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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 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…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 7 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 7 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 7 Jeremiah 20.7–13 Romans 6.1b–11 Matthew 10.24–39 The prophet Jeremiah lived through times of enormous political upheaval. His long career, lasting about 40 years, saw a good king, a couple of bad kings, a weak king and the fo…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 15 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 15 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 15 Isaiah 56.1, 6–8 Romans 11.1–2a, 29–32 Matthew 15.10–28 This strange story of the Canaanite woman clearly scratches an itch for Matthew’s readers. If you put this version and Mark’s version side by side (Mark 7.24–30), you w…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 13 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 13 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 13 Isaiah 55.1–5 Romans 9.1–5 Matthew 14.13–21 The pain in Paul’s words is tangible, and made even more poignant by the victorious assurance of the end of chapter 8. Paul has just been asserting that nothing can ‘separate us fr…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 17 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 17 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 17 Jeremiah 15.15–21 Romans 12.9–21 Matthew 16.21–8 Oh dear. Now it’s crunch time. Justification by grace through faith is fine. A theology of grace alone, which emphasizes our inability to achieve our own salvation, is central…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 16 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 16 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 16 Isaiah 51.1–6 Romans 12.1–8 Matthew 16.13–20 There seems to be a bit of a break in the argument at this point in Romans. Chapters 9––11 are Paul’s attempt to give some kind of coherent shape to God’s activity in choosing fir…
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 - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 4.5-12 1John 3.16-24 John 10.11-18 Today’s readings are deeply challenging. Christian mission has sometimes been done as though determined to prove that we are right and everyone else is wrong, whereas all of today’s writers think that Christians …
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 A - Proper 8 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 8 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 8 Jeremiah 28.5–9 Romans 6.12–23 Matthew 10.40–42 Ours is an age with a great deal of interest in ‘spirituality’. We have rediscovered that ‘spirituality’ is good for us and, like exercise and a low-fat diet, we pursue it, but …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 11 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 11 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 11 Isaiah 44.6–8 Romans 8.12–25 Matthew 13.24–30, 36–43 This section of Romans is part of a long and not always lucid discussion of life and death, slavery and freedom. In chapter 6, Paul has been explaining that our Christian …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 14 Year A