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embodying mark - 4 Following the Shepherd
embodying mark - 4 Following the Shepherd
by SPCK - meda a a stamper
4 Following the Shepherd As in the last chapter, so also here Mark begins a story, interrupts it with another, and then comes round to the first story again. The passage we are exploring now follows on from Jesus’ sending of the disciples two by two in 6.7–13 to participate in hi…
embodying mark - 8 Into the Silence
embodying mark - 8 Into the Silence
by SPCK - meda a a stamper
8 Into the Silence They have been in the story all along, but silent and invisible, unnamed like the woman with her alabaster jar, until now. Even once some of them are named, at the death and the burial (15.40 – 41, 47), still they are motionless and voiceless…
Parallel Lives of Jesus - 2c The Shared Story in the Four Gospels
Parallel Lives of Jesus - 2c The Shared Story in the Four Gospels
by SPCK - Edward Adams
The Shared Story in the Four Gospels Using the elements of story listed earlier, we can identify a core story embodied in all four Gospels. There is a common series of events: the appearance and ministry of John the Baptist, the descent of the Spirit upon Jesus, the call of the f…
Parallel Lives of Jesus - 8 The Feeding of the Five Thousand
Parallel Lives of Jesus - 8 The Feeding of the Five Thousand
by SPCK - Edward Adams
The Feeding of the Five Thousand The feeding of the five thousand is one of the most well-known of the miracles performed by Jesus and the only one that is recorded in all four Gospels.1 It is classed as a “nature miracle,” an action by which Jesus demonstrates his authority over…
Journeying with Matthew Lectionary Year A - Lent
Journeying with Matthew Lectionary Year A - Lent
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
5 Lent Exploring the text The Lectionary provides us with slim pickings from Matthew during Lent, since during Lent most of the Gospel readings are from John. This gives us time, therefore, to reflect more deeply on the story of Jesus’ temptation in Matthew...
Journeying with Luke - Lent
Journeying with Luke - Lent
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
4 Lent Exploring the text One of the major themes of Lent is, of course, temptation – or, more accurately, resistance to temptation. This theme arises from Jesus’ temptations but also challenges us to reflect upon our need to resist temptation in all its forms. One of the intrigu…
The Lord and His Prayer - Give Us This Day
The Lord and His Prayer - Give Us This Day
by SPCK - N T Wright
Give Us This Day CHAPTER THREE The danger with the prayer for bread is that we get there too soon. We come to prayer, aware of urgent needs, or at least wants. It’s tempting to race through the Lord’s Prayer, as far as ‘on earth as it is in heaven’, so that we can then take a dee…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Advent Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Advent Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Gazing on the Gospel - Year B The Second Sunday of Advent Mark 1.1-8 Gaze on the people coming out to John in the wilderness. The parents are dragging along the children by their hand, and the old people are hobbling along trying to catch up. They know it won’t be easy to reach t…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 23 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 23 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 23 Amos 5.6-7, 10-15 Hebrews 4:12-16 Mark 10.17-31 Is it just me, or are the readings actually getting harder at this time of year? Not only more difficult to understand, but also more sombre? Certainly, today’s reading from Hebrews has taken large quantities of caffeine, …
Rhythms of remembering - Lent - Sunday Morning Prayer
Rhythms of remembering - Lent - Sunday Morning Prayer
by SPCK - Hannah Ward & Jennifer Wild
LENT - Sunday Morning Prayer Blessed are you, O God: you sustain us in desert places. I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild animals from the land, so that they may live in the wild and sleep in the woods securely. Ezekiel 34.25...
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Setting the Scene
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Setting the Scene
by BRF - Dick France
SETTING the SCENE ‘The wilderness’, mentioned four times in verses 1–13 and never again in Mark’s Gospel, is a pointer to the different focus in these introductory paragraphs. They are set not among human society in Galilee or Judea, but in the uninhabited land around the Jordan.…
The Living God - An almighty God: power and character
The Living God - An almighty God: power and character
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
An almighty God: power, compassion and suffering 3 An almighty God: power and character In 1887, the British politician and historian Lord Acton (1834 –1902) observed that ‘power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. As a result, ‘great men are almost always …
The Living God - Mystery or muddle? The Trinity
The Living God - Mystery or muddle? The Trinity
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Mystery or muddle? The Trinity 5 When I was an atheist I regarded religious people as deluded and irrational souls who believed all sorts of ridiculous nonsense. If I had been asked to single out what I regarded as the most absurd aspect of Christian belief, I would have pointed …
The Women's Bible Commentary - Hagar: Mothering a Hero