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Luke for Everyone - The Annunciation of the Birth of Jesus
Luke for Everyone - The Annunciation of the Birth of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Annunciation of the Birth of Jesus Luke 1.26-38 Ask a newspaper editor what sort of stories will sell the most copies, and three categories come swiftly to mind: sex, royalty and religion. If they can be combined, so much the better.’ POP STAR’S LOVE CHILD’ is good; ‘PRINCESS…
Psalms for Everyone - Silence toward God
Psalms for Everyone - Silence toward God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Silence toward God Psalm 62 A friend of mine has gone on a month’s silent retreat (he is answering e-mails, which seems a bit like cheating, but then maybe so is reading or listening to talks). He needs to know what is to be the next stage in his life and his service of God, and …
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Sunday Next Before Lent 2 Kings 2.1–12 2 Corinthians 4.3–6 Mark 9.2–9 Elijah is taking part in his own funeral procession. Everywhere he goes, people come out to watch him, the coffin, go past. The people do not speak to him. It’s almost as though they think that he has alrea…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Third Sunday of Easter Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Third Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Easter Acts 3.12-19 1 John 3.1-7 Luke 24.36-48 The ancient world knew all about ghosts, visions, apparitions, and spooks. Ancient literature has plenty of people being found alive after being supposed dead, plenty of spirits of the dead returning to haunt, spy…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Christ the King Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Christ the King Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Christ the King Daniel 7.9-10, 13, 14 Revelation 1.4b-8 John 18.33-37 Philip Pullman’s brilliant His Dark Materials trilogy ends with the words ‘and then we’ll build . . . The republic of heaven.’ This is the vision that Lyra holds out to us after all she has learned and suffered…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday of Lent Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Third Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Lent Exodus 20.1-17 1 Corinthians 1.18-25 John 2.13-22 Are Exodus and 1 Corinthians in direct conflict with each other? Do they give wholly irreconcilable pictures of the nature of God and our response to it? The God of the Ten Commandments is, surely, a God w…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday Before Advent Daniel 12.1-3 Hebrews 10.11-14 [15-18] 19-25 Mark 13.1-8 The lady in the icon shop may not have understood my English, let alone my Greek. Did she have an icon of Jesus’ resurrection? Yes, she said, pointing at the wall behind her head. There it wa…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The First Sunday of Epiphany Mark 1.4-11 Gaze on a modern-day baptism by total immersion. It might take place in a river, or in a special pool built into a church. The candidates are dressed in clean, crisp white shirts and trousers, and have prepared long and hard for this day…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Palm Sunday Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Palm Sunday Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Palm Sunday (Liturgy of the Passion) Isaiah 50.4–9a Philippians 2.5–11 Mark 14.1—15.47 ‘In spite of that, we call this Friday good.’ They didn’t at the time, but Jesus’ surprised friends, and some very surprised enemies, quickly found themselves telling the horrid and brutal tale…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Third Sunday of Lent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Third Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Lent Exodus 20.1–17 1 Corinthians 1.18–25 John 2.13–22 Jewish jokes testify to the terror of the Ten Words from Sinai. Headache? Do what Moses did: take two tablets. Moses to the people: we’ve got them down from twenty to ten, but adultery is still in. Moses t…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 3 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 3 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 3 Isaiah 43.18–25 2 Corinthians 1.18–22 Mark 2.1–12 Forgiveness is always shocking, even when it’s God who’s doing it. Indeed, that’s often the worst: in a paradox whose only solution is the depth of human pride, we shrink from the undeserved, and hence humbling, grace a…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Sunday next before Lent Mark 9.2-9 Consider next what God tells us. First, that Jesus is indeed his Son and we must worship him as such. And second, that this means we must obey him, for what is the point of listening if we do not learn? Our faith must be strong enough to f…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Third Sunday of Epiphany John 2.1-11 And remember, we are still in the season of Epiphany – the showing forth of Jesus to the world. And this is where we find the proper significance of this story. Consider the difference between the meaning of the words ‘sign’ and ‘miracle…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Epiphany John 1.43-51 Consider what would make you go, on a friend’s say-so, to meet someone who has influenced him or her. Consider what it would take to make you move from ‘come and see’ to ‘follow me’. Consider how much more courage it takes to ‘follow’ …
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The First Sunday of Lent Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The First Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The First Sunday of Lent Mark 1.9-15 Contemplate how passive Jesus is in this description: he acquiesces to baptism; he hears the voice and accepts anointing; he goes where the Spirit sends him, and endures. He is obedient. Contemplate being with Jesus in this wilderness. Excha…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday of Lent Numbers 21.4–9 Ephesians 2.1–10 John 3.14–21 The serpent slithers its way through myth and legend, poetry and art. Too potent a symbol to be ignored, some cultures have worshipped it, while others have feared and loathed it. Freud said predictable things…
Revelation bible study guide - BABYLON'S JUDGMENT
Revelation bible study guide - BABYLON'S JUDGMENT
by SPCK - N T Wright
Babylon’s Judgment Revelation 18 We smelt it before we saw it: a sour, bitter stench which seemed to cling to the nostrils. We looked at one another and ran outside. There, about a mile away, but with a gentle wind carrying it in our direction, was a cloud of thick, gray-black sm…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday Before Advent Year A