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Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 2 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 2 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 2 2 Kings 5.1–14 1 Corinthians 9.24–27 Mark 1.40–45 Naaman’s wife’s maid knew more about Elisha’s healing powers than the king of Israel. All the king could do was tear his clothes and rage against his Syrian counterpart, suspecting that a request for healing was a disgu…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 4 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 4 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 4 1 Samuel 3.1-10 2 Corinthians 4.5-12 Mark 2.23-3.6 Like a cathedral chorister, Samuel has been brought to live and work in the atmosphere of prayer, worship and pilgrimage. Considering the lively human interest, it’s surprising this story didn’t entice the great classi…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday Before Lent Proverbs 8.1, 22–31 Colossians 1.15–20 John 1.1–14 Eyebrows will be raised at the reappearance of John’s prologue so soon after Christmas. But our surprise at the lectionary’s turns and twists is nothing to that launched upon the world by John’s fa…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 6 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 6 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 6 1 Samuel 15.34-16.13 2 Corinthians 5.6-10[11-13] 14-17 Mark 4.26-34 Once again the lectionary cuts Paul off just when he’s getting interesting. Next week’s passage starts at 6.1; what happened to 5.18–21, one of Paul’s greatest summaries of his life and thought? However,…
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…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Restoration and Refreshment
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Restoration and Refreshment
by SPCK - N T Wright
Restoration and Refreshment Acts 3.17-26 I remember a hot, hot walk in the Scottish highlands. (It’s true: there are times, even at altitudes of 4,000 feet, when you can be just as hot in Scotland as anywhere in Europe.) We climbed Braeriach and Cairn Toul, the third and fourth h…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Christ the King Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Christ the King Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Sundays Before Advent Christ the King Ezekiel 34.11–16, 20–4 Ephesians 1.15–23 Matthew 25.31–46 Matthew 25 is all about preparedness. First of all, there are the foolish bridesmaids, who ran out of oil and so missed the wedding; then there is the s…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 24 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 24 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 24 Isaiah 45.1–7 1 Thessalonians 1.1–10 Matthew 22.15–22 The question as weapon is one of the oldest techniques in controversy. You will hear it used to perfection most mornings on the radio. The art is to find the question to …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Last Sunday After Trinity Deuteronomy 34.1–12 1 Thessalonians 2.1–8 Matthew 22.34–46 Like a bored videotape-watcher, the lectionary suddenly presses the fast-forward button, skipping three-fifths of the Pentateuch and stopping only just in time for the death of the hero. Mose…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 16 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 16 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 16 Exodus 1.8—2.10 Romans 12.1–8 Matthew 16.13–20 How do slaves get free? By living the present in the light of the future. The midwives, and Moses’ mother, act out of defiant hope. Moses, destined to lead Israel through the …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 24 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 24 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Ordinary Time - Proper 24 Exodus 33.12–23 1 Thessalonians 1.1–10 Matthew 22.15–22 The multiple echoes of Exodus 33 bounce around the New Testament. The first letter to the Thessalonians, held by many to be the first surviving Christian writing, offers another reminder that the go…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 15 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 15 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 15 Isaiah 56.1, 6–8 Romans 11.1–2a, 29–32 Matthew 15.10–28 This strange story of the Canaanite woman clearly scratches an itch for Matthew’s readers. If you put this version and Mark’s version side by side (Mark 7.24–30), you w…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - More than He Bargained for
Acts for Everyone part 1 - More than He Bargained for
by SPCK - N T Wright
There was once a young man who sneaked into church hoping nobody would notice him. The only reason he’d come was because he was keen on a girl who sang in the choir, and he hoped that if he was in the service he’d be able to see her at the end of the service and ask her out. He w…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 13 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 13 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 13 Isaiah 55.1–5 Romans 9.1–5 Matthew 14.13–21 The pain in Paul’s words is tangible, and made even more poignant by the victorious assurance of the end of chapter 8. Paul has just been asserting that nothing can ‘separate us fr…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 17 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 17 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 17 Jeremiah 15.15–21 Romans 12.9–21 Matthew 16.21–8 Oh dear. Now it’s crunch time. Justification by grace through faith is fine. A theology of grace alone, which emphasizes our inability to achieve our own salvation, is central…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 16 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 16 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 16 Isaiah 51.1–6 Romans 12.1–8 Matthew 16.13–20 There seems to be a bit of a break in the argument at this point in Romans. Chapters 9––11 are Paul’s attempt to give some kind of coherent shape to God’s activity in choosing fir…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 24 Year B