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Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 21 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 21 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 21 Mark 9: 38-50 Gaze on Archbishop Cranmer, being led to the stake to die by fire because he would not act against his conscience. In many ways the sixteenth century was more like the time of Jesus than it is ours. Cranmer would have understood more fully the risks and da…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Third Sunday before Advent Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Third Sunday before Advent Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Third Sunday before Advent Mark 1: 14-20 Gaze on the Sea of Galilee. No one who comes here remains unmoved. What is it about particular places that give them a holiness at their very core? Why does this place emanate such undisputed beauty? It is referred to in the Jewish Tal…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Trinity Sunday Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Trinity Sunday Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Trinity Sunday John 3: 1-17 Gaze at this conversation, taking place at night in Jesus’ rooms, somewhere in a dark Jerusalem back street. The room is barely lit by a small earthen oil lamp. Jesus and his unexpected guest sit cross-legged on cushions. The furnishings of the room ar…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday before Advent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday before Advent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday Before Advent Jonah.3.1-5, 10 Hebrews 9.24-28 Mark 1.14-20 Hebrews is convinced that the work of Jesus is completed in the cross. And not just the work of the Son of God, but the whole providential work of God in creating us in the first place. The cross of Chris…
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Watch Out For Dangers
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Watch Out For Dangers
by SPCK - N T Wright
4 THE PATH OF THE DISCIPLE WATCH OUT FOR DANGERS! Hebrews 12: 12-17 ‘It was a moment of madness.’ The politician stood shamefully before the press. He had been caught out soliciting for sexual favours in a notorious part of town. His character was in ruins, his reputation in tatt…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 9 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 9 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 9 Zechariah 9.9–12 Romans 7.15–25a Matthew 11.16–19, 25–30 The first half of chapter 11 of Matthew’s Gospel is Jesus’s tribute to John the Baptist. John is in prison, longing to know if he has stepped aside for nothing, aching …
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 18 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 18 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 18 Isaiah 35. 4-7a James 2.1-17 Mark 7. 24-37 I suppose it’s comforting, in an Eeyore-ish kind of way, to know that ours is not the only generation of Christians to think that belief is simply a matter of the words you use, and that it doesn’t need to affect ordinary life …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - God's Rescue Plan
Acts for Everyone part 1 - God's Rescue Plan
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Rescue Plan Acts 2.37-41 It’s one thing to discover you are driving along the wrong road. It may be frustrating, and even embarrassing if you have people in the car who thought you knew where you were going. But you can at least admit the mistake, turn round and set off aga…
One Day at a Time: Meditations for Carers - 19. Me and St Stephen
One Day at a Time: Meditations for Carers - 19. Me and St Stephen
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
ONE DAY AT A TIME Meditations for Carers 19 Me and St Stephen John 8.10–11 It was one of those days. Exhaustion had set in early but there was still too much to do and only me to do it. Get help? Well, yes, of course that would be nice. In fact, someone had offered . . . But wo…
One Day at a Time: Meditations for Carers - 28. Surely this can't be right?
One Day at a Time: Meditations for Carers - 28. Surely this can't be right?
by SPCK - Dorothy M Stewart
ONE DAY AT A TIME Meditations for Carers 28. Surely this can’t be right? Jeremiah 29.11 Some days I wake up calm, even cheerful about my life. More often I’m floundering in the morass and the thought pops up, ‘Surely this can’t be right? Surely God can’t want this for me?’ This i…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Easter Acts 8.26-40 1John 4.7-21 John 15.1-8 The writings of John, both in the Gospel and the epistles, are bafflingly determined not to come down on one side or the other of the ‘chicken or egg’ question. Which comes first, love of God or love of our neighbou…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 4.5-12 1John 3.16-24 John 10.11-18 Today’s readings are deeply challenging. Christian mission has sometimes been done as though determined to prove that we are right and everyone else is wrong, whereas all of today’s writers think that Christians …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 8 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 8 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 8 Jeremiah 28.5–9 Romans 6.12–23 Matthew 10.40–42 Ours is an age with a great deal of interest in ‘spirituality’. We have rediscovered that ‘spirituality’ is good for us and, like exercise and a low-fat diet, we pursue it, but …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - David Speaks of Jesus' Resurrection
Acts for Everyone part 1 - David Speaks of Jesus' Resurrection
by SPCK - N T Wright
David Speaks of Jesus’ Resurrection Acts 2. 22-36 I watched the Press Gallery during the speech. For most of the time, the journalists looked bored. One was sharpening his pencil; another was varnishing her nails. Then, quite suddenly, all that changed. Notebooks were seized, sho…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 14 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 14 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 14 1 Kings 19.9–18 Romans 10.5–15 Matthew 14.22–33 There is something about us that is deeply resistant to the grace of God. It’s not that we don’t believe in him, or wish to follow him, or that we consciously reject him, but w…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B