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Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 15 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 15 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 15 Luke 12: 49-56 Gaze on the sky as yet another weather front approaches. Dirty clouds lurk overhead, and the rain begins to lash down at some unseen trigger. How the weather can affect our moods! We are so much more content and kind when the sky is blue. Gaze on the TV e…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 20 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 20 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 20 Luke 16: 1-13 Gaze .on an old B-movie of cowboys and Indians. The Wells Fargo stagecoach gallops over the barren Wild West of America. It has been ambushed and the driver has been shot by the bandits; he is slumped over and has dropped the reins. He can steer the coach …
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 16 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 16 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 16 Luke 13: 10-17 Gaze on the woman, bent double from her youth. Slowly her shoulders curved. Left behind by sisters who married, she remained alone, ridiculed, and treated as an outcast. Children shouted ‘Hunchback!’ at her. She made friends with ants and caterpillars and…
John for Everyone part 2 - Glorify the Son
John for Everyone part 2 - Glorify the Son
by SPCK - N T Wright
Glorify the Son John 17.1-8 Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is full of action. Ghosts, murders, love scenes, plots, accidental killings, betrayals, recriminations and more plots. The play highlights the indecision of the hero when faced with huge problems, and this results in pauses he…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 5 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 5 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 5 Luke 7: 11-17 Gaze on a funeral scene in Britain – everyone is in their best clothes, dark, sombre and formal. People make an effort to contain their emotions and no one wants to ‘break down’ in public. We put on a brave face and give thanks for the life lost. If it is a…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday before Advent Luke 22: 5-19 Gaze on the Temple again. This time look up at all the gold that burns in the sunlight, and shouts out its wealth. Look at the gigantic bunches of golden grapes adorning a central archway – each grape cluster as tall as a man. Was Her…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fourth Sunday of Lent Luke 15.1-3, 11b-32 Gaze on the father pacing his lemon groves each evening, climbing to the highest point of his land to scan the horizon. And at last he sees a dot, growing ever more distinct, ever more familiar. Gaze on the elder son, the outsider loo…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Third Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Lent - Year A Exodus 17.1–7 Romans 5.1–11 John 4.5–42 John is a masterly storyteller, and this story of Jesus and the woman at the well is one of his best. The Samaritan woman comes out of the page, cheeky, brave, vulnerable, and Jesus responds to her with war…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Lent - Year A Ezekiel 37.1–14 Romans 8.6–11 John 11.1–45 There is a story that St Francis once got up to preach, looked down at the hushed, expectant faces below him and said, ‘God has not given me anything to say to you.’ And with that, he blessed the people,…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Epiphany Nehemiah 8.1–3, 5–6, 8–10 1 Corinthians 12.12–31a Luke 4.14–21 The book of Nehemiah is an exciting and inspiring story. It is written in the first person, and its narrative is vivid and action-packed. Nehemiah, one of the many Jews carried away into e…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Sunday Next Before Lent Exodus 34.29–35 2 Corinthians 3.12—4.2 Luke 9.28–36 Today’s lectionary readings give us the rare chance to see one biblical author doing a thorough exegesis of another. In the passage from 2 Corinthians, Paul is referring directly to today’s reading fr…
Mark for Everyone - Clean and Unclean
Mark for Everyone - Clean and Unclean
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 7.14–23 ..Back to jokes again. Have you ever told a joke and seen a row of blank stares? They didn’t get it? What can you do? Explain it? Surely that’ll take all the fun out of it. Yes, but a parable isn’t a joke. This one in particular was no laughing matt…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - Coming to Rome at Last
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - Coming to Rome at Last
by SPCK - N T Wright
Coming to Rome at Last ROMANS 15.14-24 I mentioned earlier in this book how, when my family and I first moved to North America, we were struck again and again at the thought of what the pioneers had achieved in such very recent history. They had navigated uncharted rivers, climbe…
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Building A Christian Character
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Building A Christian Character
by SPCK - N T Wright
2 THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE SELF BUILDING A CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 2 Peter 1: 1-11 My grandson, aged one and a half, was taken the other day into a big toyshop. It was a riot of exciting things, all in bright colours. From floor to ceiling, from one end of the shop to the other, and…
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Chasing On To The Finish
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Chasing On To The Finish
by SPCK - N T Wright
4 THE PATH OF THE DISCIPLE CHASING ON TO THE FINISH Philippians 3: 12-16 The athletics match had reached a critical stage. One of the final races was left to be run: the 440 yards (the old version of today’s 400 metres). The athletes were bunched together as they came to the firs…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Day of Pentecost Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Day of Pentecost Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Day of Pentecost Acts 2.1–21 Romans 8.14–17 John 14.8–17 The Israelites had been aware of certain persons in their midst, unpredictable and untameable, in whom the Spirit of YHWH dwelt. They spoke his word, led his people, encouraged, rebuked, prayed for and agonized over Israel.…
2 Corinthians - Death and Glory