N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Last Sunday after Trinity Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Last Sunday After Trinity Deuteronomy 34.1–12 1 Thessalonians 2.1–8 Matthew 22.34–46 Like a bored videotape-watcher, the lectionary suddenly presses the fast-forward button, skipping three-fifths of the Pentateuch and stopping only just in time for the death of the hero. Mose…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday Before Advent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday Before Advent Zephaniah 1.7, 12–18 1 Thessalonians 5.1–11 Matthew 25.14–30 This parable gave ‘talent’ a new meaning, so common that we don’t realize how far we have domesticated a warning about more serious matters than developing one’s personal potential and sk…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 24 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 24 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Ordinary Time - Proper 24 Exodus 33.12–23 1 Thessalonians 1.1–10 Matthew 22.15–22 The multiple echoes of Exodus 33 bounce around the New Testament. The first letter to the Thessalonians, held by many to be the first surviving Christian writing, offers another reminder that the go…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 22 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 22 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Ordinary Time - Proper 22 Exodus 20.1–4, 7–9, 12–20 Philippians 3.4b–14 Matthew 21.33–46 The parable of the wicked tenants tells the story of Israel in such a way as to highlight Jesus’ own work and fate as the plot’s denouement. But, as with many parables, and many great non-bib…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 18 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 18 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 18 Exodus 12.1–14 Romans 13.8–14 Matthew 18.15–20 Jesus’ followers are to struggle to live by the law of reconciliation. It’s always a struggle, but it’s always a law. Some say, of course, that Jesus couldn’t have spoken, as …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 16 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 16 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 16 Exodus 1.8—2.10 Romans 12.1–8 Matthew 16.13–20 How do slaves get free? By living the present in the light of the future. The midwives, and Moses’ mother, act out of defiant hope. Moses, destined to lead Israel through the …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 15 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 15 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 15 Genesis 45.1–15 Romans 11.1–2a, 29–32 Matthew 15.10–28 Look at the word God in Genesis 45. All these years later, with plenty of free time to ponder his brothers’ evil deeds and build up resentment, what comes out of Jos…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 11 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 11 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 11 Genesis 28.10–19a Romans 8.12–25 Matthew 13.24–30, 36–43 To get the full flavour of the Pauline passage, hold in your mind the story of the children of Israel on their way through the wilderness, having left Egypt but not …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 9 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 9 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 9 Genesis 24.34–38, 42–49, 58–67 Romans 7.15–25a Matthew 11.16–19, 25–30 An American sent me a strange book the other day. Jesus, he argued, was an alcoholic. Roused from his drunkenness by the preaching of John the Baptist, …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 7 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 7 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 7 Genesis 21.8–21 Romans 6.1b–11 Matthew 10.24–39 The prince of peace comes with a sword. To that theological oxymoron we must add the sad, and still tragic, story of Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael. Go down into the Genesis story…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 6 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 6 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 6 Genesis 18.1–15 Romans 5.1–8 Matthew 9.35—10.8 [9–23] Take the gospel reading (the longer version) and lay it, like a template, over the life of the average parish. What do you find? I know, I know. We don’t live in the fir…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 5 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 5 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 5 Genesis 12.1–9 Romans 4.13–25 Matthew 9.9–13, 18–26 Abraham’s call (Abram, actually, at this stage; but just as we say the Archbishop was born in 1935, even though he wasn’t Archbishop then, so we don’t need to fuss about g…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 4 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 4 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 4 Genesis 6.9–22; 7.24; 8.14–19 Romans 1.16–17; 3.22b–28 [29–31] Matthew 7.21–29 ‘These words of mine.’ No wonder they thought Jesus was claiming an authority of his own, superior to that of the scribes. They would never have…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fourth Before Advent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fourth Before Advent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday Before Advent Micah 3.5–12 1 Thessalonians 2.9–13 Matthew 24.1–14 Those of us who earn our living by speaking and writing about the Bible sometimes feel nervous in the presence of Micah and Paul. There is the apostle, doing his day job making tents, debating wit…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Christ the King Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Christ the King Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
First Sunday Before Advent - Christ the King Ezekiel 34.11–16, 20–24 Ephesians 1.15–23 Matthew 25.31–46 ‘I will be their shepherd,’ declares God to exiled Israel. ‘I will be their God,’ he says a bit later, ‘and David my servant shall be their shepherd.’ All right, we reply to Ez…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Pentecost Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Pentecost Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Day of Pentecost - Year A Numbers 11.24–30 Acts 2.1–21 John 7.37–39 Jesus, quoting Scripture, says that rivers of living water will flow out of the believer’s heart. But no Old Testament text says exactly that. Which Scripture is he referring to, then? Isaiah 55, of course, i…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A