Lectionary Reflections by Jane Williams

[Guntis]

I see all three books are already published in one volume. Logos has them in ebook format. Actually they are often better than even "Twelve Months of Sundays" by N.T. Wright.

http://www.spckpublishing.co.uk/shop/lectionary-reflections-4/

 

Once you're at it, "Radiance of His Glory" also would be welcome complementary material.

http://www.spckpublishing.co.uk/shop/radiance-of-his-glory/

 

Both resources would be a great complementary material to the "Feasting on the Word" Revised Common Lectionary (12 volume set). I hope you'll get a permission to publish it.

http://www.wjkbooks.com/Products/CategoryCenter/BPR!FOW/feasting-on-the-word.aspx

[Guntis]

Bump

[Guntis]

Bump. "Lectionary Reflections Collection (3 vols.)" by Jane Williams. 

https://www.logos.com/product/41614/lectionary-reflections-collection 

I would be OK even with the Kindle e-book version, but there is no e-book format available. Logos probably have done it themselves. In my opinion the best lectionary reflections, from all what I've read. I have paperback edition, but Accordance format would be much better.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Guntis

[Guntis]

Bump.

[Guntis]

OK, one of my prayers and requests here has been (so unexpectedly!) answered. («Feasting on the Word» series). Now have to save money to buy it. :-)

[Daniel Francis]

Jane's books are wonderful:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proper 10

 

Deuteronomy 30:9–14

Colossians 1:1–14

Luke 10:25–37

 

 

Does God actually make things too easy for us? Do we keep looking around for the catch, trying to work out what we are missing, when really the truth is as simple as can be? Our human religious instincts tend to go in for a lot of ritual, membership requirements, secrecy and hierarchy, and churches don’t always look very different. But all three of today’s readings seem to suggest that God’s requirements are devastatingly simple.

Return to God, Deuteronomy says, simply, ‘turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul’ (30:10). No interpreters are needed to show how this is to be done; God is not far away. As they turn back to him, they will find already in themselves the knowledge of his commandments. Their part is one simple movement: turning to face God.

The lawyer who comes to Jesus wants a complicated answer to this question of how to choose God. He knows the simple answer, and he quotes it off pat. But surely that can’t be all? There must be more to it than that? He had hoped to come out of the encounter looking clever, but instead he is made to look stupid and, worse than stupid, unfaithful. If choosing God is that easy, what excuse has anyone got for not doing it? So he asks the question, wanting, we are told, ‘to justify himself’. He hopes Jesus will produce a long and elaborate formula, with lots of boxes to tick. The lawyer is quietly confident that there will be ticks in most of his boxes already, but he would like this to be public knowledge. In particular, he wants Jesus to know how good he is, and say, in an admiring voice, ‘Well done. Why can’t everyone be like you?’

Instead, Jesus’ answer is a story whose point is terrifyingly clear. Choosing God means choosing people. Choosing God means choosing anyone who needs you. No excuses. The lawyer does not pretend to misunderstand, but we never hear the end of his story. Writing the end of it is our part.

Deuteronomy and the good Samaritan make it all sound so very, very simple. But unfortunately we know it isn’t. We are all of us like the lawyer, looking for complicated ways to let ourselves off the hook, or like the people in Deuteronomy, who would like to say ‘It’s all too difficult, we need someone from heaven, or at least abroad, to explain it to us. It’s not our fault that we don’t know what to do.’ The temptation when faced with this blazing clarity is either to embroider beautiful and elaborate robes to cover it up, so we can’t see it too clearly, or just to give up in despair.

Luckily, we have the witness of many generations of people that making the choice is the vital thing. Choosing God, over and over again, however many times our other choices get in the way, is the best we can do. In Colossians, Paul writes with great warmth and generosity and trust to this community of imperfect people who have, despite their imperfections, chosen God. It must have been enormously encouraging for the Colossians to read that Paul knows about their care for each other, and that they are seen as a community where the gospel is alive and well and bearing fruit. It can’t always have felt like that on the inside.

But Paul is a very artful church planter. He knows the value of encouragement, but he isn’t going to let the Colossians get complacent, or think that their success is their own doing. First, he reminds them that they are part of a wider Christian community—Paul’s own prayers are part of what has kept them going, just as our prayers keep others going, and their prayers sustain us.

The prayer that Paul has for the Colossians is utterly comprehensive, and it is also the key for Luke’s lawyer and Deuteronomy’s bewildered people. We do not have to do this by ourselves. The strength that enables us to live rightly comes from God. God swings into action at the end of today’s reading, like Superman to the rescue. What a relief! God rescues us from the darkness, God chooses us, as we are, useless and sinful. This great choice that we thought we had to make, reaching out in our own strength, turning round with great effort to face him, is nothing of the kind. There is no journey to be made—he is here. There is no huge decision to take—we are already part of the kingdom of the Son. All we have to do is say ‘Thank you’. It really is that simple.

 

 

Jane Williams, Lectionary Reflections: Year C (London: SPCK, 2003), 90–91.

 

-Dan

[Guntis]

Just a reminder. 

7 years patiently waiting…