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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Grown-Up Christianity
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Grown-Up Christianity
by SPCK - N T Wright
Grown-Up Christianity Ephesians 4.11-16 ‘Don’t be a baby.’ The words were meant to hurt, and they did. But they had the desired effect. The schoolboy had been whimpering about somebody being mean to him. He was hoping that the teacher would come to his rescue. But he suddenly rea…
Luke for Everyone - Jesus' Authoritative Healings
Luke for Everyone - Jesus' Authoritative Healings
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus’ Authoritative Healings Luke 4.31-44 Last time I went to Capernaum you could hardly move because of the people. There were coaches full of pilgrims coming and going, parties of tourists with guides talking in several different languages, people taking photographs, people tr…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Paul Confronts Peter in Antioch
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Paul Confronts Peter in Antioch
by SPCK - N T Wright
Paul Confronts Peter in Antioch Galatians 2.11-14 When my brother was at school, he took part in a performance of ‘Noye’s Fludde’ by Benjamin Britten. Actually, he took the part of Noah himself. His costume and make-up were superb. Though he was only 17, he looked like a really o…
The Pastoral Letters - The Character of a Bishop
The Pastoral Letters - The Character of a Bishop
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Character of a Bishop 1Timothy 3.1-7 A friend gave me a lift in the car the other night. He’s a politician and has been a member of parliament for 25 years. But now he’s decided to run for a new kind of public office: he’s hoping to be a candidate to be Mayor of London. ‘Sudd…
Exodus and Leviticus - Distinguishing Life from Death
Exodus and Leviticus - Distinguishing Life from Death
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Distinguishing Life from Death LEVITICUS : 13 1- 14: 57 The first funeral I did in the United States was for a friend in his thirties whose wedding I had conducted. We buried him within about a year, after he died of a brain tumor. I admire the way U.S. funerals commonly have the…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - God Doesn't Go Back on a Promise
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - God Doesn't Go Back on a Promise
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God Doesn’t Go Back on a Promise NUMBERS 22: 1- 23:4 People in traditional societies know there can be a strange power about blessing and cursing. A Nigerian told me about the way in his society people know that their enemies can use curses to cause harm to them, and the traditio…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Genesis 1:6-19 At the weekend my wife and I like to have lunch by the ocean, and while doing so we watch the surf hurling itself at the beach. No matter how hard giant waves batter the beach, they will never climb the rocks to where we sit, still less t…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - On Letting Your Son Die
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - On Letting Your Son Die
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Letting Your Son Die Genesis 22: 3- 10 What on earth does it do to you to have your father go to the edge of killing you? What does it do to your relationship to your father, and what does it do to your view of God? A seminary colleague of mine in England, who (like me) was al…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fourth Sunday of Easter John 10.22-30 Gaze on a rough, stormy day in Jerusalem. Our usual picture of the Holy Land is of sun and heat, and a life led in the open air, but there can be cold winds and rain, too. Jesus is sheltering in one of the inner courts of the Temple. It’s…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Christmas Day/Christmas Eve Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Christmas Day/Christmas Eve Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Christmas Day/Christmas Eve Isaiah 52.7–10 Hebrews 1.1–4 John 1.1–14 What difference would it make if the Christmas story were not true? If God had not come to be born, live and die as a human being? Today’s readings shout out that the Christmas story is the key to what the world…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 13 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 13 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 13 Ecclesiastes 1.2, 12–14; 2.18–23 Colossians 3.1–11 Luke 12.13–21 Today’s three readings just are depressing, so brace yourselves. It’s partly because the image of the virtuous life that they present is so obviously unattainable, and partly because they seem to epitomize…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 12 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 12 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 12 Genesis 18.20–32 Colossians 2.6–15 Luke 11.1–13 This story from Genesis is often told as though it is about Abraham bargaining with God. Abraham, the generous and merciful, pleads with God, the bloodthirsty and violent, and gradually manages to calm God down and get him…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday Before Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday Before Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday Before Advent Isaiah 1.10–18 2 Thessalonians 1.1–12 Luke 19.1–10 The temptation with today’s three readings is to go straight for the story of Zacchaeus. It’s warm, vivid and has a happy ending. But the other two readings remind us that Zacchaeus’ choice is not …
Poem: The Psalmist reckoned fools were unbelieving
Poem: The Psalmist reckoned fools were unbelieving
by Andrew Pratt
Poem: The Psalmist reckoned fools were unbelieving The Psalmist reckoned fools were unbelieving, but faith, like fashion, leaves to sink or swim. No God indeed? perhaps as others paint 'him'. No goddess either? Faith is just a whim? We look at life and context moulds our seeing, …
Poem: The wisdom of women: discernment of thought
Poem: The wisdom of women: discernment of thought
by Andrew Pratt
The wisdom of women: discernment of thought, with love's intuition that cannot be bought; how long will we limit these God given gifts while fudging church unity, fearful of rifts? All people are worthy and all have a place, all people are gifted with God-given grace, yet barrier…
The last word goes to God, and God
The last word goes to God, and God
by Andrew Pratt
The last word goes to God, and God is judge of all the earth, and yet in Christ there’s hope for all who share a human birth. This is no magic but a sign, for Christ who hung and died, was led to death because he loved, this could not be denied. Verses 3-5 follow Tune: MENDIP; LU…
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