SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 16 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 16 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 16 Exodus 1.8—2.10 Romans 12.1–8 Matthew 16.13–20 How do slaves get free? By living the present in the light of the future. The midwives, and Moses’ mother, act out of defiant hope. Moses, destined to lead Israel through the …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 15 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 15 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 15 Genesis 45.1–15 Romans 11.1–2a, 29–32 Matthew 15.10–28 Look at the word God in Genesis 45. All these years later, with plenty of free time to ponder his brothers’ evil deeds and build up resentment, what comes out of Jos…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 14 year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 14 year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 14 Genesis 37.1–4, 12–28 Romans 10.5–15 Matthew 14.22–33 A recently published letter from Qumran (4QMMT) helps us to see what Paul is talking about here. It mostly contains priestly regulations. But the last part is a fresh t…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 13 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 13 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 13 Genesis 32.22–31 Romans 9.1–5 Matthew 14.13–21 A well-known bishop wrote a book not long ago called Limping into the Sunrise. It was, of course, alluding to this story of Jacob; which was all very well, except that at the …
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 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 10 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 10 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 10 Genesis 25.19–34 Romans 8.1–11 Matthew 13.1–9, 18–23 The next chapter of Genesis offers a striking echo to this parable: Isaac sowed seed, and reaped a hundredfold, for the Lord blessed him(26.12). But the key background, …
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 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 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 A - Proper 6 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 6 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 6 Genesis 18.1–15 Romans 5.1–8 Matthew 9.35—10.8 [9–23] Take the gospel reading (the longer version) and lay it, like a template, over the life of the average parish. What do you find? I know, I know. We don’t live in the fir…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 5 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 5 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 5 Genesis 12.1–9 Romans 4.13–25 Matthew 9.9–13, 18–26 Abraham’s call (Abram, actually, at this stage; but just as we say the Archbishop was born in 1935, even though he wasn’t Archbishop then, so we don’t need to fuss about g…
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 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 - 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…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Trinity Sunday Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Trinity Sunday Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Trinity Sunday - Year A Isaiah 40.12–17, 27–31 2 Corinthians 13.11–13 Matthew 28.16–20 The doctrine of the Trinity used to be caricatured as a piece of irrelevant theory: learned people using human philosophy to make simple things overly complex. The charge often rebounds on …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Pentecost Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Pentecost Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Day of Pentecost - Year A Numbers 11.24–30 Acts 2.1–21 John 7.37–39 Jesus, quoting Scripture, says that rivers of living water will flow out of the believer’s heart. But no Old Testament text says exactly that. Which Scripture is he referring to, then? Isaiah 55, of course, i…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A