripples of argument and the shocked whispers, for this man’s claims …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Easter Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Easter John 20.19-31 Gaze on Jesus. He looks exhausted and worn out, as if he’s been on a long journey. But there is no mistake, it is certainly him. He’s appeared when he was least expected. Gaze on the disciples, nervous and jittery. What a state the discip…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - An Explanation is called for
Acts for Everyone part 1 - An Explanation is called for
by SPCK - N T Wright
An Explanation is Called for Acts 3.11-16 ‘How did you do that?’ I stood beside the car as it spluttered into life. I had fiddled and jiggled with everything I could, and hadn’t been able to make it start. (This, I should say, was a long time ago, in the days when you could poke …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time The Last Sunday After Trinity Leviticus 19.1–2, 15–18 1 Thessalonians 2.1–8 Matthew 22.34–46 1 Thessalonians is almost certainly the oldest document in the New Testament. As in so many other things, Paul is a pioneer. It is hard for u…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - God's Rescue Plan
Acts for Everyone part 1 - God's Rescue Plan
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Rescue Plan Acts 2.37-41 It’s one thing to discover you are driving along the wrong road. It may be frustrating, and even embarrassing if you have people in the car who thought you knew where you were going. But you can at least admit the mistake, turn round and set off aga…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Here Comes the Sequel
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Here Comes the Sequel
by SPCK - N T Wright
Here Comes the Sequel!Acts 1.1-5 The English playwright Alan Bennett wrote a famous play about the equally famous madness of a well-known king. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, England had four kings in succession all called ‘George’, and the third of them – George I…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 16 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 16 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 16 1 Kings 8.[1,6,10-11]22-30, 41-43 Ephesians 6.10-20 John 6.56-69 Jesus returns, at the end of the long ‘bread of life’ discourse, to the central thrust. Don’t look for more loaves and fishes; look for the different dimension of life which the Son of Man offers, the dime…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - The New Family
Acts for Everyone part 1 - The New Family
by SPCK - N T Wright
A couple of years ago I took part in a charity walk. It was a sunny day, there were thousands of people taking part, and we went through some breathtaking scenery. We were put in several groups, with a few hundred setting off every few minutes. I was in the first group, and it wa…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 18 Year B