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Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Other Parables
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Other Parables
by
Other Parables Matthew 13.44-53 I went last week to the final concert in a great music festival. The hall (a cathedral, actually) was packed to overflowing. It was a fine summer evening, and everyone had come determined to enjoy themselves. The two main pieces of music that were …
John for Everyone Part 1 - Adultery and Hypocrisy
John for Everyone Part 1 - Adultery and Hypocrisy
by SPCK - N T Wright
Adultery and Hypocrisy John 7.53-8.11 Two women were brought before the young king. They were prostitutes, and shared a house. Both had given birth, but the son of one of them had died. Now both were claiming the living son as their own. How could anyone tell (in the days before …
Perpetual fashion, flowery prayers
Perpetual fashion, flowery prayers
by Andrew Pratt
Hymn: Perpetual fashion, flowery prayers Proper 26 Year A Matthew 23:1-12 Perpetual fashion, flowery prayers, a show to make you blink, the Scribes and Pharisees sought praise, and that should make us think. Hypocrisy had been condemned, Christ saw another way, of humble service,…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - The Day of the Lord
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - The Day of the Lord
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Day of the Lord 2 Peter 3.1-10 The late Bishop Stephen Neill spent some time, early in his life, as a missionary teacher in India. Once he suspected that the class he was teaching had been cheating. The boys who were not so good at the subject had been copying from the work o…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Question about Elijah
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Question about Elijah
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Question about Elijah Matthew 17.9-13 The young student nervously approached the professor after the lecture. He’d been thinking for some while about doing graduate work after his degree, and this teacher’s lectures were the ones he’d most enjoyed. Could he perhaps have a bri…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Fulfilling the Law
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Fulfilling the Law
by SPCK - N T Wright
Fulfilling the Law Matthew 5.13-20 We all know what happens when a revolutionary party suddenly finds itself in power. It’s one thing to shout angrily from the sidelines, but quite another to form a government and run a country. All sorts of things have to be organized and dealt …
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - The Letter to the Churches
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - The Letter to the Churches
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Letter to the Churches Acts 15.22-35 Yet again in the news there is a story of a ‘leak’ from government sources. Official documents may say one thing, but someone whispering round the corner to a friendly journalist has said another. One minister denies that there is a proble…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Sign of Jonah
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Sign of Jonah
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Sign of Jonah Matthew 12.33-42 We all like to play at being amateur detectives. Every year another crop of novels appears, and sometimes plays and movies as well, in which a wicked deed has been performed and nobody can figure out who did it. Some of the greatest names in fic…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - On Judging Others
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - On Judging Others
by SPCK - N T Wright
On Judging Others Matthew 7.1-6 William Shakespeare based a whole play on the second verse of Matthew 7. Measure for Measure is classified as a ‘comedy’, and indeed everything works out very well in the end. But much of the play is dark and disturbing. Angelo, a noble but stern l…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Prelude to the Passion of Jesus
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Prelude to the Passion of Jesus
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
The Prelude to the Passion of Jesus Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is marked with a curiously ambiguous story, the so-called triumphal entry. On the way into the city, the people welcome him with honor, although their reference to “the coming kingdom [realm] of our ancestor David” (…
Mark for Everyone - Jesus and Beelzebul
Mark for Everyone - Jesus and Beelzebul
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 3.20–30 Jesus and Beelzebul... ...From the safety of my armchair, I watched the mass demonstration on the TV news. It started peacefully, at least on the surface. Banners and placards gave out a strong message, but the crowd seemed relaxed enough. The polic…
Mark for Everyone - Exorcism and Healings
Mark for Everyone - Exorcism and Healings
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 1.21–34 Exorcism and Healings... ...Not long ago there was a great disaster at sea. A tourist boat, loaded with cars and holidaymakers, had failed to shut its doors properly; the water began to pour in; the boat began to sink, and panic set in. People were …
Mark for Everyone - The Most Important Commandment
Mark for Everyone - The Most Important Commandment
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 12.28–34 The Most Important Commandment... ...If the house is on fire, what will you grab as you escape? Your children, of course, if they can’t walk themselves. Your wallet. Your computer. Your passport and personal documents. A precious photograph. The wr…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Parable of the Talents
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Parable of the Talents
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Parable of the Talents Matthew 25.14-30 As I write this, all over this country there are students – including one of my own children – who are taking examinations. In some cases these are not particularly serious. They will merely give the teachers and pupils a sense of how m…
Mark for Everyone - The Healing of the Demoniac
Mark for Everyone - The Healing of the Demoniac
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 5.1–20 The Healing of the Demoniac... ...The east side of the Sea of Galilee, rising steeply up to the Golan Heights, is still disputed territory, 2,000 years on from this story. For many years, it belonged to Syria; the Israelis took it in the war of 1967;…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Jesus and the Traditional Community
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Jesus and the Traditional Community
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Jesus and the Traditional Community (Mark 2: 1- 3:6) Four of the five stories that follow begin, as stories before them did, as stories of healings (paralytic; man with a withered hand), or calling disciples (Levi the toll collector), or events that occur on the Sabbath (plucking…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 5 Year B