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Hymn: When Jesus came to Bethlehem there was no worse a day
Hymn: When Jesus came to Bethlehem there was no worse a day
by Andrew Pratt
When Jesus came to Bethlehem there was no worse a day, they say a census had been called, there was no place to stay; this baby who would shake the world, would first lay down his head, not in a royal house or hall, but in a manger bed. When Jesus went to Nazareth his father had …
Luke for Everyone - Further Warnings
Luke for Everyone - Further Warnings
by SPCK - N T Wright
Further Warnings Luke 12.1-12 It started off as an ordinary walk in the country. We decided to head off across open moorland towards a distant crag; the map suggested there might be a good view from the top. Much of the walk was relaxed. The five of us went at our own paces, in t…
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus and the Disciples
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus and the Disciples
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus and the Disciples John 20.19-23 ‘I couldn’t possibly do that!’ He stood staring at the committee. They had just offered him, not the job he had applied for, but the one above it. The senior position in the whole division. He would be running an entire department. A huge bud…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus' Genealogy
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus' Genealogy
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus’ Genealogy Matthew 1.1-17 In Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest, the hero is asked about his family background, and is forced to confess that he had lost both his parents. He had been found, as a tiny baby, in a handbag. The indignation that greets these rev…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Many Members, One Body
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Many Members, One Body
by SPCK - N T Wright
Many Members, One Body 1 Corinthians 12.12-20 Paul uses one of his most spectacular and famous illustrations in this and the following passage. It would be gilding the lily to introduce it by another one of our own, so we may as well jump straight to the point. But the point isn’…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Birth of Jesus
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Birth of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Birth of Jesus Matthew 1.18-25 One of the most memorable movies I have seen is the film of Charles Dickens’s novel Little Dorrit. It is actually two films, both very long. The two films don’t follow in sequence, telling the first and second halves of the story; instead, each …
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - The Kindness that Imitates God Himself
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - The Kindness that Imitates God Himself
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Kindness that Imitates God Himself Ephesians 4.25-5.2 The best-known literary figure in eighteenth-century England was Dr Samuel Johnson. A native of Lichfield in Staffordshire, he spent most of his adult life in London. He wrote many works, especially his famous Dictionary a…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Work of the Spirit
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Work of the Spirit
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Work of the Spirit ROMANS 8.5-11 Imagine rummaging around in an old attic and coming upon what looks like a standard lamp. It has a very strange type of bulb, but an elegant stem; and the shade, though a bit dusty, is quite attractive. You bring it down into the house and con…
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church II
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church II
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Build a Church 2 EXODUS 26: 31- 27: 21 When I was a toddler in the latter part of the Second World War, family lore says that I used to watch the “fireworks” and the “bonfires” from my second-floor bedroom. These were actually bombs falling on the RAF airstrip that is now …
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Moses Begins His Last Sermon
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Moses Begins His Last Sermon
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Moses Begins His Last Sermon Deuteronomy 1:1-45 This coming Saturday, I am taking part in a service in which the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles expresses its regret and contrition for the way we have treated African Americans. The church to which I belong was founded to provide…
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 12 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 12 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 12 Luke 11: 1-13 Gaze on a clear night sky, full of stars, and a partial moon that lights up your way along the narrow village streets. Hear the frantic banging, waking everyone in the house. Who can it be at this time of night – there must be a fire somewhere, or a death.…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Trinity Sunday Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Trinity Sunday Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Trinity Sunday - Year A Isaiah 40.12–17, 27–31 2 Corinthians 13.11–13 Matthew 28.16–20 The people whom this second section of Isaiah is addressing are completely worn out. They have not even got the energy actively to reject God and seek other sources of comfort. Instead, they si…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 22 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 22 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 22 Habakkuk 1.1–4; 2.1–4 2 Timothy 1.1–14 Luke 17.5–10 This central section of Luke’s Gospel is full of very uncomfortable reading. It starts at 9.51, when Jesus ‘set his face to go to Jerusalem’, and the ministry enters a new phase. Now everything he says and does is bein…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Advent Micah 5.2–5a Hebrews 10.5–10 Luke 1.39–45 The readings from Micah and Hebrews are so dauntingly obscure that it is tempting simply to concentrate on the lovely passage from Luke. Luke’s is the only Gospel that has any of John the Baptist’s biography be…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Trinity Sunday Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Trinity Sunday Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Trinity Sunday Proverbs 8.1–4, 22–31 Romans 5.1–5 John 16.12–15 From very early on in the life of the Church, Christians read the figure of ‘Wisdom’ in Proverbs as a reference to Jesus. They assumed that God had already shown, in hints, characters and patterns of relating, what h…
John for Everyone part 2 - Breakfast by the Shore
John for Everyone part 2 - Breakfast by the Shore
by SPCK - N T Wright
Breakfast by the Shore John 21.9-14 I don’t know much about mental health, and the therapy that can produce it. But I do know a little about the healing of memories, and the finding of a forgiveness that can go back to a buried hurt, fear, failure or sin and deal with it. I have …
Hebrews for Everyone - Keep up the Good Work
Hebrews for Everyone - Keep up the Good Work
by SPCK - N T Wright
Keep Up the Good Work Hebrews 6.9-12 Sir Francis Drake was one of many Englishmen who became famous during the reign of Elizabeth I. He sailed round the world, crossed the Atlantic many times, was involved in numerous sea battles in various parts of the world, was twice a member …
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Rescued by God's Power