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
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 22 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Ordinary Time - Proper 22 Exodus 20.1–4, 7–9, 12–20 Philippians 3.4b–14 Matthew 21.33–46 The parable of the wicked tenants tells the story of Israel in such a way as to highlight Jesus’ own work and fate as the plot’s denouement. But, as with many parables, and many great non-bib…
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