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Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 49.1–7 1 Corinthians 1.1–9 John 1.29–42 To be called by God is a thing of joy and terror, in about equal measures. The Corinthians are largely experiencing the excitement, at present, but their walk of discipleship will certainly lead…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 4 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 4 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 4 1 Kings 18.22–3, 41–3 Galatians 1.1–12 Luke 7.1–10 This opening section of Galatians has Paul in a very combative frame of mind. Even his formal greetings at the beginning are perfunctory and pointed. Something very dear to Paul is under threat here, and he is riding to …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 8 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 8 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 8 1 Kings 19.5–16, 19–21 Galatians 5.1, 13–25 Luke 9.51–62 St Teresa of Avila spent many years travelling on God’s business, founding and reforming convents. Journeys were both unsafe and uncomfortable in those days, but she was never daunted. But one day, when she was nea…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 5 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 5 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 5 1 Kings 17.17–24 Galatians 1.11–24 Luke 7.11–17 We do not always notice the simple compassion of Jesus. We are often so busy looking for the deeper meaning, or finding the application for ourselves that we barely notice the actual motivation in the context of the real si…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Sunday Next Before Lent - Year A Exodus 24.12–18 2 Peter 1.16–21 Matthew 17.1–9 What is the purpose of the transfiguration of Jesus? Is it supposed to reassure and confirm or baffle and alarm? And who is it for? Is it for Jesus himself, or for the disciples? Matthew, like Luk…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Lent - Year A Genesis 12.1–4a Romans 4.1–5, 13–17 John 3.1–17 This passage from John’s Gospel is one where we usually just concentrate on the edited highlights, like, for example, the wonderful statement about the freedom and power of the Holy Spirit, or ver…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 4 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 4 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 4 - Year A Deuteronomy 11.18–21, 26–28 Romans 1.16, 17; 3.22b–31 Matthew 7.21–29 These are frightening words from Jesus in today’s Gospel reading. He imagines a group of people who truly believe they are his followers and yet are mistaken. These people perform mighty acts …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 24 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 24 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 24 Genesis 32.22–31 2 Timothy 3.14—4.5 Luke 18.1–8 This odd little parable in Luke gives us the key to all of today’s readings: they are about faithful endurance. The story of the judge and the woman is vivid and full of little ironies. The contrast is set up between the j…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany - Year A 1 Kings 17.8–16 1 Corinthians 1.18–31 John 2.1–11 Most of us think we would like the kind of communication with God that Elijah has. The narrator of 1 Kings tells us, very matter-of-factly, that God tells Elijah to do something, and Elijah g…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday Before Advent Malachi 4.1–2a 2 Thessalonians 3.6–13 Luke 21.5–19 The material in today’s reading from Luke can be found in a very similar form in Mark 13 and Matthew 24, and all are agreed that the temple is the trigger for these terrible sayings. Jesus seems to…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Easter Genesis 7.1–5, 11–18; 8.6–18; 9.8–13 Acts 9.36–43 John 10.22–30 Today’s passage from St John’s Gospel is part of the escalating conflict between Jesus and ‘the Jews’. From the magnificent opening verses of the Gospel, setting out the cosmic significanc…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.14a, 36–41 1 Peter 1.17–23 Luke 24.13–35 In his poem, ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’,1 W. B. Yeats pictures a man so consumed with longing for home that even in the middle of a busy street, all he hears is the sound of the lake, more real …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 24 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 24 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 24 Jeremiah 31.27–34 2 Timothy 3.14—4.5 Luke 18.1–8 The passages from 2 Timothy and Luke 18 both envisage God’s people hanging on, sustaining their energy and sense of direction, even though things seem to go from bad to worse. By contrast, Jeremiah 31 sees through the lon…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday Before Advent Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday Before Advent Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday Before Advent Job 19.23–27a 2 Thessalonians 2.1–5, 13–17 Luke 20.27–38 The overall theme (‘resurrection’) is obvious, but the detail is daunting. It seems a shame, as the translators’ footnotes say, that the Hebrew of Job 19.26 is ‘incomprehensible’. The old vers…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday in Lent Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday in Lent Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Lent Isaiah 55.1–9 1 Corinthians 10.1–13 Luke 13.1–9 Just in case anyone thought the Old Testament was all gloomy and the New cheerful, here are two passages of dire warning from the New Testament preceded by a warm, redeeming invitation from the Old. Underlyi…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Lent - Year A Genesis 2.15–17; 3.1–7 Romans 5.12–19 Matthew 4.1–11 The devil, we are told, is the father of lies. Here, in the wilderness, or in Eden, what is on offer is nothing but lies. Look at the cunning of the tempter. First of all, the really basic appr…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 9.1–4 1 Corinthians 1.10–18 Matthew 4.12–23 Corinth in the first century was a busy, loud, exciting place. It had been a reasonably wealthy trading centre for a couple of centuries at least, and that had attracted people of many religi…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A