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Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 14 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 14 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 14 Luke 12: 32-40 Gaze on the vault of a bank, excavated deep below street level. It has triple walls made of steel and iron, and the doors are bolted and double locked. Only a few people know the combination of the safe inside. Stacked there, from floor to ceiling, are fl…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 17 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 17 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 17 Luke 14: 1, 7-14 Gaze on a very common social situation – everyone arrives at a ‘do’, and there are several round tables laid up with glittering candles and vases of freesia and crisp white napkins. People are hovering about, for none wants to be the first to be seated,…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 18 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 18 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 18 Luke 14: 25-33 Gaze on a woman baking a fruit cake for a celebration. The ingredients take up half a page in the recipe book. She checks them off one by one – butter, sugar, flour, raisins, sultanas, cherries . . . Smell the fruit, and the pungent spices! But she has no…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 8 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 8 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 8 Luke 9: 51- 62 Gaze on the sort of journeys we make today, on all the preparation and paraphernalia we acquire. We need tickets and passports, hotel reservations, luggage and currency. We surround ourselves with so much security, and so much comfort, and find it hard to …
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Epiphany John 2.1-11 Gaze on all the colours of this occasion . . . See the vibrant wedding robes; the table piled high with rich food, the pink of pomegranates, the shock of oranges, the purples of the grapes, the sheen of the olives. The excitement mounts. …
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Seventh Sunday of Easter John 17.20-26 Gaze on the disciples, trudging down the hillside after the Ascension, overwhelmed by the shock of losing the presence of Jesus yet again. Will absence make the heart grow fonder, or will it be a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’? Some…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Trinity Sunday Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Trinity Sunday Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Trinity Sunday John 16: 12-15 Gaze on one of the great triptychs of medieval painting. These three-panelled paintings can be seen in all the great museums and some of the old cathedrals in Europe, displayed behind the altar. The main panel is flanked on either side by another, ti…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 4 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 4 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
**Proper 4 Luke 7: 1-10** Gaze on the expression of amazement on Jesus’ face. He is overjoyed by this man’s witness of faith and his willingness to submit to the spiritual authority of a local itinerant teacher of a subjugated nation. Think how encouraged he must have been by the…
Still Caring - You in your small corner
Still Caring - You in your small corner
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
33 You in your small corner Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Romans 15.7) It had been a perfectly amicable visit. We had coffee and he chatted. I heard about the good food and excellent chef at the residential facility where…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fourth Sunday before Advent Luke 19: 1-10 Gaze on this furtive man, shinning up the tree. It is hardly dignified behaviour for such a well-off person. We are told Zacchaeus was short, so perhaps he knew that peering over the top of others’ heads was not going to get him a vie…
Still Caring - Changing roles
Still Caring - Changing roles
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
13 Changing roles From [Christ] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4.16) ‘You’ve got your life back.’ So my well-meaning friends said when they heard that my husband was…
Still Caring - All about clothes
Still Caring - All about clothes
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
19 All about clothes And why do you worry about clothes? ...............................(Matthew 6.28) At first, delegating your loved one’s laundry is a great blessing and a genuine weight off your shoulders. It comes at a price, of course: the necessity of labelling clothes...
Still Caring - Arm's length
Still Caring - Arm's length
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
9 Arm’s length For what do they care about the families they leave behind? .........(Job 21.21) My friend used to drive two hours each way to check on her widowed father, almost blind, pretty shaky but determined to continue living in his own home. The cost to her was not simply …
Still Caring - I want to go home
Still Caring - I want to go home
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
22 I want to go home My people will live in peaceful dwelling-places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. (Isaiah 32.18) Probably the hardest thing to deal with is when your loved one asks, ‘When can I go home?’ Or even worse, says, ‘I want to come home!’ My husband u…
Still Caring - I give up
Still Caring - I give up
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
12 I give up But a Samaritan . . . took pity on him. He . . . bandaged his wounds. . . . Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I …
Still Caring - How much is enough?
Still Caring - How much is enough?
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
18 How much is enough? I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete......................................................................... (2 John 1.12b) In the very early days, when your loved one is settling in to life in residential car…
Still Caring - False impressions
Still Caring - False impressions
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
31 False impressions We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. (Romans 15.1) We were having our usual weekly outing and stopped in a local shop. It was quite busy and among the customers were two women I knew. One greeted us cheerf…
Still Caring - Finding your peace