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Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 17 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 17 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 17 Deuteronomy 4.1-2, 6-9 James 1. 17-27 Mark 7. 1-8, 15, 21-23 We rather value versatility and unpredictability in people. To say that someone is predictable is to imply that they are boring and hidebound. I suspect that this actually reflects the comparative security and…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 19 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 19 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 19 Isaiah 50.4-9a James 3.1-12 Mark 8.27-38 The disciples are quite enjoying the discussion, to begin with. Every- where they’ve been with Jesus, they have heard speculation. People must have asked them, over and over again, ‘Who is your master? Where does he get his power…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 18 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 18 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 18 Isaiah 35. 4-7a James 2.1-17 Mark 7. 24-37 I suppose it’s comforting, in an Eeyore-ish kind of way, to know that ours is not the only generation of Christians to think that belief is simply a matter of the words you use, and that it doesn’t need to affect ordinary life …
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 22 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 22 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 22 Genesis 2. 18-24 Hebrews 1.14; 2.5-12 Mark 10.2-16 It is very tempting to go straight for the second half of the passage from Mark’s Gospel set for today, and just speculate, if possible with some sentimentality, about what Jesus meant by ‘theirs is the Kingdom of Heave…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Christ the King Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Christ the King Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Christ the King Daniel 7.9-10, 13-14 Revelation 1.4b-8 John 18.33b-37 The ‘Feast of Christ the King’ was invented by Pius XI in 1925. Only in 1970 was it moved from October to the last Sunday before Advent. It slid into Anglicanism very recently, introducing three muddles. First,…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Last Sunday After Trinity Deuteronomy 34.1–12 1 Thessalonians 2.1–8 Matthew 22.34–46 Like a bored videotape-watcher, the lectionary suddenly presses the fast-forward button, skipping three-fifths of the Pentateuch and stopping only just in time for the death of the hero. Mose…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 16 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 16 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 16 Exodus 1.8—2.10 Romans 12.1–8 Matthew 16.13–20 How do slaves get free? By living the present in the light of the future. The midwives, and Moses’ mother, act out of defiant hope. Moses, destined to lead Israel through the …
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…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 24 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 24 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Ordinary Time - Proper 24 Exodus 33.12–23 1 Thessalonians 1.1–10 Matthew 22.15–22 The multiple echoes of Exodus 33 bounce around the New Testament. The first letter to the Thessalonians, held by many to be the first surviving Christian writing, offers another reminder that the go…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday Before Advent Zephaniah 1.7, 12–18 1 Thessalonians 5.1–11 Matthew 25.14–30 This parable gave ‘talent’ a new meaning, so common that we don’t realize how far we have domesticated a warning about more serious matters than developing one’s personal potential and sk…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 17 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 17 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 17 Exodus 3.1–15 Romans 12.9–21 Matthew 16.21–28 Peter, like Moses, hid his face, afraid to look upon God. He wanted to see God’s messianic movement launched, but not like this; Moses had wanted to see Israel liberated, and h…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Day of Pentecost Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Day of Pentecost Acts 2.1-21 Romans 8.22-27 John 15.26-27; 16.4b-15 The Holy Spirit has been in danger in recent years of becoming the soppy one of the Trinity. Think about it for a bit – the Holy Spirit doesn’t go off and do uncomfortable and challenging things like getting cruc…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 10 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 10 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 10 Amos 7: 7-15 Ephesians-1: 3-14 Mark 6: 14-29 ‘The letter to the Ephesians sets the life of the Christian Church in the context of the cosmic plan of God. The letter will go on to give quite detailed advice about how Christians should live together, day to day, but it is…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 12 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 12 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 12 2 Kings 4. 42-44 Ephesians 3: 14-21 John 6: 1-21 The story of the feeding of the five thousand is found in all four Gospels, making it one of the best attested of Jesus’s miracles. John’s Gospel sometimes uses memories and stories that clearly come from different source…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 24 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 24 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 24 Mark 10: 35-45 Gaze on our great High Priest – the most unassuming priest you’ll ever see for he isn’t dressed in robes or cassock or cape. He isn’t resplendent as a bishop in shimmering satin or shot silk embroidered with care and craft. He has no mitre on his head. Th…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 22 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 22 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 22 Mark 10: 2-16 Gaze on a wedding photograph, and see all the families gathered together, the generations, from great grandmother in a wheelchair to toddler running around collecting the confetti. Gaze on the bride and groom. These days they are unlikely to be blushing, e…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 25 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 25 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 25 Mark 10:46-52 Gaze on this scene: where are you in it? Are you one of those standing over the beggar, a look of disapproval on your face? It’s easy to become one of the pretentious bystanders eager to protect Jesus, pompously insisting they know what is right for him. ‘…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 11 Year B