SPCK - N T Wright
Lent for Everyone Year A - Friday: Week 4 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Friday: Week 4 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 4: FRIDAY Matthew 22; focused on 22.1–14 Get me to the church on time!’ It’s a famous song from a famous musical. I suspect it’s a favourite because we’ve all been to weddings, we all remember the sense of occasion, of dressing up, of this being the bride’s and the groom’s b…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: Fourth Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: Fourth Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 4: THURSDAY Matthew 21.23 – 46; focused on 21.33 – 45 I was taking a service in a local church when this passage was the second reading. Over at the side of the church was a family with a three-year-old boy who appeared to be playing with his toys, taking no notice of the se…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Wednesday: Fourth Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Wednesday: Fourth Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 4: WEDNESDAY Matthew 21.1–22; focused on 21.1–17 We reach Palm Sunday in Matthew’s story ten days before we get there in our own Lenten journey. It’s just as well. There is so much packed between Palm Sunday and Good Friday that it’s important to get advance notice of what’s…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Tuesday: Fourth Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Tuesday: Fourth Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 4: TUESDAY Matthew 20; focused on 20.1–16 The game was nearly over, and neither side had scored a goal. The spectators were getting angry, and the players were exhausted. One player on the home team, in particular, had worked tirelessly the whole game, running from end to en…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Monday: Week 4 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Monday: Week 4 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 4: MONDAY Matthew 19; focused on 19.16 –26 At the time I am writing this, a politician has just received loud and long applause for saying rude words about the very rich, especially people in the banks who pay themselves vast sums of money. Everybody likes to hate the rich.…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Saturday: Week 3 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Saturday: Week 3 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 3: SATURDAY Matthew 18; focused on 18.21–35 There are at least three levels at which we should read this sharp and startling story. And at least three levels at which we should apply it to our lives, not least our lives in church. Start, though, with Peter’s question. It see…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Friday: Week 3 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Friday: Week 3 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 3: FRIDAY Matthew 17; focused on 17.14 –20 Once more we come close to Jesus in the crowd; and this time let’s bring with us someone we know, perhaps someone very close to us, who is in serious need of Jesus’ help. Take a moment and think who you want to bring. Let’s recall w…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: Third Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: Third Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 3: THURSDAY Matthew 16; focused on 16.21–28 The unique city of Venice is now mainly a tourist destination. People come from all over the world to be amazed at its canals, its tiny side-streets, and the wonderful churches, mansions and art galleries. But in the days before ai…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Wednesday: Third Week in lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Wednesday: Third Week in lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 3: WEDNESDAY Matthew 15.21–38; focused on 15.21–28 Let’s listen in on this conversation. Stand in the crowd and see what you think. We’re up north now, away from Galilee. Jesus has already spoken of this region (‘the district of Tyre and Sidon’) in such a way as to make it…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Tuesday: Third Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Tuesday: Third Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 3: TUESDAY Matthew 15.1–20; focused on 15.1– 9 Germs and Jesus!’ shouted the seven-year-old son of a friend of mine. ‘Germs and Jesus! You keep telling me they’re important and I can’t see either of them!’ A fascinating response to a pressing parental problem. We tell our…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Monday: Week 3 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Monday: Week 3 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 3: MONDAY Matthew 14; focused on 14.22–33 Forty years ago I sat in my college room with a friend and we read this passage together. He had come to a living faith in Jesus just a week before. He was still wide- eyed with delight at the sense of Jesus’ personal presence within…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: Week 3 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: Week 3 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent For Everyone WEEK 3: SUNDAY Psalm 95 A small boy I knew asked his grandfather, a retired priest, what ‘worship’ meant. The old man paused. He was over 80 years of age, he said; he had been a clergyman most of his life; and he still found it hard to say exactly what ‘worshi…
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 - Thursday: Second Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: Second Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 2: THURSDAY Matthew 12.1–21; focused on 12.15 –21 To get the full flavour of what’s going on here, you should really read not just Matthew 12, but Isaiah 42 as a whole. Actually, even that isn’t really enough, because Isaiah 42 is a key passage within a much larger unity, Is…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Wednesday: Second Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Wednesday: Second Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 2: WEDNESDAY Matthew 11; focused on 11.1–19 Jesus is here being put on the spot. Today, when interviewers try to force politicians to say things they didn’t really want to let out, they tend to prevaricate, to ignore the question, or even to tell downright lies. We have pri…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Tuesday: Second Week in Lent Year A