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Exodus and Leviticus - Promises and Warnings and Promises
Exodus and Leviticus - Promises and Warnings and Promises
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Promises and Warnings and Promises LEVITICUS 26: 3- 46 Yesterday a student from a two-thirds-world country came to see me to talk about wealth and poverty, about the idea that God exercised a preferential option for the poor, about whether it was okay for us to enjoy the wealth w…
Exodus and Leviticus - Praying for the Enemy
Exodus and Leviticus - Praying for the Enemy
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Praying for the Enemy EXODUS 8: 8- 32 I think it’s easier for my church to pray for the present U.S. president than it was to pray for his predecessor. They like the present president; they find it easy to identify with him (he is African American and so are most of them); and th…
Exodus and Leviticus - Pharaoh Flip-Flop
Exodus and Leviticus - Pharaoh Flip-Flop
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Pharaoh Flip-Flop EXODUS 9: 22-35 In the rough and tumble of U.S. politics, you have to be very careful about changing your mind, or you may be accused of flip-flopping. It’s appropriate that there should be a term for an unprincipled change of mind or change of policy, one that …
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 22 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 22 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 22 Luke 17: 5-10 Gaze on this poor worker with the sweat running down his face, and blisters on his hands, plodding back from the fields. The light is dimming and he’s returning to the farmhouse. How he longs to be able to bathe his tired limbs, drink cool water, and gaze …
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fifth Sunday of Lent Luke 12.1-8 Gaze on this cosy domestic setting, spruced up for a special celebration. It seems that this house is the nearest Jesus came to an adult family home. Martha is being Martha again – the carer in the kitchen. Mary is being Mary as ever – impetuo…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Day of Pentecost Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Day of Pentecost Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Day of Pentecost John 14.8-17 [25-27] Gaze on a wood in a storm, the trees blown every which way by the invisible wind. Branches are stripped of their leaves and the weaker boughs are broken, and fall to the forest floor. Listen to the rage of the storm, rushing through a garden,…
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - The Third Sunday before Advent Reflection Year A
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - The Third Sunday before Advent Reflection Year A
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Third Sunday before Advent - Year A Meditation on Matthew 25: 1-13 Gaze on an early Saturday morning in late summer, when the sun has come up and promises a glorious day. You open the curtains and delight at the weather – it is perfect for planting your bulbs for next spring;…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Sunday next before Lent Luke 9.28-36 [37-43a] Gaze on all things that dazzle – spume of the waves that roam the sea, and is tossed up like tinsel in the air, or the light on a lake, making silver rays skid over the surface like a thousand steel skates flashing across ice. Gaz…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Third Sunday of Epiphany Luke 4.14-21 Gaze on the scene in the synagogue. The men crowd in, some who normally wouldn’t bother to attend, but today have rediscovered their piety in the urge to see what the fuss is about. They arrive early so they’ll get a seat with a view. The…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Third Sunday of Lent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Third Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Lent Luke 13.31-35 Gaze on Jerusalem today, in greater need than ever of her children being gathered together in harmony. It is a city divided between Jew and Muslim, Jew and Christian, with no-go areas armed by guns. Churches are locked. Doubt and suspicion …
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Sixth Sunday of Easter John 14.23-29 Gaze on John, frowning with concentration as Jesus continues to deliver his lengthy ‘farewell’. He is straining to remember it all, and to understand how all the twists and turns build into the overarching vindication of God’s purpose in J…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Advent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Advent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Advent - Year A Isaiah 2:1–5 Romans 13:11–14 Matthew 24:36–44 Reflection on the first Sunday in Advent year A In The Magician’s Nephew, one of his Narnia books, C. S. Lewis describes a wood, which the children reach by magic. It is a kind of no-place, which Po…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Advent - Year A Isaiah 7:10–16 Romans 1:1–7 Matthew 1:18–25 Why won’t King Ahaz ask God for a sign? The reason he gives sounds like a good religious response, but the tone of the story makes it clear that it isn’t. What he says is ‘I will not put the Lord to …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Palm Sunday Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Palm Sunday Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Palm Sunday Isaiah 50.4–9a Philippians 2.5–11 Luke 23.1–49 Luke’s account of the trial and death of Jesus revolves around images of judgement, and images of truth and falsehood. At the start of the chapter, one trial – the trial conducted by the chief priests and scribes of Israe…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 11 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 11 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 11 Genesis 18.1–10a Colossians 1.15–28 Luke 10.38–42 From the beginning, human beings have been image-makers, instinctively, compulsively making sense of their world through imagining it. In lives governed by the harshest necessity just to survive, primitive people still…
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