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
Mark for Everyone - A Deaf and Mute Man Is Healed
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 7.31–37 A Deaf and Mute Man Is Healed... ...I received a leaked memo the other day on my fax machine. It wasn’t a very serious leak – something that would be in the papers in a couple of days anyway – but it gave me a strange feeling. It goes on all the tim…
Revelation for Everyone - A Dragon is Angry
Revelation for Everyone - A Dragon is Angry
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Dragon Is Angry Revelation 12.7-18 A happy argument took place in the changing-room after the end of the match. Who had scored the winning goal? There had been a big scramble in the goalmouth; the ball was bouncing to and fro; two of the attacking players had both swung a foo…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - A Life of Love
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - A Life of Love
by SPCK - N T Wright
A Life of Love Thessalonians 4.9-12 ‘I don’t care too much for money,’ sang the Beatles (ironically, just as they were earning millions); ‘Money can’t buy me love.’ Now that is of course true. But ‘love’ is a strange word in most languages, and there are connections between love …
Mark for Everyone - A Lamp on Its Stand
Mark for Everyone - A Lamp on Its Stand
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 4.21–25 A Lamp on Its Stand... ...Yesterday I took part in a procession. It started outside St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, and as Big Ben struck the hour we began to move, singing hymns, around the green and into the great west doors of Westminster Abbe…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - A Year in Corinth
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - A Year in Corinth
by SPCK - N T Wright
A Year in Corinth Acts 18.1-11 This morning, knowing I was going to be thinking about Corinth, I helped myself to a big bowl of Greek yoghurt and honey for breakfast. It still takes me straight back to the little streetside cafe where, in the early 1990s, I first tasted that simp…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - A Stumble with a Purpose