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Hymn: When storms and thunder rage around
Hymn: When storms and thunder rage around
by Andrew Pratt
When storms and thunder rage around, disturbing superficial calm, we share unique companionship as love inspires a silent psalm. In table fellowship with God, while foes conspire to break our peace, in breaking bread and drinking wine, our fears diminish, fade, then cease. Verses…
Impossible gifts are with God for the giving
Impossible gifts are with God for the giving
by Andrew Pratt
Impossible gifts are with God for the giving, the answer to questions, the focus of dreams; for God offers hope and in grace is forgiving transcending our hatred, confronting our schemes. Imagine a picture of worthy acceptance where strangers are welcomed as though they are frien…
Not in some future span of time
Not in some future span of time
by Andrew Pratt
Not in some future span of time, but every moment that we live, is when to trust the grace of God, to offer love and to forgive. Now is the hour to realise the height and depth, the breadth and length of love in which our lives are held, God's everlasting grace and strength. Vers…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Human Inventions and Divine Instructions
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Human Inventions and Divine Instructions
by SPCK - N T Wright
Human Interventions and Divine Instructions Acts 5.27-42 We stared at the parcel as it lay on the floor inside the front door. Nobody had heard the delivery man. Nobody knew why it had arrived at this time of the day. The parcel was bulky, somewhat misshapen, with various semi-le…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 6 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 6 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 6 1 Kings 21.1–21a Galatians 2.15–21 Luke 7.36—8.3 ‘He loved me and gave himself for me.’ These words in Galatians 2.20, coupled with those in 1.4, probably form the earliest written statement of what we know as the doctrine of the atonement. They invite comment at sever…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Telling the Gentiles about Jesus
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Telling the Gentiles about Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Telling the Gentiles about Jesus Acts 10.34-48 Acts for Everyone Part 1 34Peter took a deep breath and began. ‘It’s become clear to me’, he said, ‘that God really does show no favouritism. 35No: in every race, people who fear him and do what is right are acceptable to him. 36He s…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 6 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 6 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 6 2 Samuel 11.26—12.10, 13–15 Galatians 2.15–21 Luke 7.36—8.3 Nathan the prophet is a good story-teller and a brave man. Though he obviously knows the character of his king well enough to guess David’s reaction to his story, yet this is, after all, the king he is talking t…
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…
Mark for Everyone - The Healing of the Paralytic
Mark for Everyone - The Healing of the Paralytic
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 2.1–12 The Healing of the Paralytic... ...Everyone was astonished, and they praised God. ‘We’ve never seen anything like this!’ they said . Most people don’t realize that this was probably Jesus’ own house. He had moved to Capernaum from Nazareth; the point…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - The Stoning of Stephen
Acts for Everyone part 1 - The Stoning of Stephen
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Stoning of Stephen Acts 7.54-8.3 Francis Thompson was a strange and powerful English poet of the early twentieth century. He was a believing Christian, but his life had been sad and difficult in a number of ways. Yet in the middle of his personal suffering he discovered a str…
We turn the tables on our friends
We turn the tables on our friends
by Andrew Pratt
We turn the tables on our friends, the ones we love the most, when others point or criticise, we press our case and boast. The garden story that we hear still lives in us today, the blame still passes down the line, there is no other way. Verses 3-4 follow Tune: BROTHER JAMES AIR…
When ever disaster brings death and destruction
When ever disaster brings death and destruction
by Andrew Pratt
When ever disaster brings death and destruction, when people are suff'ring and questions arise, we should not assume some divine retribution condemning the people that we might despise. God's judgement is subtle, each person is counted, each one is significant, folded in grace. G…
When Jesus prayed in mystic, sweet communion
When Jesus prayed in mystic, sweet communion
by Andrew Pratt
When Jesus prayed in mystic, sweet communion, he was not begging for a loaf of bread, yet noting the reality of hunger, his words are human, asking to be fed. This human need that undergirds existence, provides the ground, the need to live in peace, where grace determines human c…
Traces of Glory Year B - Proper 21 - Year B
Traces of Glory Year B - Proper 21 - Year B
by SPCK - David Adam
Proper 21 Lord our God, On the way of goodness, if we stumble lift us up; On the way of holiness, if we stay bring us back; On the way of kindness, if we toughen soften our hearts; That we may draw others to you and your saving power, By our words and our example; Though Jesus Ch…
Some voice! it splinters beams of cedar
Some voice! it splinters beams of cedar
by Andrew Pratt
Some voice! it splinters beams of cedar, it flashes out in flames of fire, it thunders over mighty waters, it makes the theme of praise run higher. The shaking earth moves with that thunder, the ground is rattled, rough and raw; this quaking land disturbs the ocean, destructive w…
So many people, flawed and faulted