2 Corinthians - Paul's Companions Are on Their Way
2 Corinthians - Paul's Companions Are on Their Way
by SPCK - N T Wright
Paul’s Companions Are on Their Way 2 CORINTHIANS 8.16-24 The smart white van pulled up outside the college one afternoon, and two men got out. Three or four students were in the common room, watching television. The men, wearing white coats like technicians, walked into the colle…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Paul's Joy and Crown
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Paul's Joy and Crown
by SPCK - N T Wright
Paul’s Joy and Crown Thessalonians 2.17-20 There were tear-jerking scenes on the television last night. Twin baby girls had been adopted by a couple from another country, who had found the children being advertised for adoption over the Internet. But another couple, from the chil…
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…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Peace and Hope
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Peace and Hope
by SPCK - N T Wright
Peace and Hope ROMANS 5.1-5 I recently heard of a famous comedian who had been a familiar figure on radio and television for many years. His quick wit and endless supply of jokes guaranteed him a big audience. But when he died, the published obituaries told a darker story as well…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - People of the Lie
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - People of the Lie
by SPCK - N T Wright
People of the Lie 1 John 2. 15-29 The late psychotherapist M. Scott Peck once wrote a book called People of the Lie. It wasn’t, perhaps, as famous as his remarkable (though still controversial) book The Road Less Travelled, but I found it more thought-provoking. In People of the …
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul. You're Mad
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul. You're Mad
by SPCK - N T Wright
“Paul, You’re Mad”Acts 26.24-32 I was once lecturing to a group of students in Oxford. We were just getting to the point at the centre of the lecture – I think it was dealing with Romans 8.3 – where I wanted to explain as clearly as I could the full Pauline meaning of the death…
The Pastoral Letters - Pay Attention to Yourself and Your Teaching
The Pastoral Letters - Pay Attention to Yourself and Your Teaching
by SPCK - N T Wright
Pay Attention to Yourself and Your Teaching 1Timothy 4.11-16 I listened as the great scientist brought his lecture to its climax. He had ranged across the universe, explored tiny life forms on the one hand and vast tracts of intergalactic space on the other. He had spoken of the …
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Paul's Words of Blessing
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Paul's Words of Blessing
by SPCK - N T Wright
Paul’s Words of Blessing Thessalonians 3.11-13 Prayer and music have always gone together in the Christian church, and another musical illustration may help us find ways of making Paul’s prayers our own. When children begin to learn a musical instrument, or to sing, the teacher o…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 1 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 1 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 1 - Year A Isaiah 58.1–12 1 Corinthians 2.1–16 Matthew 5.13–20 Isaiah’s stinging rebuke contains the seeds of the Sermon on the Mount. True piety must be part of the outward movement to share your blessing with the world. Fasting is useless if injustice goes unchecked. L…
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 12 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 12 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 12 Genesis 29.15–28 Romans 8.26–39 Matthew 13.31–33, 44–52 ‘All things work together for good to those who love God.’ Probably not the first thought that sprang to Jacob’s mind the morning after his wedding, on discovering ho…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 1 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 1 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 1 Isaiah 6.1–13 1 Corinthians 15.1–11 Luke 5.1–11 ‘The holy seed is its stump.’ Isaiah’s vision in the Temple leaves him with a dreadful commission, to inform God’s people of inevitable exile. The nation will be like a tree felled and burnt. But when the worst has occurred…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 10 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 10 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 10 Amos 7.7–17 Colossians 1.1–14 Luke 10.25–37 If you like word-development, you’ll love Samaritans. Start with a geographical designation: people who live in the hill country, between Galilee and Judaea. Develop to discrimination: the pre-exilic Judaeans speaking of their…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 12 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 12 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 12 Hosea 1.2–10 Colossians 2.6–19 Luke 11.1–13 Part of the prophetic vocation seems to have been to carry the pain of the message in one’s own soul. Thus it was, at least, with Hosea. Married to a prostitute, he felt not only the pain of Israel but also the pain of God, …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 12 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 12 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 12 Hosea 1.2–10 Colossians 2.6–19 Luke 11.1–13 Part of the prophetic vocation seems to have been to carry the pain of the message in one’s own soul. Thus it was, at least, with Hosea. Married to a prostitute, he felt not only the pain of Israel but also the pain of God, se…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 2 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 2 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 2 - Year A Deuteronomy 30.15–20 1 Corinthians 3.1–9 Matthew 5.21–37 A real choice with real consequences. The great temptation today is not so much to cast off all moral restraint – few would actually advocate that, though many act from time to time as though that were the…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 22 Year A