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Hymn: Trust that God who lit the cosmos
Hymn: Trust that God who lit the cosmos
by Andrew Pratt
Trust that God, who lit the cosmos, source and ground of all we are, demonstrated love’s dimension, dying like the evening star, softened, shaded, so diminished, then extinguished, gone from sight, yet the third day rose in glory, bringing hope and shedding light. Verses 2-3 foll…
Hymn: Who rules the world just like a king
Hymn: Who rules the world just like a king
by Andrew Pratt
Who rules the world just like a king within our present time and space? Who has the power of life and death, of healing or withholding grace. As politicians seek our votes, exposing or obscuring truth, sometimes their language loses rhyme, while arguments become obtuse. Just what…
In our end is our beginning
In our end is our beginning
by Andrew Pratt
In our end is our beginning, cosmic riddle of our birth, why the Alpha and Omega came in flesh and came to birth. Death will no more signal ending, love survives beyond this life, not diminished or extinguished by our common human strife. Verses 3-4 follow Tune: DIJON Metre: 8.7.…
Monologue/Reflection: Naboth’s vineyard and temptation
Monologue/Reflection: Naboth’s vineyard and temptation
by Andrew Pratt
Monologue/Reflection: Naboth’s vineyard and temptation Tempting when we want something. What the temptation is depends, I suppose, on what we’d like to get our hands on. For Ahab a vineyard was enough to make him happy, sufficient to accept the spoils of murder. Naboth dead, Jeze…
Monologue: The gilded gates closed
Monologue: The gilded gates closed
by Andrew Pratt
Monologue: The gilded gates closed With a hiss and a whisper the gilded gates slid closed. The car beyond crunched the gravel as its bodywork mirrored the slant, evening sun. Safe. House like a fortress. So much to lose. So much effort spent in accumulating wealth. Affluent. Sign…
Now take away the stone, he is not dead
Now take away the stone, he is not dead
by Andrew Pratt
Hymn: 'Now take away the stone, he is not dead', Fifth Sunday in Lent John 11: 1 - 45 'Now take away the stone, he is not dead', the people looked amazed, yet some with dread. For Lazarus was buried four long days, the stench said this was more than just a phase. Yes dead is dead…
Once crimson poppies bloomed
Once crimson poppies bloomed
by Andrew Pratt
Once crimson poppies bloomed out in a foreign field, each memory reminds where brutal death was sealed. The crimson petals flutter down, still hatred forms a thorny crown. For in this present time we wait in vain for peace, each generation cries, each longing for release, while w…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Easter Day Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Easter Day Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
HOLY WEEK: EASTER DAY Matthew 28.1–10 Earthquakes, angels, women running to and fro, a strange command. A highly unlikely tale. Yes, indeed, and that’s the point. Nobody thought in the first century, and nobody should think now, that the point of the Easter story is that this is …
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Good Friday Year B
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Good Friday Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B HOLY WEEK GOOD FRIDAY... ...We stopped the car outside the most unlikely looking house. One wall looked as if it was going to collapse at any moment. The door was hanging off on one hinge. An upstairs window was broken. There was a rustle in the bush…
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Monday Holy Week Year B
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Monday Holy Week Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B HOLY WEEK MONDAY... How much did you earn last year? Or, if you don’t earn a regular wage, how much did it cost you to live last year? Think about that sum for a moment. Now imagine that someone who had that amount of money sitting in the bank decide…
Mark for Everyone - Jesus Is Anointed at Bethany
Mark for Everyone - Jesus Is Anointed at Bethany
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 14.1–11... ...If the storm clouds are gathering over Jerusalem in chapter 13, in chapter 14 they are coming together over the head of Jesus himself. The parallel between the two is important: the fate Jesus has predicted for the Temple (destruction at the h…
Mark for Everyone - Marriage and the Resurrection
Mark for Everyone - Marriage and the Resurrection
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 12.18–27 Marriage and the Resurrection... ...After the death of Princess Diana in 1997, ‘books of remembrance’ were placed in public buildings throughout Britain, and indeed in many other parts of the world, particularly in churches and cathedrals, so that …
Mark for Everyone - The Crucifixion
Mark for Everyone - The Crucifixion
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 15.16–32 The Crucifixion... ...Peacekeeping forces, which have become a regular feature of our world, often have to contain themselves in the face of severe local provocation. They can easily build up a backlog of resentment and anger against the people who…
Mark for Everyone - The Death of Jesus
Mark for Everyone - The Death of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 15.33–39 The Death of Jesus... ...There are times when I envy musical composers, and this is one of them. If I were capable of setting this brief but shocking story to music, I know how I would start. Darkness at noon: low chords on the heavy brass, a brood…
Mark for Everyone - The Parable of the Tenants
Mark for Everyone - The Parable of the Tenants
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 12.1–12 The Parable of the Tenants... ...Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice is normally listed as a comedy. The main characters all end up with their problems resolved. But the last two or three times I have seen the play I have come away feeling tha…
Mark for Everyone - The Request of James and John
Mark for Everyone - The Request of James and John
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 10.32–45 The Request of James and John... ...What comes to mind first when you think of the crucifixion of Jesus? Perhaps you think of going to church and singing well- known hymns: ‘There is a green hill far away’, or ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’. Pe…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.14a, 36–41 1 Peter 1.17–23 Luke 24.13–35 Today’s readings bubble over with the excitement of the new moment that has dawned in Israel’s story, in the world’s story, with the resurrection. It isn’t merely that God is offering a new kind o…
Mark for Everyone - True Greatness