Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 21 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 21 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 21 Esther 7.1-6, 9-10 James 5.13-20 Mark 9.38-50 The ancient world was full of stories in which the threatened hero or heroine is rescued at last, and the people who had almost overcome them are condemned instead. David kills Goliath. Homer’s heroes – some of them, anyway …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 20 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 20 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 20 Proverbs 31.10-31 James 3.13-4.3, 7-8a Mark 9.30-37 Fortunately, Jesus stopped the disciples in their tracks before they acted out James 4 as well as James 3. Envy and selfish ambition, yes; but covetousness had not yet led to murder. The internecine strife in Jerusalem…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 20 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 20 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 20 Jeremiah 8.18—9.1 1 Timothy 2.1–7 Luke 16.1–13 The first thing to get clear about the ‘parable of the wicked mammon’ is that it is precisely a parable. It is not advice about financial management: Jesus is not telling people to cheat their bosses. It makes sense within …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 22 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 22 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 22 Job 1.1; 2.1-10 Hebrews 1.1-4; 2.5-12 Mark 10.2-16 Angels are one thing; angels as God’s heavenly council, discussing policy, are another; ‘the Accuser’ (the word ‘Satan’ is a title before it is a proper name) as himself an angel, a celestial Director of Public Prosecut…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 21 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 21 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 21 Jeremiah 32.1–15 1 Timothy 6.6–19 Luke 16.19–end Among the many symbolic actions Jeremiah was commanded to perform, this one stands out as a sign, not of judgement, but of hope: hope for God’s restoration the other side of judgement. Resurrection hope, if you like. He i…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Ransomed by Grace
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Ransomed by Grace
by SPCK - N T Wright
Ransomed by Grace 1 Peter 1.10-21 John went into a junk-shop the other day, in a little town not far from here. He was looking for something in particular, and after wandering around for a while he thought he saw just the thing. It was a bowl, about eight inches across. Someone h…
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, …
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Publicy Vindicated
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Publicy Vindicated
by SPCK - N T Wright
Publicly Vindicated Acts 16.35-40 One of the most famous cases in ancient Roman law was the one brought by the young upstart barrister Cicero against the rich, aristocratic proconsul Gaius Verres. Verres, like many Roman aristocrats of his generation, had discovered how to play t…
Mark for Everyone - Questions about Fasting
Mark for Everyone - Questions about Fasting
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 2.18–22 Questions about Fasting... ...When I was a boy there was a craze for ginger-beer plants. An uncle gave us the starter kit, including the bacteria that, by a process I never understood, produced the secret ingredient that gave the homemade brew its f…
Luke for Everyone - Questions about Table-Company and Fasting
Luke for Everyone - Questions about Table-Company and Fasting
by SPCK - N T Wright
Questions about Table-Company and Fasting Luke 5.27-39 Technology advances so fast that most of us can’t keep up. If you buy a computer today, by tomorrow it will be getting out of date. Within a year or two you won’t be able to get spare parts for it. Teams of engineers are work…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Puffed Up or Powerful
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Puffed Up or Powerful
by SPCK - N T Wright
Puffed Up or Powerful 1 Corinthians 4.14-21 We all know the difference between talk and power. Imagine you are driving along a road, without worrying too much about how fast you’re going. All of a sudden a large car with flashing lights overtakes you and motions you to pull over.…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Prophecy Made Sure
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Prophecy Made Sure
by SPCK - N T Wright
Prophecy Made Sure 2 Peter 1.12-21 I am writing this in the middle of winter. First thing in the morning, when I get up, there is no sunlight visible at all. The sky is dark. But, if the clouds are not too thick, there is a light which from ancient times has been seen as an early…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 9 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 9 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 9 2 Kings 5.1–14 Galatians 6.1–16 Luke 10.1–11, 16–20 Going out like lambs amid wolves hardly makes sense in any culture. Only Jesus could propose something so apparently hare-brained yet strangely powerful. Only he, knowing himself to be utterly vulnerable, yet protected …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Restoration and Refreshment
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Restoration and Refreshment
by SPCK - N T Wright
Restoration and Refreshment Acts 3.17-26 I remember a hot, hot walk in the Scottish highlands. (It’s true: there are times, even at altitudes of 4,000 feet, when you can be just as hot in Scotland as anywhere in Europe.) We climbed Braeriach and Cairn Toul, the third and fourth h…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Riot in the Temple
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Riot in the Temple
by SPCK - N T Wright
Riot in the Temple Acts 21.27-36 On the news every day, as I write this, there is footage of American and British soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. Like many others, I was of the opinion that we were wrong to start what we did in that part of the world, and I haven’t changed that…
John for Everyone Part 1 - Rivers of Living Water
John for Everyone Part 1 - Rivers of Living Water
by SPCK - N T Wright
Rivers of Living Water John 7.31-39 ‘A pint of water every hour, and don’t forget!’ I was setting off into the desert, and my host was understandably anxious. Coming as I did from a cool and damp climate, I might easily forget how important it was to keep drinking plenty of water…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Rich and Poor at the Table of the Lord
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Rich and Poor at the Table of the Lord
by SPCK - N T Wright
Rich and Poor at the Table of the Lord 1 Corinthians 11.17-22 The school groundsman was working to get the sports field ready for the big match the next day. The same pitch had been used for both hockey and football, and he needed to be sure that it was now marked out afresh with…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Respecting Weak Consciences