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Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 7 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 7 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 7 Genesis 21.8–21 Romans 6.1b–11 Matthew 10.24–39 The prince of peace comes with a sword. To that theological oxymoron we must add the sad, and still tragic, story of Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael. Go down into the Genesis story…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 7 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 7 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 7 1 Samuel 17.[1a, 4-11, 19-23] 32-49 2 Corinthians 6.1-13 Mark 4.35-41 Right from the start in Mark, Jesus is up against it. Tempted by Satan in the wilderness; shrieked at by benighted souls in the synagogue; criticized by the self-appointed religious experts. Now the se…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 8 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 8 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 8 Genesis 22.1–14 Romans 6.12–23 Matthew 10.40–42 Perhaps precisely because it is one of the darkest of all Bible stories, the tale of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah has left deep imprints in Judaism and Christianity. Chil…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 8 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 8 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 8 2 Samuel 1.1, 17-27 2 Corinthians 8.7-15 Mark 5.21-43 Mark folds one story inside another, like someone tucking a second letter inside a first. (A Markan sandwich, some say; but food is important within the story itself, so let’s not confuse the issue.) As in 2 Samuel, a…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 9 - Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 9 - Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 9 Year B The paradoxes of power. David bided his time, refused to lift up his hand against God’s anointed (though he knew himself to be anointed also), and then at last became king in a further anointing. The move to Jerusalem was politically shrewd (though obscured by the…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 9 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 9 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 9 Genesis 24.34–38, 42–49, 58–67 Romans 7.15–25a Matthew 11.16–19, 25–30 An American sent me a strange book the other day. Jesus, he argued, was an alcoholic. Roused from his drunkenness by the preaching of John the Baptist, …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 9 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 9 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 9 2 Samuel 5.1-5, 9-10 2 Corinthians 12.2-10 Mark 6.1-13 The paradoxes of power. David bided his time, refused to lift up his hand against God’s anointed (though he knew himself to be anointed also), and then at last became king in a further anointing. The move to Jerusale…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Second Sunday of Easter - Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Second Sunday of Easter - Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.14a, 22–32 1 Peter 1.3–9 John 20.19–31 Jesus’ resurrection scattered new meanings all around, like light reflecting a thousand ways off a priceless jewel. The first thing was the validation of Jesus’ messianic ministry. His powerful dee…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Seventh Sunday of Easter - Year A (Sunday after Ascension Day) Acts 1.6–14 1 Peter 4.12–14; 5.6–11 John 17.1–11 ‘When his glory is revealed.’ The ascension gives us a glimpse in advance of the great truth which will one day be unveiled – or rather, the glorious Person who wil…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Sixth Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 17.22–31 1 Peter 3.13–22 John 14.15–21 In a spectacular (and presumably heavily abbreviated) speech, Paul takes on culturally sophisticated Athens with the new upside-down wisdom. He begins on their own territory, with the altar to the Unk…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fifth Sunday of Easter Acts 8.26-40 1 John 4.7-21 John 15.1-8 If you like evangelism, you’ll love Philip’s story. A spirit-led meeting with a court official, who happens to be reading Isaiah 53 and asking the right questions. There is time to converse at leisure; there is wat…
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 B - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fifth Sunday of Lent (Passiontide begins) Jeremiah 31.31–34 Hebrews 5.5–10 John 12.20–33 Imagine the simple request echoing along the corridors of church bureaucracy. It is passed from office to office, from secretary to secretary. It is left on voice-mails and e-mails, faxed…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Advent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Advent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First Sunday of Advent - Year A Isaiah 2:1-5 Romans 13:11–14 Matthew 24:36–44 With the lectionary’s new year comes St Matthew, with warnings about the days of Noah. Noah’s solitary gospel cameo; he doesn’t feature much in the epistles, either. Why not? The point about Noah’s …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The First Sunday of Advent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The First Sunday of Advent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
First Sunday of Advent Isaiah 64.1–9 1 Corinthians 1.3–9 Mark 13.24–37 Advent has stolen the old Christmas mystique. The symbolism of darkness awaiting dawn makes sense in a postmodern world where Christmas razzmatazz has been debunked, demythologized and deconstructed. Hope in…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Christmas Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Christmas Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First Sunday of Christmas - Year A Isaiah 63: 7-9 Hebrews 2: 10-18 Matthew 12: 13-23 More Isaianic translation problems. Fortunately here the meaning is not in doubt. ‘In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them’? – or is it ‘He became t…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The First Sunday of Christmas Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The First Sunday of Christmas Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First Sunday of Christmas Isaiah 61.10—62.3 Galatians 4.4–7 Luke 2.15–21 God sent the Son...and God sent the Spirit of the Son. St Paul brings together Christmas and Pentecost – as unlikely a pair, to our culture-conditioned minds, as plum pudding and a May Bank Holiday. So…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A