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Luke for Everyone - The Triumphal Entry
Luke for Everyone - The Triumphal Entry
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Triumphal Entry Luke 19.28-40 Mile after uphill mile, it seems a long way even today in a car. You wind up through the sandy hills from Jericho, the lowest point on the face of the earth, through the Judaean desert, climbing all the way. Halfway up, you reach sea level; you’v…
LWPT Meditations - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C
LWPT Meditations - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C
by Susan Thorne
Meditation – 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr C 2nd Kings 2:1-2, 6-14 Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20 Galatians 5:1, 13-25 Luke 9:51-62 It is not often that we consider the “hard sayings” of Christ, but in our gospel reading we come face to face with some of the harshest words that Jesus spok…
2 Corinthians - Don't Be Mis-Matched
2 Corinthians - Don't Be Mis-Matched
by SPCK - N T Wright
Don’t Be Mis-Matched 2 CORINTHIANS 6.14-7.1 Every time a new Bible translation comes out, it seems, one of the questions people ask about it is whether the language is ‘inclusive’. When it mentions men, does it mention women as well? Does it imply that all Christians are basicall…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Do Not Worry
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Do Not Worry
by SPCK - N T Wright
Do Not Worry Matthew 6.25-34 Has it ever struck you what a basically happy person Jesus was? Oh yes, we know that, according to the prophecies, he was ‘a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief ’. We know that the darkness and sadness of all the world descended on him as he went…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - God's Folly
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - God's Folly
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Folly 1 Corinthians 1.18-25 On 15 March 44 BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated in Rome, a mile or so away from where I am writing these words. His killers were a group of conservative Republicans who thought, with good reason, that Caesar was planning to make himself king of…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - God's Farm, God's Building
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - God's Farm, God's Building
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Farm, God’s Building 1 Corinthians 3.5-11 Was Paul ‘the founder of Christianity’? I found myself embroiled in a debate on that subject a few years ago. From time to time people try to establish a familiar viewpoint: Jesus didn’t really begin Christianity, since he was just …
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Humble Shepherds
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Humble Shepherds
by SPCK - N T Wright
Humble Shepherds 1 Peter 5.1-7 From time to time the television or the newspapers tell us that there is a crisis of ‘leadership’. What that means, often enough, is that the media disapprove of the actual political leaders we happen to have at the moment, but even without that rat…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Jesus Before Caiaphas
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Jesus Before Caiaphas
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Before Caiaphas Matthew 26.57-68 Have you ever watched two people speaking to each other in different languages, neither understanding the other? Sometimes it’s funny, and effective. I remember watching with surprise and delight as my daughter, aged about five, played on ho…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Jesus Arrested
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Jesus Arrested
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus is Arrested Matthew 26.47-56 A radio station telephoned me, and before I knew what was happening I found myself talking, live, to a large and invisible audience. A leading Muslim writer in Britain had been urging the Government to tighten up the blasphemy laws – the laws th…
Hebrews for Everyone - Jesus as the Truly Human Being
Hebrews for Everyone - Jesus as the Truly Human Being
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus as the Truly Human Being HEBREWS 2.5-9 One of the most dramatic stories in the Old Testament concerns the royal succession. King David was very old, and everybody knew he couldn’t last much longer. He had a great many sons and daughters. One of his sons, Adonijah, got toget…
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman Luke 7.36-50 When you look at a painting, what do you look for first? Some people stand well back and let the full sweep of it wash over them: the glorious colours, the contrasts, the light and shade. Some people focus at once on the characters, t…
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Grieves Over Jerusalem
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Grieves Over Jerusalem
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Grieves Over Jerusalem Luke 13.31-35 The house I live in was built after the Second World War. It replaced the much older one that stood here before, which was burnt to ashes one night in 1941, after a fire-bomb, dropped by an enemy aircraft, landed right on it. The people …
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Heals a Blind Beggar
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Heals a Blind Beggar
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Heals a Blind Beggar Luke 18.31-43 Sometimes when you listen to a fine piece of music you discover that the composer is leading you into greater and greater tension, until something inside you is longing for it to be resolved into a final great chord or tune. One strand of …
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath Luke 13.10-21 Let’s, for a change, imagine that you are on the edge of the crowd that has followed Jesus so far. You haven’t heard everything and haven’t understood all you’ve heard, but you think you’ve got the general drift of it all …
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus' Invitation
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus' Invitation
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus’ Invitation Matthew 11.25-30 I went this morning to a memorial service to honour one of the world’s great sportsmen. Colin Cowdrey was one of the greatest cricketers of all time; not quite cricket’s Babe Ruth, but not far off. He was known and loved all around the world – n…
Luke for Everyone - Martha and Mary
Luke for Everyone - Martha and Mary
by SPCK - N T Wright
Martha and Mary Luke 10.38-42 If you thought ‘the good Samaritan’ was radical, this powerful little story suggests that Luke has plenty more where that came from. In describing Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, he has chosen this incident as part of his introduction. It took place at …
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Marriage, Celibacy and Children
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Marriage, Celibacy and Children
by SPCK - N T Wright
Marriage, Celibacy and Children Matthew 19.10-15 We were staying with friends who had recently become grandparents for the first time. They were telling us of the time when their little granddaughter came to stay overnight while her parents were away for a short while. ‘We were s…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Passover and Betrayal