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Christian Resources Library
Readings January to March 2005
January
| February | March
2 January 2005
Second Sunday of Christmas
John 1. 10 - 18
In Jesus, vivid in what the Gospels tell of him, we see God in the
shape and setting of human life: we observe, imagine and we give thanks.
- Praise God for his gift of himself to us in the life of Jesus.
- Pray for grace to see, to learn and to follow
9 January 2005
Baptism of Christ
Acts10. 34 - 43
Peter makes a momentous move: Jesus' message and work were not confined
to Jews but were for people of every race and kind.
Psalm 29
We are given a poetic picture of God as powerful, as mischievous and
as involving his people in both his strength and his enjoyment.
Matthew 3. 13 - 17
In an act of humility, the baptism of Jesus makes clear who he is -
the chosen one of God who will fulfil his purposes.
- Pray to hold to the universal scope of our faith.
- Pray to share God's own delight in his creation.
- Reflect on the simple wonder of the role of Jesus on God's behalf.
16 January 2005
Second Sunday of Epiphany
1 Corinthains 1. 1 - 9
Paul makes clear his love for a Christian community that he had founded
and his high hopes for their spiritual growth.
Psalm 40. 1 - 12
The psalmist is amazed at God's goodness and dependability, through
thick and thin.
John 1. 29 - 42
The Baptist makes clear the unique role of Jesus, and the first followers
are called to join in the cause.
- Give thanks for the Christian Community's life in which we share.
- Pray to count your blessings - and be ready to be surprised.
- We glorify God for the unique gift of Jesus.
23 January 2005
Third Sunday of Epiphany
1 Corinthians 1.10 - 18
Hero?worship and squabbles in the congregation enfeeble Christian life,
and Paul hates it: his remedy rests on Jesus' death as the sole source
of power and alone worthy of loyalty.
Psalm 27.1, 5 - 13
God comes to us as 'light' and 'beauty'. We approach him always with
the highest expectations and he will not disappoint us.
Matthew 4.12 - 23
The evangelist picks up the words of hope from Isaiah, as he looks
to the spread of the good news; and he makes the point here, as the
story of Jesus' ministry begins. And immediately, he summons companion,
and the church is born
- Bickering usually makes for weakness, but in a Christian group it
is more, it is
a sure perversion of the gospel.
- Pray to share the psalmist's hope and excitement.
- We should reflect on the basic simplicity of Jesus' call and, we
trust, our response.
30 January
Second Sunday before Lent
Romans 8. 18 - 25
A brilliant and confident cry of hope in the destiny offered to us
and the world that God lives.
Psalm 136. 1 - 9, 23 - 26
A hymn of praise to God for all his gifts.
Matthew 6. 25 - 34
A hard message, lifting our spirits above the anxieties of everyday
life - simply because of God's over-arching love.
- Praise God for the world in which we are placed.
- Nothing is outside the range of God's generosity.
- Pray to overcome crippling anxiety.
6th February
Sunday next before Lent
Matthew 17.1 - 9
A strange story which points ahead to Jesus' resurrection glory but
also endorses him as in the succession to (and as greater than) Israel's
two greatest spokesmen for God, Moses and Elijah.
- We reflect on the unbreakable bond between God and ourselves, his
beloved
creation and his people.
- We thank God for giving himself so unstintingly in the person of
Jesus.
13 February
First Sunday of Lent
Romans 5. 12 - 19
The fuller truth is that God does not abandon us to our spoiled and
foolish selfishness. With Christ to stir us and Christ for us, we are
taken out of ourselves to a quite different level of life: it is God's
supreme free gift.
Psalm 32
God seeks to cure and heal us with the loving treatment of his forgiveness
which sets us on our way rejoicing
Matthew 4. 1 - 11
Jesus triumphs over the natural temptations of his mission and (unlike
Adam and Eve) is not turned away from what he must be and do.
- The fact that we are flawed must be humbly accepted if ever we are
to be healed.
- The healing comes from God: can we grasp it gladly?
- Temptations are often minor, but they can be symptoms of (and the
test of) where we really stand.
20 February
2nd Sunday of Lent
Romans 4.1 - 5, 13 - 17
As a Jew, Paul knew Abraham as the seed of God's good will to us. To
get that great boon out to the world at large, Paul seized on Abraham's
faith and trust in God as the key: it is all that God requires of any
of us.
Psalm 121
We long for the watchful protection of God, as did the Jews of old.
In whatever way that protection comes to us, God our guardian is trustworthy
- and perhaps surprising.
John 3.1 - 17
The final verses give the other side (God's side) of the coin from
Paul: we trust, but first God gives, without stint or reserve, out of
sheer love.
- Can our natural pride accept that God needs only trust, and not,
for example, that we earn salvation by our perhaps rather threadbare virtue?
- Pray that we may know God's loving of the world in and through Jesus.
- Reflect that being accepted by God - receiving the gift - is the
heart of our great good.
27th February
3rd Sunday of Lent
Roman 5. 1 - 11
Paul never ceases to be amazed at God's love for us -- creatures of
his who, in sober fact, merit nothing from him at all.
Psalm 95
This psalm is a call to worship and reminds us of the sheer majesty
of God before whom we are humbled.
John 4. 5 - 42
John presents Jesus under two images, and he 'plays' with both. Jesus
is the giver of the 'water' (baptism?) that alone can slake our real
thirst; and he is the 'place' (church?) where God is most truly worshipped.
- We pray - to keep to the faith that God's love is beyond all we
have a right to expect.
- Pray that worship may be the heart and power of our Christian life.
- Jesus fulfils all our good and godly hopes, whatever shape we give
to them.
6 March
4th Sunday of Lent (Mothering Sunday)
Luke 2. 33 - 35
Simeon foresees the coming suffering of Jesus - and the ordeal of Mary.
So the end of the Gospel story is in view throughout Jesus' ministry
- Pray that our eyes may remain on the goal that God sets before us.
- Pray for grace to share Mary's pain and suffering for the ultimate
good of us all.
13 March
5th Sunday of Lent
Romans 8. 6 - 11
God's spirit is his life-giving power it exemplifies his central, all-embracing
character. Those who receive him will have true 'life' like the dry
bones: the vision comes true.
Psalm 130
The psalm is a cry of anguish from a deeply troubled worshipper who
needs, and trusts in the ultimate rescue by God, in salvation and forgiveness.
John 11. 1 - 45
The raising of Lazarus is Jesus' greatest' sign' told in this Gospel.
It shows us his life-giving power - and his sisters rightly come to
faith.
- Consider what true 'life' really means; and what 'the world' would
like it to mean.
- We believe that such life is God's gift, available for us.
- Life out of death is the gift at its most dramatic: what might it
mean to us, even now?
20 March
Palm Sunday
Philippians 2. 5 - 11
We should probably read this passage as an early Christian hymn, summing
up (rather like a kind of creed) the career of Christ: from God's highest
place of esteem and dignity to the degradation of death by crucifixion,
and then to glorious vindication.
Psalm 31. 9 - 16
The psalm is a cry of anguish by one who suffers in isolation, even
from those around him. Yet there remains trust in God.
Matthew 26. 14 - 27. 66
Matthew tells the familiar story of Jesus' arrest, trial and death,
much as the earlier Gospel of Mark had done; but adding his own vivid
touches, like Pilate washing his hands and leaving all responsibility
to the Jewish authorities, and then Judas' suicide out of remorse.
- That suffering can be beneficial and the only route to some great
benefits is a hard pill for us to swallow. Here we see the principle at work on
the grandest of scales.
- We wonder at the sweep of Christ's self-humbling and rejoice at
his vindication.
- We should identify in imagination with characters in the story --
and make what we can of ourselves.
27 March
Easter Day
Colossians 3. 1 - 4
To become a Christian is to enter a whole new sphere of life, with
Christ as its principle, indeed its true setting. This is the real fruit
of Easter.
Psalm 118. 1 - 2, 14 - 24
It is a psalm to set the bells ringing and the trumpets sounding: words
of pure joy, for the great day is here.
Matthew 28. 1 - 10
The women discover the tomb empty and report their finding - with joy
and fear both fitting reactions to the wonder of the day.
- To contemplate the story of Jesus is itself an act of thanksgiving
to God.
- We pray not to forget the revolution that being a Christian must
mean for us.
- Each of us should identify and cherish the events and experiences
that clinch Christian faith for us.
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