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Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 13 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 13 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 13 Exodus 16. 2-4, 9-15 Ephesians 4. 1-16 John 6: 24-35 This is a very revealing set of questions and answers between Jesus and the people following him. It tells us a lot about what the people thought they were looking for in Jesus, and gives us one of Jesus’s own central…
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…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 16 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 16 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 16 Joshua 24. 1-2a,14-18 Ephesians 6. 10-20 John 6: 56-69 Peter’s tale: That’s about the only time I ever remember being sure that I’d got it right. Oh, I don’t mean that I had doubts about what came out of my mouth when I was preaching to people after the Lord had risen. …
The Living God - God and the darkness of faith
The Living God - God and the darkness of faith
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
An almighty God: power, compassion and suffering 3 God and the darkness of faith When I was young my family took vacations in County Donegal in the north-west of Ireland. We loved its beautiful beaches and rugged countryside. However, Atlantic rainstorms, sweeping in from the wes…
The Living God - Creator of heaven and earth
The Living God - Creator of heaven and earth
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Creator of heaven and earth 4 One of my favourite stories from the classical age concerns the Greek philosopher Aristippus (c. 435 –c. 356 bc), who found himself shipwrecked on the Aegean island of Rhodes. He had no idea where he was. Was this strange place uninhabited? Would he …
The Living God - Humanity as the bearer of the image of God
The Living God - Humanity as the bearer of the image of God
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Creator of heaven and earth 4 Humanity as the bearer of the image of God At least three ways of thinking about our identity, role and place in the greater scheme of things are opened up when we consider that we bear ‘the image of God’...
The Living God - God as a person: four insights
The Living God - God as a person: four insights
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
A personal God: love and faithfulness 2 God as a person: four insights Appreciating that God is personal is central to a right understanding of the creeds. Let’s look at four insights that will help us grasp this more fully. First, in speaking of God as a person we’re making it c…
Journeying With Mark Year B - Easter
Journeying With Mark Year B - Easter
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
6 Easter Exploring the text Probably one of the best-known features of Mark’s Gospel is its ending – or, depending on your perspective, its lack of ending. Unlike the other Gospels, the accounts of resurrection in Mark are sparse in the extreme. In Matthew an angel appears to Mar…
Journeying With Mark Year B - Christmas
Journeying With Mark Year B - Christmas
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
2 Christmas Exploring the text Mark’s Gospel provides slim pickings at Christmas time. Unlike the Gospels of Matthew and Luke it provides no run-up to the birth of Jesus and no account of the events surrounding his birth. It does not even, like John’s Gospel, provide a poetic int…
Journeying With Mark Year B - Passion - Holy Week
Journeying With Mark Year B - Passion - Holy Week
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
5 Passion – Holy Week Exploring the text The Revised Common Lectionary’s decision to intersperse Mark’s Gospel with John’s Gospel is nowhere more frustrating than in Holy Week. As we noted in the Introduction, Mark’s Gospel builds from the moment that John the Baptist bursts on t…
Journeying With Mark Year B - Lent
Journeying With Mark Year B - Lent
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
4 Lent Exploring the text During Lent we prepare ourselves for the Passion of Christ, looking forward to that time when Jesus’ suffering and death will bring redemption to the world. In Mark’s Gospel, we discover that we are not the only ones expecting Jesus’ death: Jesus too loo…
Journeying With Mark Year B - Advent
Journeying With Mark Year B - Advent
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
1 Advent Exploring the text The season of Advent is about waiting, both for the Jesus who came to earth as a baby and for the victorious, risen and ascended Christ who will return to earth as King. One of the challenges of Advent is to keep our vision fixed not only on the more t…
Journeying With Mark Year B - Epiphany
Journeying With Mark Year B - Epiphany
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
3 Epiphany Exploring the text In the season of Epiphany we celebrate the revelation of God in the world, and in particular his revelation to the Magi in Matthew’s Gospel. Yet again this idea seems to run counter to Mark’s Gospel, which appears on the surface to be more concerned …
the greatest prayer - Pray Then in This Way
the greatest prayer - Pray Then in This Way
by SPCK - John Dominic Crossan
1 Pray Then in This Way We do not know how to pray as we ought. Romans 8:26 There is a design team for airports whose special job is the location of public electricity outlets in passenger terminals. Their job is to make them…
PAUL AND THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD - A World Transformed, Not Abolished
PAUL AND THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD - A World Transformed, Not Abolished
by SPCK - N T Wright
Chapter TWO LIKE BIRDS HOVERING OVERHEAD: THE FAITHFULNESS OF THE GOD OF ISRAEL (iv) A World Transformed, Not Abolished What then was the hope of a first-century Pharisee? One obvious answer might be, ‘salvation’. But what might ‘salvation’ actually mean? A good deal of the secon…
PAUL AND THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD - The Climax of the Narrative