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Reflection on Psalm 124
Reflection on Psalm 124
by Marjorie Dobson
Reflection on Psalm 124 One small boy – nine years old, perhaps – stood proudly to say the psalm he’d learned by heart and proclaimed those words, ‘If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when our enemies attacked us, then we would have been swallowed alive …’ And all tho…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Abraham's Faith - and Ours
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Abraham's Faith - and Ours
by SPCK - N T Wright
Abraham’s Faith – and Ours ROMANS 4.18-25 When my family and I emigrated to Canada in the early 1980s, we frequently thought about the early pioneers, arriving in a new and unknown country with no idea what they would find, what the weather would be like, what crops might grow, o…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - Aid for Jerusalem
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - Aid for Jerusalem
by SPCK - N T Wright
Aid for Jerusalem ROMANS 15.25-33 I have now translated most of the New Testament for this present series, and I’ve discovered one or two interesting things as I’ve done so. The hardest Greek I have so far faced, without a doubt, is in one particular section of 2 Corinthians, nam…
The Pastoral Letters - Foes and Friends
The Pastoral Letters - Foes and Friends
by SPCK - N T Wright
Foes and Friends 2Timothy 1.15-18 The most difficult thing I have found in Christian ministry is opposition from people I thought were friends, or at least colleagues, fellow-workers. One of the hardest parts, of course, is the nagging thought that people who disagree with me mig…
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Grace, not Works
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Grace, not Works
by SPCK - N T Wright
Grace, not Works Ephesians 2.8-10 In the mid-1970s a country vet in a small town in northern England suddenly became world-famous. James Herriot, quite suddenly and in mid-life, wrote books that sold in huge quantities around the world. Herriot (whose real name was Alfred Wight) …
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - The Apostle's Freedom - to be Enslaved to Everyone
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - The Apostle's Freedom - to be Enslaved to Everyone
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Apostle’s Freedom – to be Enslaved to Everyone 1 Corinthians 9.19-23 One of the greatest thinkers and statesmen of the Roman world a century before Paul was Cicero. He was a sophisticated philosopher, a brilliant lawyer, a politician, and above all a passionate believer in th…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Faith and Works
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Faith and Works
by SPCK - N T Wright
Faith and Works James 2.14-26 That’s the wrong way round, isn’t it? That’s what we are inclined to think as we read that final verse. If I were to use ‘the body and the spirit’ as a picture for ‘faith and works’, I would make ‘faith’ correspond to the ‘spirit’ and ‘works’ to the …
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Final Blessings and Charge
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Final Blessings and Charge
by SPCK - N T Wright
Final Blessings and Charge Thessalonians 5.23-28 When I was ordained to the ministry of word and sacrament, I received many cards and letters wishing me well and assuring me of the prayers and support of family and friends. The one that made the deepest impression on me at the ti…
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Gaining the Messiah
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Gaining the Messiah
by SPCK - N T Wright
Gaining the Messiah Philippians 3.7-11 A story is told of the great nineteenth-century Anglican pastor, poet and theologian John Keble. As a young don in Oxford in the early years of the century, he held at one stage the office of college bursar. Few clergy then, or now for that …
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - God's Coming Judgement Will Be Impartial, the Same for All
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - God's Coming Judgement Will Be Impartial, the Same for All
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Coming Judgment Will Be Impartial, the Same for All ROMANS 2.1-11 ‘Couldn’t we just give him one more chance?’ The young man had been working at the factory for just over a month. He was performing reasonably well, but there was a problem. He had a violent temper, and he wo…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Jesus' Death Reveals God's Covenant Justice
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Jesus' Death Reveals God's Covenant Justice
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Unveiling of God’s Covenant Justice ROMANS 3.21-24 Sometimes – and today, as it happens, is one of those times – my desk, and the other tables in the room, are piled so high with papers that I know I will never get them in order by just picking one or two of them up now and t…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Creation Renewed and Patient Hope
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Creation Renewed and Patient Hope
by SPCK - N T Wright
Creation Renewed and Patient Hope ROMANS 8.18-25 I walked through the wood several times before I realized what the signpost meant. The wood was thick, with paths leading this way and that. I knew some of them quite well, and had my favourites among them. There was the one that l…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Freedom in Christ
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Freedom in Christ
by SPCK - N T Wright
Freedom in Christ Galatians 5.1-6 The lake freezes over for four months in the winter, to a depth of at least ten feet. People drive not only snowmobiles across it, but even cars and vans. It’s exciting – and also quite convenient – to be able to drive across the water to the vil…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Justified by Faith, Not Works of Law
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Justified by Faith, Not Works of Law
by SPCK - N T Wright
Justified by Faith, Not Works of Law Galatians 2.15-21 A well-known story is told of Margaret Thatcher during the time she was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She was visiting an old people’s home, going from room to room and meeting senior citizens who had lived there a lo…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Prayer, Sonship and the Sovereignty of God
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Prayer, Sonship and the Sovereignty of God
by SPCK - N T Wright
Prayer, Sonship and the Sovereignty of God ROMANS 8.26-30 How many names can you think of for God? It may sound an odd question. God’s proper name in the Old Testament is of course YHWH; but he is referred to in a great many other ways as well, such as ‘the Almighty’, the Holy On…
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD - 9 ‘Is There Anybody There?’
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD - 9 ‘Is There Anybody There?’
by SPCK - N T Wright
‘Is There Anybody There?’ We have already seen that, while naïve realism imagines itself to have direct access to the event or object spoken of in the text, a more phenomenalist reading realizes that it can only be sure of the author’s viewpoint. This is a less ambitious claim. I…
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD - 27 Theology, Narrative and Authority