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Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Sunday Next Before Lent 2 Kings 2.1–12 2 Corinthians 4.3–6 Mark 9.2–9 Elijah is taking part in his own funeral procession. Everywhere he goes, people come out to watch him, the coffin, go past. The people do not speak to him. It’s almost as though they think that he has alrea…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday of Lent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Lent Exodus 20.1-17 1 Corinthians 1.18-25 John 2.13-22 Are Exodus and 1 Corinthians in direct conflict with each other? Do they give wholly irreconcilable pictures of the nature of God and our response to it? The God of the Ten Commandments is, surely, a God w…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The First Sunday of Epiphany Mark 1.4-11 Gaze on a modern-day baptism by total immersion. It might take place in a river, or in a special pool built into a church. The candidates are dressed in clean, crisp white shirts and trousers, and have prepared long and hard for this day…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Palm Sunday Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Palm Sunday Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Palm Sunday (Liturgy of the Passion) Isaiah 50.4–9a Philippians 2.5–11 Mark 14.1—15.47 ‘In spite of that, we call this Friday good.’ They didn’t at the time, but Jesus’ surprised friends, and some very surprised enemies, quickly found themselves telling the horrid and brutal tale…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Third Sunday of Lent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Third Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Lent Exodus 20.1–17 1 Corinthians 1.18–25 John 2.13–22 Jewish jokes testify to the terror of the Ten Words from Sinai. Headache? Do what Moses did: take two tablets. Moses to the people: we’ve got them down from twenty to ten, but adultery is still in. Moses t…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Sunday next before Lent Mark 9.2-9 Consider next what God tells us. First, that Jesus is indeed his Son and we must worship him as such. And second, that this means we must obey him, for what is the point of listening if we do not learn? Our faith must be strong enough to f…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Epiphany John 1.43-51 Consider what would make you go, on a friend’s say-so, to meet someone who has influenced him or her. Consider what it would take to make you move from ‘come and see’ to ‘follow me’. Consider how much more courage it takes to ‘follow’ …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The First Sunday of Lent Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The First Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The First Sunday of Lent Mark 1.9-15 Contemplate how passive Jesus is in this description: he acquiesces to baptism; he hears the voice and accepts anointing; he goes where the Spirit sends him, and endures. He is obedient. Contemplate being with Jesus in this wilderness. Excha…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday of Lent Numbers 21.4–9 Ephesians 2.1–10 John 3.14–21 The serpent slithers its way through myth and legend, poetry and art. Too potent a symbol to be ignored, some cultures have worshipped it, while others have feared and loathed it. Freud said predictable things…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday Before Advent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday Before Advent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday Before Advent Wisdom of Solomon 6.12–16 1 Thessalonians 4.13–18 Matthew 25.1–13 You should only treat yourself to Wisdom of Solomon ch. 6 if you are prepared to live with the rest. The righteous and wise are persecuted and killed by the wicked and foolish; but Go…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday Before Lent - Year A Genesis 1.1—2.3 Romans 8.18–25 Matthew 6.25–34 The project was all set up and ready to go. Creation was more like a perfect studio than a finished painting; everything was there, paints, canvas, artist, and all. It had its own inbuilt rhythm…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Christ the King Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Christ the King Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
First Sunday Before Advent - Christ the King Ezekiel 34.11–16, 20–24 Ephesians 1.15–23 Matthew 25.31–46 ‘I will be their shepherd,’ declares God to exiled Israel. ‘I will be their God,’ he says a bit later, ‘and David my servant shall be their shepherd.’ All right, we reply to Ez…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Good Friday Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Good Friday Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
HOLY WEEK: GOOD FRIDAY Matthew 27.33 –56 Overwhelmed with horror at what we are seeing, we join the crowds as they hurry along behind the soldiers with their prisoner. Forget the calm tableau of so many historic paintings of the scene, with Mary and John standing at a discreet di…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Pentecost Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Pentecost Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Day of Pentecost - Year A Numbers 11.24–30 Acts 2.1–21 John 7.37–39 Jesus, quoting Scripture, says that rivers of living water will flow out of the believer’s heart. But no Old Testament text says exactly that. Which Scripture is he referring to, then? Isaiah 55, of course, i…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 11 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 11 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 11 Genesis 28.10–19a Romans 8.12–25 Matthew 13.24–30, 36–43 To get the full flavour of the Pauline passage, hold in your mind the story of the children of Israel on their way through the wilderness, having left Egypt but not …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 2 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 2 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 2 - Year A Deuteronomy 30.15–20 1 Corinthians 3.1–9 Matthew 5.21–37 A real choice with real consequences. The great temptation today is not so much to cast off all moral restraint – few would actually advocate that, though many act from time to time as though that were the…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 9 Year A