Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Stay the Way You Were Called
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Stay the Way You Were Called
by SPCK - N T Wright
Stay the Way You Were Called 1 Corinthians 7.17-24 I once sat in an entranced audience as one of the leading comedians of the day told a very long, very funny, story. The story itself was clever, witty, and amusing in all sorts of ways; but what fascinated me was the way he would…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Speaking Clearly in Church
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Speaking Clearly in Church
by SPCK - N T Wright
Speaking Clearly in Church 1 Corinthians 14.6-12 Two days ago I went to a meeting where seven or eight different languages were used in quick succession. There was a large crowd being addressed, including people from many parts of the world. One by one the speakers got up and spo…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Standing Firm Against Opposition
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Standing Firm Against Opposition
by SPCK - N T Wright
Standing Firm Against Opposition Galatians 2.1-5 The anthropologist Nigel Barley wrote two famous (and often very funny) books, The Innocent Anthropologist and A Plague of Caterpillars, about the Dowayo tribe, with whom he lived for a while in a remote part of the African republi…
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Spiritual or Merely Human
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Spiritual or Merely Human
by SPCK - N T Wright
1 THE WISDOM OF THE SPIRIT SPIRITUAL OR MERELY HUMAN? 1 Corinthians 2: 14-3: 4 Once, during the ‘hippy’ era in the late 1960s, I sang and played my guitar in a folk club on the west side of Vancouver. I was there a week, and got to know some of the other regular performers quite …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Taking Root- and a Name!- in Antioch
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Taking Root- and a Name!- in Antioch
by SPCK - N T Wright
Taking Root - and a Name! - in Antioch Acts 1.19-30 The other day I had to go to Cambridge once more, just for a few hours. Looking for a particular shop, I walked up King’s Parade, and was reminded of someone once saying that if there’s anybody in the world you want to meet, you…
Mark for Everyone - Teachings on Divorce
Mark for Everyone - Teachings on Divorce
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 10.1–16 Teachings on Divorce... ...In Britain during the early 1990s, from time to time a journalist would telephone a bishop or theologian to ask about divorce. It happened to me once. It’s a question every church, every member of the clergy, has to think …
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Suffering as the Messiah Did
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Suffering as the Messiah Did
by SPCK - N T Wright
Suffering as the Messiah Did 1 Peter 2.18-25 Not long ago, at the height of a snowstorm, our house, and two nearby villages as well, were without electric power for fourteen hours. Our heating system is controlled by electricity, so the house became very cold. We could burn logs …
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Suffering for Doing Right
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Suffering for Doing Right
by SPCK - N T Wright
Suffering for Doing Right 1 Peter 3.17-22 The older I get, the more I dislike things which need to be put together, after you buy them, by following complicated instructions and diagrams. Part of my dislike is my sense that I will probably get it wrong, force something where it w…
Hebrews for Everyone - Suffering in Hope
Hebrews for Everyone - Suffering in Hope
by SPCK - N T Wright
Suffering in Hope Hebrews 10.32-39 He had watched and prayed and warned the people of what would happen if they didn’t turn away from their evil ways. He had hoped that some at least would listen, and that the nation as a whole would gradually be brought round to hear and obey. H…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Taming the Tongue
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Taming the Tongue
by SPCK - N T Wright
Taming the Tongue James 3.1-12 Some while ago I was asked to give a talk about my early life and why I had chosen the path I did. I was surprised, when preparing the talk, to discover how many of the key moments in my first fifteen years were to do with my teachers. Like many oth…
2 Corinthians - Super Apostles?
2 Corinthians - Super Apostles?
by SPCK - N T Wright
Super-Apostles 2 CORINTHIANS 11.1-6 Many movies have as a stock theme the marriage service that goes wrong at the last minute. The famous 1960s movie, The Graduate, ended up with the hero dashing into the church where his true love was about to marry someone else, and snatching h…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Birth of Jesus
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Birth of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Birth of Jesus Matthew 1.18-25 One of the most memorable movies I have seen is the film of Charles Dickens’s novel Little Dorrit. It is actually two films, both very long. The two films don’t follow in sequence, telling the first and second halves of the story; instead, each …
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Beatitudes
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Beatitudes
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Beatitudes Matthew 5.1-12 Many years ago there was a dramatic movie about the first test pilots to break the sound barrier. No plane had ever flown faster than the speed of sound. Many people didn’t believe it was possible. Some thought the plane would disintegrate under the …
Luke for Everyone - The Boy Jesus
Luke for Everyone - The Boy Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Boy Jesus Luke 2.41-52 When I was a child, I walked a mile to the bus stop every morning, by myself or with my sister. At the other end of the trip, I walked by myself to school. In the evening, I came back the same way. I never felt unsafe, even in the dark winter days. Now,…
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Blind Man's Parents
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Blind Man's Parents
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Blind Man’s Parents John 9.13-23 John for Everyone The street lights weren’t working properly that night as my friend walked home late from work. As he took the short cut through the alleyway towards his own street, it was almost pitch dark. He knew the path well enough and w…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Beginnings of the Birth Pangs
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Beginnings of the Birth Pangs
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Beginnings of the Birth Pangs Matthew 24.1-14 We went together to see the doctor, one rainy day in the autumn. We were excited but also very apprehensive. We had a sense of going down a road we’d often heard about but had never quite believed we would travel ourselves. He tal…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Big Picture in Shorthand: Adam and the Messiah
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Big Picture in Shorthand: Adam and the Messiah
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Big Picture in Shorthand: Adam and the Messiah ROMANS 5.12-17 The sculptor was pleased with his work. It was a fine statue, and it looked good in the town square. The subject had lived in the little seaport all his life, and had become well known through organizing the coastg…
2 Corinthians - The Boasting of a Reluctant Fool