Category Archives: lectionary reflection

Responding to a Sadducee

Resurrection is not “a conjuring trick with bones,”* nor is the resurrection a reality-tv show about the life of seven brothers and their unnamed widow-sister-wife Resurrection is not undone by the cynicism of the resurrected one blinking, bewildered in the … Continue reading

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Prayers, overheard

Each stood away from the other, his face turned anyway but there, no meeting of eyes for these two, let alone hearts, minds. One looked up to heaven, his prayer belying his blindness to the other, “Thank God I am … Continue reading

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The widow’s might

I might be tempted call her a nag, or a scold, or a hag, or worse. A woman I knew said, “My husband says I am an advocate for our child; but I know that’s not the word that the … Continue reading

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Your faith has saved you

There are those who believe that a world in which miracles happen is one in which we could not live without the unpredictability driving us insane. Others feel that a world without miracles is one in which we would not … Continue reading

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Year C Proper 22: opening thoughts

Whether the Psalm is spoken or sung or whispered behind closed doors, there is no softening that last line, with its vicious dreams of vengeance. We might be tempted to ask what it’s doing in our Bible, or at least … Continue reading

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Brought to you by:

I wish I could give you the details. I’m a little hazy on them myself. I can tell you that today was brought on entirely by prayer. It wasn’t the words, God knows, nor the miniscule, mustard-seed faith that wrote … Continue reading

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Year C Proper 20: Thick as thieves

An extract from tomorrow’s sermon: A man was incarcerated in a high security prison on the Isle of Wight, off the southern coast of England. Whilst there, he had fallen under the wings of one of the most notorious criminal … Continue reading

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Year C Proper 19: God’s unrelenting love

Does anyone think that the scribes and the Pharisees might be just a little bit jealous? For the past few weeks of story, Jesus has been at their house, eating at their tables, messing with their seating arrangements and telling … Continue reading

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Lost in the department store

Frantic, fleeting moments in the old department store, for each passing second a hundred possibilities; few of them good. Disembodied voices broadcast fear across the floors: “Have you seen this child? Wearing a blue coat with a hood.” Elevators, escalators, … Continue reading

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Psalm 14 (53)

Psalm 53 is included in today’s Daily Office readings. It is almost exactly the same as Psalm 14, which is included in this Sunday’s Revised Common Lectionary, except for the penultimate verse(s). The text of Psalm 14 is included below, … Continue reading

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