Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fourth Sunday of Lent John 3.14-21 Gaze on a dark cellar. You have been trapped inside for ages. It is pitch black in there and there is no switch or bulb hanging overhead to light up your prison. You stumble about feeling the walls, desperate to find a door, or some way out …
Revelation for Everyone - Babylon's Judgement
Revelation for Everyone - Babylon's Judgement
by SPCK - N T Wright
Babylon’s Judgement Revelation 18.9-24 We smelt it before we saw it: a sour, bitter stench which seemed to cling to the nostrils. We looked at one another and ran outside. There, about a mile away, but with a gentle wind carrying it in our direction, was a cloud of thick, grey-bl…
Revelation for Everyone - Babylon the Great
Revelation for Everyone - Babylon the Great
by SPCK - N T Wright
Babylon the Great Revelation 17.1-8 They are brought in vans, they are brought in cars with blackened windows, they are brought across the sea, either captured by force or lured with the promise of a better life. They arrive in countries of the West, knowing no one except their c…
Revelation for Everyone - Babylon's Plagues
Revelation for Everyone - Babylon's Plagues
by SPCK - N T Wright
Babylon’s Plagues Revelation 18.1-8 One of the constant problems in a small country like mine is the challenge of where everyone is going to live. Despite government regulations which, in theory, protect what is called ‘green belt’, one hears almost every day of this developer, t…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Back to Peter
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Back to Peter
by SPCK - N T Wright
Back to Peter Acts 9.32-42 ‘When I look out of the window from where I am sitting, I have two quite different types of view. If I stretch my eyes and look through the trees (it is still spring, and the leaves have not yet blocked the view) I can see the ruined castle, standing on…
Hebrews for Everyone - Better Ministry, Better Covenant
Hebrews for Everyone - Better Ministry, Better Covenant
by SPCK - N T Wright
Better Ministry, Better Covenant Hebrews 8.1-6 When my sons were little, we gave them a game they could play at home. It was a type of football; except that you played it on a table top, with plastic figures an inch or two high. You had to flick them with your finger, so that the…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Bearing One Another's Burdens
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Bearing One Another's Burdens
by SPCK - N T Wright
Bearing One Another’s Burdens Galatians 6.1-5 I was reading the autobiography of a world-famous cricketer. He described how for his first ten years in the game the team he played for never succeeded in winning a major trophy. They had star players, many of them of much better qua…
Revelation bible study guide - BABYLON'S JUDGMENT
Revelation bible study guide - BABYLON'S JUDGMENT
by SPCK - N T Wright
Babylon’s Judgment Revelation 18 We smelt it before we saw it: a sour, bitter stench which seemed to cling to the nostrils. We looked at one another and ran outside. There, about a mile away, but with a gentle wind carrying it in our direction, was a cloud of thick, gray-black sm…
John for Everyone Part 1 - Before Abraham, "I Am"
John for Everyone Part 1 - Before Abraham, "I Am"
by SPCK - N T Wright
Before Abraham, “I Am” John 8.48-59 Abraham lived roughly as long before Jesus as Jesus did before us. Speaking of them as in any sense contemporaries conjures up images of time travel, such as has been made famous in the world of science fiction since at least H. G. Wells and Ju…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday Before Advent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday Before Advent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday Before Advent Wisdom of Solomon 6.12–16 1 Thessalonians 4.13–18 Matthew 25.1–13 You should only treat yourself to Wisdom of Solomon ch. 6 if you are prepared to live with the rest. The righteous and wise are persecuted and killed by the wicked and foolish; but Go…
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 - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday Before Lent - Year A Genesis 1.1—2.3 Romans 8.18–25 Matthew 6.25–34 The project was all set up and ready to go. Creation was more like a perfect studio than a finished painting; everything was there, paints, canvas, artist, and all. It had its own inbuilt rhythm…
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…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 3 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 3 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 3 Mark 2.1-12 Gaze on the man lying on the stretcher. He is beyond taking any action on his own behalf. He is so paralysed and weak that he has lost all control over his choices. Gaze on his stiff and useless limbs. Gaze on the hope deep in his eyes. Perhaps he has been …
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - A Defence of Hope
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - A Defence of Hope
by SPCK - N T Wright
A Defence of the Hope Acts 24.10-21 I am still fascinated by kaleidoscopes. I love watching the shapes as they move around and form themselves into different patterns. They were quite basic when I was a boy, and now that I’m grown up and not supposed to like toys any more I often…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - A Light to the Gentiles
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - A Light to the Gentiles
by SPCK - N T Wright
A Light to the Gentiles Acts 13.44-52 Everyone who works with words – the poet, the journalist, the philosopher, the translator, the theologian – knows it all too well. We use a word one day and it seems perfectly all right. It does the job. The next day we are told it now means …
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - A Huge Row
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - A Huge Row
by SPCK - N T Wright
A Huge Row Acts 15.36-41 There is no point beating about the bush with this one. There are times in church work when leaders, including bishops, really want to knock two people’s heads together and tell them not to be so pig-brained (though actually most pigs wouldn’t dream of be…
Mark for Everyone - A Deaf and Mute Man Is Healed