Lectionary Reflections: Year C

by Jane Williams

Publisher:

SPCK

, 2003

Overview

Lectionary Reflections: Year C features meditations on the Common Worship readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for Year C. Compiled from Jane Williams' much enjoyed Church Times columns, they include Sundays together with the Feasts of Christmas and the Epiphany. Each section gives the lectionary references and provides a thought-provoking starting point for exploring the readings, drawing out points of connection between them. The focus of the writing is spirituality, depicting the different perspectives on the texts from N. T. Wright and his biblical criticism slant.

Intelligently written in an engaging and inspiring style, Lectionary Reflections will prove invaluable in preparation for Sunday worship or for regular Bible study throughout the year. It will be of use both to individuals and groups for opening up the bible and applying its rich teaching and stories.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Peter had every reason to believe that that was how his relationship with Jesus would end.” (Page 59)

“Learning the plot, so that you can be part of it—that is true discernment.” (Page 101)

“It is God’s willingness to be homeless to bring us home that we celebrate at Christmas, and that we spend Advent trying to imagine and prepare ourselves for. But the passage from Luke, like Zephaniah, warns us that dispossession is the only preparation for possession. In today’s passage from Luke, John the Baptist is warning his hearers, in no uncertain terms, that they have placed their faith in the wrong things. They are trusting to the fact that they are Abraham’s children to get them into God’s home. Or, even more insidiously, they have actually demonstrated that their security lies in having two coats, more than enough food and money, the strength to make others do what you want them to. They have clearly made their ‘home’ here, where they are comfortable and secure.” (Page 7)

“This, like 1 Corinthians 15, is a passage about where you put your trust. Those who have nothing else in life to trust in, and so have to fall back on God, are the ones who are blessed, Luke tells us. The rest of us have had our blessing from what we chose to put our trust in.” (Page 35)

“Whatever it is, they are told to turn their emotion in two directions—they are to remember to feed the poor, and they are to worship God.” (Page 27)

Praise for the Print Edition

If God really is loving and teasing and forgiving, like he is in the stories Jesus tells, then we all have a chance.

—Jane Williams

Product Details

• Title: Lectionary Reflections: Year C
• Author: Jane Williams
• Publisher: SPCK Publishing
• Publication Date: 2003
• Pages: 144

About Jane Williams

Hilary Jane Williams (née Paul) is a Christian theologian and writer. Williams was born in Trivandrum, India, one of five sisters. Her father, the Right Reverend Geoffrey Paul, former Bishop of Bradford, was then serving as a missionary priest at Palayamkottai and later Kerala. Her father was a member of the faculty and later became the principal of the Kerala United Theological Seminary at Kannammoola, where she spent part of her childhood.