Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 14 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 14 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 14 2 Samuel 18.5-9, 31-33 Ephesians 4.25-5.2 John 6.35, 41-51 Come, believe, and eat. Simple yet profound, carrying us with characteristic Johannine effortlessness from bread by the lake to the bread of life. The bridge between them is Jesus himself, who will give his fles…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 15 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 15 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 15 1 Kings 2.10-12; 3.3-14 Ephesians 5.15-20 John 6.51-58 A glance at the bits of 1 Kings 1—3 which are not read in this sequence will explain why Solomon so desperately needed wisdom. His father’s victories, though remarkable, could not be relied on for long-term security…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 14 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 14 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 14 Isaiah 1.1, 10–20 Hebrews 11.1–3, 8–16 Luke 12.32–40 Stories about a master going away and returning would have been interpreted in Jesus’ world as stories about Israel’s God, YHWH. He had ‘gone away’ at the exile, as Ezekiel describes graphically. At no point in the ‘p…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 3 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 3 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 3 - Year A Leviticus 19.1–2, 9–18 1 Corinthians 3.10–11, 16–23 Matthew 5.38–48 There are two basic mistakes people make about the command to love your neighbour as yourself. The first is to forget the last two words. We aren’t told to love our neighbour with all our heart,…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 24 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 24 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Ordinary Time - Proper 24 Exodus 33.12–23 1 Thessalonians 1.1–10 Matthew 22.15–22 The multiple echoes of Exodus 33 bounce around the New Testament. The first letter to the Thessalonians, held by many to be the first surviving Christian writing, offers another reminder that the go…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 4 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 4 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 4 Genesis 6.9–22; 7.24; 8.14–19 Romans 1.16–17; 3.22b–28 [29–31] Matthew 7.21–29 ‘These words of mine.’ No wonder they thought Jesus was claiming an authority of his own, superior to that of the scribes. They would never have…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 22 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 22 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 22 Lamentations 1.1–6 2 Timothy 1.1–14 Luke 17.5–10 Paul, in prison, writes about power. Dangerous stuff, we say – tends to corrupt, and all that. Paul’s setting, and the work that got him there, guards him from misunderstanding. Tyrants speak of God’s power to validate th…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 24 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 24 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 24 Jeremiah 31.27–34 2 Timothy 3.14—4.5 Luke 18.1–8 The passages from 2 Timothy and Luke 18 both envisage God’s people hanging on, sustaining their energy and sense of direction, even though things seem to go from bad to worse. By contrast, Jeremiah 31 sees through the lon…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 23 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 23 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 23 Job 23.1-9, 16-17 Hebrews 4.12-16 Mark 10.17-31 Two moments jump out at us from this intense little drama. Jesus looks at the man and loves him; not, perhaps, our natural reaction to someone claiming to keep six out of ten commandments perfectly. (A pity Job 23.11–12 is…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 5 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 5 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 5 1 Kings 17.8–24 Galatians 1.11–24 Luke 7.11–17 Luke has, fairly obviously, told the story of the widow’s son at Nain in such a way as to evoke the similar story of Elijah and the widow’s son at Zarephath – who, interestingly, was already referred to in Jesus’ ‘Nazareth m…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 3 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 3 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 3 Genesis 45.3–11, 15 1 Corinthians 15.35–38, 42–50 Luke 6.27–38 The resurrection is central to Christianity, not just as a dogma but as a driving principle. Unfortunately, Paul’s writing in this, the earliest discussion of it, is dense and difficult, and some of the regul…
Revelation for Everyone - Reigning for a Thousand Years
Revelation for Everyone - Reigning for a Thousand Years
by SPCK - N T Wright
Reigning for a Thousand Years Revelation 20.1-6 After I published my book Surprised by Hope, I had a number of letters and emails from people telling me their experiences with thinking it through, leading study groups on it, and in some cases preaching in the new way I was recomm…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Recognizing the Body
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Recognizing the Body
by SPCK - N T Wright
Recognizing the Body 1 Corinthians 11.23-34 I once witnessed a moving reconciliation scene, and the most moving thing about it was that no words were necessary. A lay minister had been storing up resentments against the clergyman who was the senior pastor in the church where they…
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Reconciled and Firm in Faith
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Reconciled and Firm in Faith
by SPCK - N T Wright
Reconciled and Firm in Faith Colossians 1.21-23 People come from all over the world to see it, but I would have been just as happy to stay away. On the edge of Minneapolis, in the United States, is a shopping centre so vast that there is room for an entire fun-fair in the middle …
Luke for Everyone - Reading the Signs of the Times
Luke for Everyone - Reading the Signs of the Times
by SPCK - N T Wright
Reading the Signs of the Times Luke 12.49-59 The great composer Ludwig van Beethoven used sometimes to play a trick on polite salon audiences, especially when he guessed that they weren’t really interested in serious music. He would perform a piece on the piano, one of his own sl…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Rescued by God's Power
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Rescued by God's Power
by SPCK - N T Wright
Rescued by God’s Power Judah 17-25 Sometimes a quick burst of biblical dialogue catches a truth in sharp relief. After many generations in which the people of Israel had gone from bad to worse, led by a succession of wicked kings, God finally sends the prophet Elijah to sort it a…
Revelation bible study guide - Reaping the Harvest and Preparing the Plagues
Revelation bible study guide - Reaping the Harvest and Preparing the Plagues
by SPCK - N T Wright
Reaping the Harvest and Preparing the Plagues Revelation 14: 14-15: 8 Imagine a village in the outlying countryside of ancient Judaea. It’s a long way from the city, and even traders don’t come there that often, far less government officials. A circuit judge comes to the neighbor…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Redeemed from the Law's Curse