Acts for Everyone part 1 - Here Comes the Sequel
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Here Comes the Sequel
by SPCK - N T Wright
Here Comes the Sequel!Acts 1.1-5 The English playwright Alan Bennett wrote a famous play about the equally famous madness of a well-known king. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, England had four kings in succession all called ‘George’, and the third of them – George I…
Mark for Everyone - Herod and John the Baptist
Mark for Everyone - Herod and John the Baptist
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 6.17–29 Herod and John the Baptist... ...What sells newspapers? Three things, and if they’re combined, so much the better. Royalty: almost any story about a member of a royal family will sell, not only in Britain or Norway or wherever it began, but around t…
Mark for Everyone - Jesus' Baptism
Mark for Everyone - Jesus' Baptism
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 1.9–13 Jesus’ Baptism... ...A famous movie-maker had a huge legal wrangle with his long- time mentor and guide. The younger man simply couldn’t handle criticism, and ended up rejecting the person who had helped him so much. When it was all over, a close fri…
Luke for Everyone - Jesus' Baptism and Genealogy
Luke for Everyone - Jesus' Baptism and Genealogy
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus’ Baptism and Genealogy Luke 3.21-38 When I visited New Zealand some years ago, I was taught how to greet an audience in the traditional Maori fashion. I much enjoyed and appreciated the welcome I was given by this ancient people, many of whom are now devout Christians, and …
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus' Baptism
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus' Baptism
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus’ Baptism Matthew 3.11-17 It’s safe to say that John was as surprised as we are. Or at least, as we should be if we read this passage without knowing what’s coming. To get the flavour, imagine that we are going to a huge concert hall, packed to the doors with eager and excit…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Leaving the State of Sin through Baptism
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Leaving the State of Sin through Baptism
by SPCK - N T Wright
Leaving the State of Sin through Baptism ROMANS 6.1-5 Everybody knows Jesus’ spectacular story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15.11–32). The younger son twists his father’s arm for his share of the property, goes off and spends it all, and comes home, he thinks, in utter disgrace. The…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Philip and the Ethiopian
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Philip and the Ethiopian
by SPCK - N T Wright
Philip and the Ethiopian Acts 8.26-40 I was once visiting Cambridge (the English Cambridge, not the American one) to do some lectures. One afternoon I was working on the themes for the lectures still to come, when I found to my surprise an urgent thought in my head: Go to Evenson…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Prayer, Sonship and the Sovereignty of God
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Prayer, Sonship and the Sovereignty of God
by SPCK - N T Wright
Prayer, Sonship and the Sovereignty of God ROMANS 8.26-30 How many names can you think of for God? It may sound an odd question. God’s proper name in the Old Testament is of course YHWH; but he is referred to in a great many other ways as well, such as ‘the Almighty’, the Holy On…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Temptation in the Wilderness
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Temptation in the Wilderness
by SPCK - N T Wright
Temptation in the Wilderness Matthew 4.1-11 Jennifer went for a long walk in the woods. It had been an exhausting six months, and she needed time to think. She had concentrated on the campaign. Ever since her local party had told her, to her surprise, that they wanted her to be t…
Luke for Everyone - Temptation in the Wilderness
Luke for Everyone - Temptation in the Wilderness
by SPCK - N T Wright
Temptation in the Wilderness Luke 4.1-13 Jesus was not Superman. Many today, including some devout Christians, see him as a kind of Christian version of the movie character, able to do whatever he wanted, to ‘zap’ reality into any shape he liked. In the movies, Superman looks lik…
Mark for Everyone - Teachings on the Sabbath
Mark for Everyone - Teachings on the Sabbath
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 2.23–28 Teachings on the Sabbath... ...The twentieth century saw a great deal of secret police activity. The KGB in the Soviet Union, and the Stasi in East Germany, were legends in their own lifetime during the Communist period. Several countries in Central…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - The First Exodus
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - The First Exodus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First Exodus 1 Corinthians 10.1-5 As you drive on the main road through central Northumberland, between Newcastle upon Tyne and the Scottish border, you see frequent signs saying things like ‘150 Accidents Last Year On This Road,’ and ‘Number of Speeding Fines Last Month: 37’…
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Lamb and the Spirit
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Lamb and the Spirit
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Lamb and the Spirit John 1.29-34 ‘What I want to know is – what’s that sheep doing there?’ The student had been sick for several days, and I went to visit him. He was in his first year at university, and the whole world of cultural and intellectual enquiry was opening up in f…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Preaching of John the Baptist
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Preaching of John the Baptist
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Preaching of John the Baptist Matthew 3.1-10 The road, the water, the fire and the axe. Four powerful symbols set the scene for where the story of Jesus really starts. Think first of a police motorcade sweeping through a city street. First there appear motorcycles with flashi…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Servant
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Servant
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Servant Matthew 12.15-21 The bishop sat at his desk and put his head in his hands. Another three letters had just arrived complaining at the way in which a particular parish had changed its style of music. The director of finance had just reported that unless people in the di…
Mark for Everyone - The Transfiguration
Mark for Everyone - The Transfiguration
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 9.2–13 The Transfiguration... ...Science teachers never tire, so I’m told, of the moment when a child first looks into a microscope. What up until then had seemed a boring little speck of dirt can suddenly become full of pattern, colour and interest. The ch…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Epiphany Nehemiah 8.1–3, 5–6, 8–10 1 Corinthians 12.12–31a Luke 4.14–21 Read the text, and give the sense. Both matter. The first is given, there on the page. The second is risky, a matter of prayer and the Spirit, a deep breath and taking the plunge. History …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday in Lent Year C