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Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 18 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 18 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 18 Deuteronomy 30.15–20 Philemon 1–21 Luke 14.25–33 Which of your letters would you like preserved for a couple of millennia? Philemon is one of the most ‘domestic’ of the documents of the New Testament, and it is impossible not to read it like an unfinished novel. What ha…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 20 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 20 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 20 Amos 8.4–7 1 Timothy 2.1–7 Luke 16.1–13 Whatever is going on in this strange parable of the dishonest manager? Whichever way you read it, it is confusing. Luke has obviously decided that it is about attachment to wealth, and he has put it with a couple of other stories …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 19 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 19 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 19 Exodus 32.7–14 1 Timothy 1.12–17 Luke 15.1–10 The shepherd and the sweeping woman in Luke’s stories today are not reacting normally. We are not meant to read these stories and think, ‘Ah yes, I would do just that.’ We are supposed to question their values and then reali…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Seventh Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 1.6–14 1 Peter 4.12–14; 5.6–11 John 17.1–11 Poor disciples. What they have been through over the last few weeks! What wild swings of emotion they have had to deal with. First of all the horrors of Good Friday, with the anguish they felt …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Easter - Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday of Easter - Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.14a, 22–32 1 Peter 1.3–9 John 20.19–31 What makes people believe? Probably the reasons are as numerous as the people who give them. Today’s readings provide just a few examples. In the Gospel, we have two sets of responses. First of all…
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