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Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 42.1–9 Acts 10.34–43 Matthew 3.13–17 Matthew’s is the only Gospel that shows any embarrassment about Jesus’s baptism by John the Baptist. In all of the Gospels, John knows that his baptism is a temporary measure, but he also knows that…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Easter Sunday Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Easter Sunday Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Easter Sunday - Year A Jeremiah 31.1–6 Colossians 3.1–4 John 20.1–18 Real life is something so unusual that we can barely recognize it. Occasionally, we get a glimpse of it and it touches us with awe: the birth of a baby, for example, or listening to a perfectly performed piece o…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 15 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 15 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 15 Jeremiah 23.23–9 Hebrews 11.29—12.2 Luke 12.49–56 Hebrews continues its great description of faith in today’s reading. From Moses down to the relatively recent past in the Maccabean revolts, the author of Hebrews reminds his readers of the story that they have inherited…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 13 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 13 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 13 Ecclesiastes 1.2, 12–14; 2.18–23 Colossians 3.1–11 Luke 12.13–21 Today’s three readings just are depressing, so brace yourselves. It’s partly because the image of the virtuous life that they present is so obviously unattainable, and partly because they seem to epitomize…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 12 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 12 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 12 Genesis 18.20–32 Colossians 2.6–15 Luke 11.1–13 This story from Genesis is often told as though it is about Abraham bargaining with God. Abraham, the generous and merciful, pleads with God, the bloodthirsty and violent, and gradually manages to calm God down and get him…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday Before Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday Before Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday Before Advent Isaiah 1.10–18 2 Thessalonians 1.1–12 Luke 19.1–10 The temptation with today’s three readings is to go straight for the story of Zacchaeus. It’s warm, vivid and has a happy ending. But the other two readings remind us that Zacchaeus’ choice is not …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Easter Genesis 22.1–18 Acts 11.1–18 John 13.31–5 The verses from St John’s Gospel come at the turning point of the Last Supper. Judas has just left the room, and there is now no going back. A sense of urgency seems to overtake Jesus after this. The supper is…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Third Sunday Before Advent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Third Sunday Before Advent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday Before Advent Job 19.23–7a 2 Thessalonians 2.1–5, 13–17 Luke 20.27–38 The book of Job has always inspired strong feelings – hardly surprising, as its themes are suffering and justice. At the heart of the many paradoxes that belief in the God of the Bible presents…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 4 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 4 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 4 1 Kings 18.20–21 [22–29] 30–39 Galatians 1.1–12 Luke 7.1–10 Elijah calls for fire, but the larger story is about rain. Drought has plagued the land. King Ahab is cross with Elijah, blaming the messenger for the message. Elijah, fresh from his triumph in restoring a boy t…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 14 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 14 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 14 Genesis 15.1–6 Hebrews 11.1–3, 8–16 Luke 12.32–40 Faith is sometimes presented as necessarily divorced from evidence. If you can prove something, then you don’t need to have faith to believe it. But that doesn’t seem to be quite what our readings today are saying. They …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Last Sunday After Trinity Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Last Sunday After Trinity Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Last Sunday After Trinity Joel 2.23–end 2 Timothy 4.6–8, 16–18 Luke 18.9–14 The harvest and the law court are the lenses through which the prophet gazes, wide-eyed, into God’s future. Rain in abundance – easy to forget, in northern Europe, what a relief that would be in the M…
Parallel Lives of Jesus - 4 The Gospel according to Matthew
Parallel Lives of Jesus - 4 The Gospel according to Matthew
by SPCK - Edward Adams
The Gospel according to Matthew Matthew’s narrative closely resembles that of Mark. It is generally accepted that Matthew drew extensively on the work of his forerunner in composing his Gospel. He incorporates the large bulk of Mark’s Gospel, adding to the beginning a genealogy a…
Deep Church Rising - 3 (part 2) The Industrial Revolution
Deep Church Rising - 3 (part 2) The Industrial Revolution
by SPCK - Andrew Walker and Robin Parry
The Industrial Revolution The Rise of Consumerism Modernity was born, and the ideas of the Enlightenment became the stuff of everyday life. In themselves the doctrines of the eighteenth-century philosophers carried conviction but lacked potency…
Deep Church Rising - 9 (part 2) Real Life-Giving Presence