Lectionary Reflections: Year B

by Jane Williams

Publisher:

SPCK

, 2005

Overview

Lectionary Reflections: Year B brings together Jane Williams’ widely read and much enjoyed Church Times columns on the lectionary. This volume offers Jane Williams’ reflections on the Sunday readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for Year B. Each section gives the lectionary references and provides a thought-provoking starting point for exploring the readings, drawing out points of connection between them.

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 to both individuals and groups for opening up the Bible and applying its rich teaching and stories.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Christianity is not, at its heart, about living a decent and moral life. It is about living the life we were created for, in tune with the God who made us.” (Page 88)

“God is the only source of life. If you pick flowers, they die. If you take people away from God, they die. It is not that this is a punishment, exactly; it is more that it is just a fact of life. So only branches grafted into the true vine can live and bear fruit. That is why this choice between being and doing is a false one. You are either alive with the life of God, the life in which there is no distinction between what God is and what he does, or you are not alive at all.” (Page 65)

“When Peter speaks the word ‘Messiah’, he thinks he is defining Jesus. But really Jesus, the creative Word of God, is taking our words and remaking them into a language that we can again share with God. The process is painful and costly, as all three readings agree, but vital. Unless we give our language back to God, and allow him to retranslate all our ideas, we will continue to move further and further away from the truth that sets us free to communicate in God’s language.” (Page 107)

“Jesus is not our example—we are no more capable of copying him than Jeremiah’s people were of keeping the covenant. In Jesus, God does both sides of the covenant—he makes the promise and faithfully keeps it on our behalf.” (Page 51)

“Many of us who hope and pray that we will never be called upon to suffer as he did on the cross can remember that he also suffered from hunger, weariness, stress and all the more common symptoms of embodied living.” (Page 91)

Praise for the Print Edition

The pieces here are intelligently written and useful for any preacher. . . . It is clear that Jane Williams is an engaging theologian.

—Kelvin Holdworth, Provost of St. Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, Scotland

Product Details

• Title: Lectionary Reflections: Year B
• Author: Jane Williams
• Publisher: SPCK
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 129

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.