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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…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - To Rome at Last
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - To Rome at Last
by SPCK - N T Wright
To Rome at Last Acts 28.11-22 It has been a long voyage, and the biblical commentator, in this, one of the three longest books of the New Testament (Matthew, Luke and Acts are more or less the same length), may well feel on arrival at Puteoli, Appian Forum and Three Taverns that …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 7 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 7 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 7 1 Kings 19.1–15a Galatians 3.23–end Luke 8.26–39 Elijah went to Sinai, to hand back his commission. ‘I’ve done all this for you, and now they’re going to kill me. I’ve had enough.’ Fear and exhaustion generated self-destructive depression. What was he expecting? A volcan…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 18 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 18 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 18 Deuteronomy 30.15–20 Philemon 1–21 Luke 14.25–33 Which of your letters would you like preserved for a couple of millennia? Philemon is one of the most ‘domestic’ of the documents of the New Testament, and it is impossible not to read it like an unfinished novel. What ha…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 5 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 5 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 5 1 Kings 17.17–24 Galatians 1.11–24 Luke 7.11–17 We do not always notice the simple compassion of Jesus. We are often so busy looking for the deeper meaning, or finding the application for ourselves that we barely notice the actual motivation in the context of the real si…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Confusion in Lystra
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Confusion in Lystra
by SPCK - N T Wright
Confusion in LystraActs 14. 8-20 I have a sneaking sympathy for the medical profession. Two or three generations ago, everybody knew that there were all kinds of diseases that the doctors couldn’t cure. They would do their best with what was available. They would offer sympathy…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Roman Citizenship Comes in Useful
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Roman Citizenship Comes in Useful
by SPCK - N T Wright
Roman Citizenship Comes in Useful Acts 22.23-30 CAN YOU PROVE IT? The sign in the shop selling alcohol challenges all and sundry. I was once buying a drink in one of the small bars in O’Hare Airport in Chicago and was astonished, as a bald and bearded middle-aged man, to be asked…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - We Have Ways of Keeping You Safe
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - We Have Ways of Keeping You Safe
by SPCK - N T Wright
We Have Ways of Keeping You Safe Acts 23.23-35 Richard Adams’ celebrated novel Watership Down draws the reader into the dramatic and complicated world of a group of rabbits. We follow with increasing sympathy and fascination as Hazel and his companions go on their journey. (Adams…
This is the only earth we know
This is the only earth we know
by Andrew Pratt
Hymn: This is the only earth we know Proper 20 Year A Philippians 1: 21 – 30 This is the only earth we know, all else is speculation, and though our visions lead us on, this is the time for action. Within the company of friends and those ranked round about us, is where we share t…
Within the Areopagus
Within the Areopagus
by Andrew Pratt
Hymn: Within the Areopagus Sixth Sunday of Easter Acts 17: 22-31 Within the Areopagus debate was heated, talk was fast, Paul joined this lively interchange: debate goes on, the questions last. It was not easy to believe: the 'god' they worshipped was unknown. They harboured an un…
Mere Apologetics - 4c Apologetics to the Romans: Paul’s Legal Speeches (Acts 24-26)
Mere Apologetics - 4c Apologetics to the Romans: Paul’s Legal Speeches (Acts 24-26)
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Apologetics to the Romans: Paul’s Legal Speeches (Acts 24-26) The third audience early Christianity encountered was the Romans. At that time, Rome was the imperial force dominating the Mediterranean world. It is clear that the imperial Roman authorities regarded the emergence of …
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 10 Christian Unity Paul, Apollos and Cephas as One
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 10 Christian Unity Paul, Apollos and Cephas as One
by SPCK-Kenneth E. Bailey
Christian Unity Paul is now ready to present the fourth section of the first essay. The outline of the whole is The Cross and Christian Unity (1:10–4:16) The Problem: Divisions, Baptism and the Cross (1:10-16) The Wisdom and Power of God: The Cross (1:17–2:2) The Wisdom of God: R…
Parallel Lives of Jesus - 1d Authorship, Audiences, and Aims Authorship
Parallel Lives of Jesus - 1d Authorship, Audiences, and Aims Authorship
by SPCK - Edward Adams
Authorship, Audiences, and Aims Authorship Who wrote the Gospels? The four Gospels are traditionally assigned to Matthew, the tax collector and disciple (Matt. 9:9); Mark, the travel companion of Paul (Col. 4:10; 2 Tim. 4:11) and associate of Peter (1 Pet. 5:13); Luke, physician …
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 39 APPENDIX 1
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes - 39 APPENDIX 1
by SPCK-Kenneth E. Bailey
APPENDIX 1 Common Themes in 1 Corinthians and Amos The book of Amos concludes with a vision of the future when “the booth of David” will inherit “all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called” (Amos 9:12, my translation). This looks suspiciously like the opening of 1 Corinthians, …
The Womens' Bible Commentary - Saul Unmanned
The Womens' Bible Commentary - Saul Unmanned
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Saul Unmanned In Excursus 2, and immediately above, I address preliminary issues of masculinity and “unmanning.” An understanding of ancient masculinity is critical in a “women’s Bible commentary,” because genderedness, particular female genderedness in the ancient world, is ofte…
Mere Apologetics - 4b Apologetics to the Greeks: Paul’s Athens Sermon (Acts 17)