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Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Lent Isaiah 43.16–21 Philippians 3.4b–14 John 12.1–8 Our Lenten readings have now brought us face to face with what this season is about. We are attempting, with some discipline, to prepare ourselves for Good Friday and Easter. At the start of Lent, with the s…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Lent Deuteronomy 26.1–11 Romans 10.8b–13 Luke 4.1–13 Proust’s great theme is that without memory there is no character or understanding. One of the things that is so appealing about his work is that the small memories are at least as significant as the huge …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Easter Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Easter Exodus 14.10–31; 15.20–1 Acts 5.27–32 John 20.19–31 People are very good at doubting. We seem to be able to move with effortless ease from the utmost certainty to the utmost doubt within moments. In the reading from Exodus today, just remember what has…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Advent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Advent Malachi 3.1–4 Philippians 1.3–11 Luke 3.1–6 The passage from Malachi and the passage from Luke go together well. At first glance, the alternative reading from Baruch (5.1–9) matches the Luke passage even better, since Luke and Baruch both seem to be qu…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Epiphany Isaiah 62.1–5 1 Corinthians 12.1–11 John 2.1–11 The story of the wedding at Cana is an intriguing one. The dynamic between Jesus and his mother is fascinating, as is the nature of the miracle. The Gospels that emerged in the first few Christian centu…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Seventh Sunday of Easter Ezekiel 36.24–8 Acts 16.16–34 John 17.20–6 The verses chosen from Ezekiel for today are a beautiful and encouraging picture of the restoration of Israel, but they urgently need to be read in the light of the verses immediately before and after them. T…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Sixth Sunday of Easter Ezekiel 37.1–14 Acts 16.9–15 John 14.23–9 The clue to Ezekiel’s famous vision of the dry bones comes in verse 11. What Ezekiel has been hearing from the people all around him is a despair that is like death. ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Lent Genesis 15.1–12, 17–18 Philippians 3.17—4.1 Luke 13.31–5 Conversations between God and Abraham are always worth listening to. You can’t help noticing that God likes Abraham, and talks to him, man to man, and that Abraham talks freely, even cheekily to Go…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday before Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday before Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday Before Lent Genesis 2.4b–9, 15–25 Revelation 4 Luke 8.22–5 If you go straight from today’s Genesis reading to the reading from Revelation, you could almost imagine that the history of God’s relations with people had been one of unbroken communion. From the intim…
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - The Choice and the Plan
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - The Choice and the Plan
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Choice and the Plan Ephesians 1.4-10 Have you noticed how sometimes you have a story in the back of your mind which keeps peeping out even when you’re talking about something else? Imagine you’ve come back from work and the train has been late again. You stood for half an hou…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Man Who Has Learned How To Be A Prophet
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Man Who Has Learned How To Be A Prophet
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Man Who Has Learned How to Be a Prophet 2 Samuel 12: 1- 15a A pastor once came to talk to me because he had had an affair. He had actually “got away with it.” He thinks his wife never realized, but he knew he had behaved in a way that was both wrong and stupid, and he knew he…
The Living God - Discerning wisdom: works of art and the creation
The Living God - Discerning wisdom: works of art and the creation
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Creator of heaven and earth 4 Discerning wisdom: works of art and the creation One of my memories of my time as an undergraduate at Wadham College, Oxford, is admiring the portrait of Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723) that adorned the panelled walls of the college’s dining hall. I…
the greatest prayer - Prologue The Strangest Prayer
the greatest prayer - Prologue The Strangest Prayer
by SPCK - John Dominic Crossan
PROLOGUE The Strangest Prayer The Lord’s Prayer is Christianity’s greatest prayer. It is also Christianity’s strangest prayer. It is prayed by all Christians, but it never mentions Christ. It is prayed in all churches, but it never mentions church. It is prayed on all Sundays, bu…
Traces of Glory Year B - Proper 22 - Year B
Traces of Glory Year B - Proper 22 - Year B
by SPCK - David Adam
Proper 22 Good and Gracious God, your love is never-failing, Your heart is open to us, your presence never leaves us; Strengthen our faith, deepen our love for you and keep us in your ways; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God,…
PAUL AND THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD - Epicureans and Stoics
PAUL AND THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD - Epicureans and Stoics
by SPCK - N T Wright
Chapter Three ATHENE AND HER OWL: THE WISDOM OF THE GREEKS 2. The Shape and Content of First-Century Philosophy (iii) Epicureans and Stoics By then, however, two major new schools, and two related minor but still significant ones, had come in to join the Academy and the Peripatet…
Mark for Everyone - Warnings about Sin