Tom Wright

The King is Proclaimed Philippians 1.12-18a One of the most dramatic stories anywhere in ancient literature is that of Joseph, the second youngest son of the patriarch Jacob. His father spoiled him rotten, and his older brothers were jealous. They wanted to kill him, then they de…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Paul's Reasons for Thanks

by SPCK - N T Wright

Paul’s Reasons for Thanks Philippians 1.1-11 . There is a wonderful old prayer attributed to the sixteenth century sailor Sir Francis Drake (1540–96).He prays that when God leads us to undertake any great piece of work, he will also remind us ‘that it is not the beginning, but th…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Prayer and Peace

by SPCK - N T Wright

Prayer and Peace Ephesians 6.18-24 Imagine an eagle with clipped wings. Imagine a great oceangoing liner stuck in the Sahara sands. Imagine a basketball player with his ankles tied together. Imagine a railway locomotive in a ploughed field. Now imagine an ambassador wearing chain…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - God's Complete Armour

by SPCK - N T Wright

God’s Complete Armour Ephesians 6.10-17 For some reason, almost whenever I write about passages like this one, dealing with spiritual warfare, I run into problems. One time a workman outside the house drove a nail through a main electricity cable, and I lost half an hour’s writin…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Children, Parents, Slaves and Masters

by SPCK - N T Wright

Children, Parents, Slaves and Masters Ephesians 6.1-9 My first experience of a building site was disillusioning. I was part of the work crew building a factory. (I did the job for four weeks during a university holiday.) Right from the start it became clear that, with only one ex…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Wives and Husbands

by SPCK - N T Wright

Wives and Husbands Ephesians 5.21-33 At the start of the twenty-first century, it has been remarked that it is harder than ever to be a boy. Today, in the supposedly civilized and sophisticated countries of the world, there is growing up a whole generation of young men who feel t…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Light and Darkness

by SPCK - N T Wright

Light and Darkness Ephesians 5.11-20 When I was studying for my undergraduate degree, which was in Classics, I had an idea for a special project. Keen as I was on music, I wanted to find out what sort of music people played and sang in the first century. I became quite excited ab…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Darkness and Light in Matters of Sex

by SPCK - N T Wright

Darkness and Light In Matters of Sex Ephesians 5.3-10 The poster in the college gateway had one large word in the middle of it: SEX. Underneath, in small print, it said, ‘Now you’re interested, how about joining the College Rowing Club?’ Whoever designed the poster wasn’t suggest…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - The Kindness that Imitates God Himself

by SPCK - N T Wright

The Kindness that Imitates God Himself Ephesians 4.25-5.2 The best-known literary figure in eighteenth-century England was Dr Samuel Johnson. A native of Lichfield in Staffordshire, he spent most of his adult life in London. He wrote many works, especially his famous Dictionary a…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Off with the Old, On with the New

by SPCK - N T Wright

Off with the Old, On with the New Ephesians 4.17-24 We couldn’t understand why the agency was being so unhelpful. We had answered the advertisement and were eager to rent the apartment that we had been offered. There were some minor problems, but nothing too difficult to sort out…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Grown-Up Christianity

by SPCK - N T Wright

Grown-Up Christianity Ephesians 4.11-16 ‘Don’t be a baby.’ The words were meant to hurt, and they did. But they had the desired effect. The schoolboy had been whimpering about somebody being mean to him. He was hoping that the teacher would come to his rescue. But he suddenly rea…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Live Up to Your Calling

by SPCK - N T Wright

Live Up to Your Calling Ephesians 4.1-10 If you buy a new car, what’s the first thing you do? Do you sit down for an hour and read through the manual, to make sure you know every little detail about it before you take to the road? Or do you at once get behind the wheel and go for…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - God's Love, God's Power - In Us

by SPCK - N T Wright

God’s Love, God’s Power – In Us Ephesians 3.14-21 Love and power, power and love: these are the themes of perhaps two-thirds of the novels, plays and poems ever written. The love of power has laid waste continents and empires. The power of love has driven weak people to do powerf…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Wisdom for the Rulers

by SPCK - N T Wright

Wisdom for the Rulers Ephesians 3.8-13 There was once a young prince whose distant uncle was king of a great empire. The prince was carefree and happy, neither very rich nor very poor. One day, a great disaster struck. The king, his uncle, was killed in an earthquake, and all the…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - God's Secret Plan Unveiled at Last

by SPCK - N T Wright

God’s Secret Plan Unveiled at Last Ephesians 3.1-7 Naomi had started a small dressmaking business. She had always been skilful with her hands, and had a good eye for colour and pattern. Now she realized she could turn these abilities to good use, not only to make clothes for hers…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Unveiling the New Temple

by SPCK - N T Wright

Unveiling the New Temple Ephesians 2.17-22 One of the greatest worldwide problems of our time is the plight of refugees and asylum-seekers. People in the West sometimes try to pretend that the world is now a civilized place where most people can go about their business in peace, …

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Two into One Will Go

by SPCK - N T Wright

Two into One Will Go Ephesians 2.11-16 We lived for four years by the banks of the Ottawa river, north-west of Montreal. It is a great river, already over 400 miles long by the time it passed our village. By the time it reached us it was over a mile wide. Not far downstream, howe…

Written
1 credit

Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Grace, not Works

by SPCK - N T Wright

Grace, not Works Ephesians 2.8-10 In the mid-1970s a country vet in a small town in northern England suddenly became world-famous. James Herriot, quite suddenly and in mid-life, wrote books that sold in huge quantities around the world. Herriot (whose real name was Alfred Wight) …

Advanced Search

How to use Advanced Search

Lectionary Search