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Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Second Sunday of Easter Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Second Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday of Easter Acts 4.32-35 1 John 1.1-2.2 John 20.19-31 ‘Peace be with you’, said Jesus. And again, two verses later, ‘Peace be with you.’ Like a great bell, a single note with multiple overtones, the promise of peace tolls out across the world. Not just an inner pe…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday Before Lent Proverbs 8.1, 22–31 Colossians 1.15–20 John 1.1–14 Eyebrows will be raised at the reappearance of John’s prologue so soon after Christmas. But our surprise at the lectionary’s turns and twists is nothing to that launched upon the world by John’s fa…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 6 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 6 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 6 1 Samuel 15.34-16.13 2 Corinthians 5.6-10[11-13] 14-17 Mark 4.26-34 Once again the lectionary cuts Paul off just when he’s getting interesting. Next week’s passage starts at 6.1; what happened to 5.18–21, one of Paul’s greatest summaries of his life and thought? However,…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday of Easter Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Easter Acts 4.32–35 1 1 John 1.1—2.2 John 20.19–31 The recent popularity of The Lord of the Rings has helpfully given new vitality to the word ‘fellowship’. The people who make up the ‘fellowship of the ring’ are not natural allies. They have little in comm…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 9 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 9 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 9 Ezekiel 2:1-5 2 Corinthians 12: 2-10 Mark 6: 1-13 ‘This passage of 2 Corinthians has caused enormous speculation down the ages. It is tantalisingly full of hints about Paul, which may have made sense to his readers but which we can only fill out with hyperactive imaginin…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 19 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 19 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 19 Mark 8: 27-38 Gaze on a group of men and women, looking forward to supper, walking casually along the road towards Caesarea Philippi. What are they talking about – the weather, perhaps or the latest lovesick comrade, or maybe the political scandal of the continued occup…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 20 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 20 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 20 Mark 9: 30-37 Gaze on the disciples, a ragged band trudging along and always on the move. So often they are confused by their leader, yet always in awe of him and often afraid to ask, afraid to look the fool. Now he’s made that frightening prediction about ending on a v…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 15 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 15 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 15 John 6: 51-58 Gaze on a typical communion service. In some churches people sit patiently in their pew before being stewarded to the rail. In others, people get up and go when it suits them. There is the circle of people around the altar – the elderly and arthritic stand…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 6 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 6 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 6 Mark 4: 26-34 Gaze on a vegetable patch at the bottom of the garden, or better still a full-sized allotment, with the gardener’s rickety shed in one corner, a watering can outside the door. Gaze on the rows of neat plants: pale lime-green lettuce leaves, baby leeks like …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 21 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 21 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 21 Mark 9: 38-50 Gaze on Archbishop Cranmer, being led to the stake to die by fire because he would not act against his conscience. In many ways the sixteenth century was more like the time of Jesus than it is ours. Cranmer would have understood more fully the risks and da…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 7 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 7 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 7 Mark 4: 35-41 Gaze on the sea in stormy weather. Hear the roar of the gale crashing against the sails at full stretch and the creak of the feeble wooden hull. Watch the disciples, bailing out in vain. The rain is lashing their faces, soaking their clothes. Hear the fear …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Trinity Sunday Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Trinity Sunday Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Trinity Sunday John 3: 1-17 Gaze at this conversation, taking place at night in Jesus’ rooms, somewhere in a dark Jerusalem back street. The room is barely lit by a small earthen oil lamp. Jesus and his unexpected guest sit cross-legged on cushions. The furnishings of the room ar…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Easter Day Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Easter Day Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Easter Day Mark 16.1-8 or John 20.1-18 Gaze at the women, determined to do women’s work, and to honour the body of their friend. They come to anoint him with spices, not thinking ‘This is useless, why bother?’ They do not look for miracles, only the performance of a tradition. Bu…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 10 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 10 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 10 Mark 6: 14-29 Gaze on all the Herods of this world and all the gratuitous violence they unleash. Gaze on all the ethnic cleansing that has gone on down the ages – innocents massacred, women raped and the elderly displaced, staring at us every day from our newspapers, dr…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday before Advent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday before Advent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday Before Advent Jonah.3.1-5, 10 Hebrews 9.24-28 Mark 1.14-20 Hebrews is convinced that the work of Jesus is completed in the cross. And not just the work of the Son of God, but the whole providential work of God in creating us in the first place. The cross of Chris…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 9 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 9 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 9 Mark 6: 1-13 Gaze on all the preparations we make for a journey these days. Count the suitcases, shoulder bags, plastic bags, camera cases and picnic hampers that we pile into the back of the car. Today we even need ‘SatNav’ to find our way for us. Gone are the days when…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 20 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 20 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 20 Proverbs 31.10-31 James 3.13-4.3, 7-8a Mark 9.30-37 Fortunately, Jesus stopped the disciples in their tracks before they acted out James 4 as well as James 3. Envy and selfish ambition, yes; but covetousness had not yet led to murder. The internecine strife in Jerusalem…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 18 Year A