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Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Do We Ever Learn?- Take Two
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Do We Ever Learn?- Take Two
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Do We Ever Learn? Take Two Genesis 26: 6- 33 A few weeks ago, the great U.S. novelist John Updike died. I think I had tried to read one of his novels years ago but failed. In light of the eulogies, I thought I should try again, so I started with Too Far to Go, over which one of t…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Palm Sunday Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Palm Sunday Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Palm Sunday Isaiah 50.4–9a Philippians 2.5–11 Mark 14.1—15.47 It is as though there are any number of parallel stories in Mark’s account of the trial and death of Jesus. The characters in each story are largely unaware of the others, though they may interact with each other to so…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Then He Died
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Then He Died
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Then He Died Genesis 5: 1-20 Three years ago, a friend of ours died. When he was about thirty, he developed a brain tumor. He had surgery and recovered, he fell in love, and I preached at his wedding. Then, within weeks the tumor reappeared. He died before he and his bride finish…
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 7 Year A
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - Proper 7 Year A
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 7 - Year A Meditation on Matthew 10: 24-39 Gaze on yourself in a mirror. If you are young, your face is open, unlined, your skin fresh and clear, and your eyes are bright. Whether you wear your hair long or cropped, bobbed or short, it is thick and glossy. Do you see the f…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Lent - Year A Ezekiel 37.1–14 Romans 8.6–11 John 11.1–45 There is a story that St Francis once got up to preach, looked down at the hushed, expectant faces below him and said, ‘God has not given me anything to say to you.’ And with that, he blessed the people,…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 7.55–60 1 Peter 2.2–10 John 14.1–14 What are we Christians supposed to feel about the world we live in? All three of today’s readings suggest that, at the very least, the world is not our home. Stephen dies as though death is irrelevant, w…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 11 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 11 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 11 Isaiah 44.6–8 Romans 8.12–25 Matthew 13.24–30, 36–43 This section of Romans is part of a long and not always lucid discussion of life and death, slavery and freedom. In chapter 6, Paul has been explaining that our Christian …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Day of Pentecost Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Day of Pentecost Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Day of Pentecost Acts 2.1–21 Romans 8.14–17 John 14.8–17 The Israelites had been aware of certain persons in their midst, unpredictable and untameable, in whom the Spirit of YHWH dwelt. They spoke his word, led his people, encouraged, rebuked, prayed for and agonized over Israel.…
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Friday after Ash Wednesday Year B
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Friday after Ash Wednesday Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY... ...Three times yesterday the doorbell rang unexpectedly. First it was the engineer; he came to inspect the foundations of the outhouse. Then it was the builder; he came to measure for some windows that need replacing. Fi…
Mark for Everyone - Herod and John the Baptist
Mark for Everyone - Herod and John the Baptist
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 6.17–29 Herod and John the Baptist... ...What sells newspapers? Three things, and if they’re combined, so much the better. Royalty: almost any story about a member of a royal family will sell, not only in Britain or Norway or wherever it began, but around t…
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Saturday Holy Week Year B
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Saturday Holy Week Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B HOLY WEEK HOLY SATURDAY... ...It is hard to tell which was more horrible. We watched on the television, some while ago now, as the earthquake off the coast of Japan produced a terrible tsunami. The waves came crashing in, the enormous power of millio…
Mark for Everyone - The Speculations of Herod
Mark for Everyone - The Speculations of Herod
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 6.14–16The Speculations of Herod... ...Private life is a modern invention. Until quite recently, most people lived in small communities where everyone knew every- one else’s business. Until a few hundred years ago, everybody heard what was going on in the w…
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Wednesday: Second Week in Lent Year B
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Wednesday: Second Week in Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B WEEK 2: WEDNESDAY... ...People sometimes have the idea that the world of the Bible is rather like the world of some old churches: quiet, serious, a bit old-fashioned, with nobody ever doing or saying anything to shock or frighten people. Sometimes, i…
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Saturday: Week 5 in Lent Year B
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Saturday: Week 5 in Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B WEEK 5 SATURDAY... ...Reports suggest that there are plenty of people today who are so distant from the story of Jesus that they can watch a children’s play about him without realizing what’s going to happen. They are then shocked to the core at the …
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Start and End the Day
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Start and End the Day
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Start and End the Day EXODUS 29: 38- 30: 37 When my wife died, we “celebrated” her life and marked her death at a memorial service where we burnt lots of incense, not something we regularly do in our church. One striking aspect of the burning of incense is the smell, which…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 42.1–9 Acts 10.34–43 Matthew 3.13–17 Matthew’s is the only Gospel that shows any embarrassment about Jesus’s baptism by John the Baptist. In all of the Gospels, John knows that his baptism is a temporary measure, but he also knows that…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 14 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 14 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 14 1 Kings 19-4-8 Ephesians 4. 25-5.2 John 6: 35, 41-51 On the grounds that there is no point in telling someone to do something if they are already doing it, the Ephesian community must be quite like a church you know well. It is interesting how much of this section is co…
Poem: Beyond our context, out of time