Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Judgment Then Rather Than Now
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Judgment Then Rather Than Now
by SPCK - N T Wright
Judgment Then Rather Than Now 1 Corinthians 4.1-5 I stood in the workshop, barely able to see over the workbench as my father patiently whittled away at a piece of wood. I was fascinated and (as befits an eight-year-old) puzzled. What on earth could he be doing? The work seemed t…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Lawsuits in the Church?
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Lawsuits in the Church?
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lawsuits in the Church? 1 Corinthians 6.1-8 The business was just getting going when one of the customers noticed a strange thing. He had begun bringing his car to this particular garage a few months ago, and had believed that it was doing a good job. People in the community seem…
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Knowing the Power of the King
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Knowing the Power of the King
by SPCK - N T Wright
Knowing the Power of the King Ephesians 1.15-23 ‘So how strong is it?’ My friend was showing me his new telescope. It was set up in an upstairs room, looking out towards sea. ‘Well, take a look.’ I had been scanning the horizon with my own small binoculars. There were a couple of…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Justified by Faith, Not Works of Law
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Justified by Faith, Not Works of Law
by SPCK - N T Wright
Justified by Faith, Not Works of Law Galatians 2.15-21 A well-known story is told of Margaret Thatcher during the time she was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She was visiting an old people’s home, going from room to room and meeting senior citizens who had lived there a lo…
New Testament Prayer for Everyone - Knowing the Power of The King
New Testament Prayer for Everyone - Knowing the Power of The King
by SPCK - N T Wright
PART 2 PRAYERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT PRAYERS OF PAUL KNOWING THE POWER OF THE KING Ephesians 1: 16-19 ‘So how strong is it?’ My friend was showing me his new telescope. It was set up in an upstairs room, looking out towards sea...
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: Week 1 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: Week 1 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 1: SUNDAY Psalm 32 A long time ago, when I had just learnt to drive, I ran out of petrol on a lonely country road. I gratefully accepted some fuel from a nearby farmer. What he didn’t tell me was that it was a mixture designed not for a car, but for a lawn mower. I got back …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Lent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Lent - Year A Exodus 17.1–7 Romans 5.1–11 John 4.5–42 John’s great sprawling story (what an excellent move to have some of Jesus’ Johannine encounters in full during Lent) offers food for thought at every level. The antipathy between Jews and Samaritans wa…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Saturday: Week 1 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Saturday: Week 1 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
EK 1: SATURDAY Matthew 17.1– 9 Imagine yourself as a fifth member of the party, going up the mountain with Jesus leading the way, Peter beside him, and James and John following too. The last days and weeks have been utterly bewildering. Nothing like this has happened to you befor…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Monday: Week 1 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Monday: Week 1 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 1: MONDAY Matthew 5; focused on 5.1–12 The worst mistake we can make about this famous and stunning passage is to see it as a list of rules (you’ve got to try hard to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, and so on). It isn’t. It’s a royal announcement that God is turning…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year A Ezekiel 37.1–14 Romans 8.6–11 John 11.1–45 ‘Resurrection’ began as a metaphor for the return from exile. Ezekiel’s surreal vision was an image of Israel, ‘dead’ in Babylon, being restored to her own land. It goes with the promises of the previou…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Lent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First Sunday of Lent - Year A Genesis 2.15–17; 3.1–7 Romans 5.12–19 Matthew 4.1–11 Students set to translate Romans 5 often despair: some of its ‘sentences’ have neither subjects nor verbs nor objects, but are just collocations of indirect phrases. Paul at his most obliqu…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Friday: Week 1 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Friday: Week 1 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 1: FRIDAY Matthew 9; focused on 9.9 –17 Those of us who now use computers take it for granted that they will have a large internal memory. This is stored on what is called a ‘hard disk’, as opposed to what we used to have, back in the 1980s, which was a ‘floppy disk’, which …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday of Lent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday of Lent - Year A Genesis 12.1–4a Romans 4.1–5, 13–17 John 3.1–17 ‘Leave country, kin and home, and go.’ And Abram went. The call was like that other word, to leave and cleave, spoken before the Fall: a marriage vow, a challenge and a pledge of loyalty. Like,…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Saturday: Second Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Saturday: Second Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 2: SATURDAY Matthew 13; focused on 13.31–33, 44 – 46 An earthly story with a heavenly meaning.’ I used to think that that old Sunday- school definition of a parable was a harmless comment. I now think it’s more likely to be dangerous nonsense. Jesus didn’t tell parables to p…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Friday: Week 2 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Friday: Week 2 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 2: FRIDAY Matthew 12.22–50; focused on 12.27–32 27 Just in case anyone thought that the vision of a gentle, humble Messiah meant that he would be a pushover for every evil power that came along, the present passage sets the balance straight. One of the things everybody knew …
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: First Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: First Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 2: SUNDAY Psalm 121 1 I must have sung this Psalm a hundred, perhaps a thousand, times before I stopped to think about the famous first verse. (I have seen it carved above doors and mantelpieces in mountainous parts of the country, sometimes in Latin.) ‘I lift my eyes to …
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: First Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: First Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 1: THURSDAY Matthew 8; focused on 8.23 –34 Let’s go on that boat and think what it was like. It’s a small lake, as lakes go, but sudden storms come sweeping down from the hills. All of us in the boat know of people who’ve been drowned there, of whole boats that have been swa…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: Second Week in Lent Year A