Search Results
Simply Jesus - Jesus: the ruler of the world
Simply Jesus - Jesus: the ruler of the world
by SPCK - N T Wright
Part 3 Jesus: the ruler of the world Simply Jesus Who he was, what he did, why it matters What on earth does it mean, today, to say that Jesus is king, that he is Lord of the world? How can we say such a thing in our confused world? If we do want to say it, what are we saying tha…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Ash Wednesday
Lent for Everyone Year A - Ash Wednesday
by SPCK - N T Wright
ASH WEDNESDAY Matthew 1-2; focused on 1.18-25 We know very, very little about Joseph. Some legends make him an old man who died while Jesus was growing up, but we don’t know that for sure. We know he worked in the building trade, including what we call carpentry. We know he could…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 9: 1-4 1 Corinthians 1: 10-18 Matthew 4: 12-23 Was Jesus waiting for a signal? The Gospels agree that he didn’t begin to announce the Kingdom until he heard that John had been arrested. Something about that sinister moment told him tha…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany - Year A 1 Kings 17: 8-16 1 Corinthians 1: 18-31 John 2: 1-11 The third day; it would be. John does nothing by accident. New creation bursts in upon a village wedding, itself a sign of hope. Wine is to water as the new world is to the old; bubbling u…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Sixth Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Sixth Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 17.22–31 1 Peter 3.13–22 John 14.15–21 In a spectacular (and presumably heavily abbreviated) speech, Paul takes on culturally sophisticated Athens with the new upside-down wisdom. He begins on their own territory, with the altar to the Unk…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 42: 1-9 Acts 10: 34-43 Matthew 3: 13-17 John’s baptism can easily seem a mere introduction, the soon-to-be-forgotten starting point. The early Church clearly didn’t see it like that, since John continues to haunt the story in all four …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fifth Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 7.55–60 1 Peter 2.2–10 John 14.1–14 I’m never quite sure what Jesus meant when he said ‘you will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father’. But I’m quite sure he did not mean ‘you will do lesser works than these’. An o…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul Among the Philosophers (II)
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul Among the Philosophers (II)
by SPCK - N T Wright
Paul Among the Philosophers (II) Acts 17.22-34 So we continue with our chess game, with Paul playing the role of grand master and taking on all the players of Athens at once. We have seen how he agrees with the Academy that it is indeed impossible, granted what was available to t…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 18 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 18 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 18 Jeremiah 18.1–11 Philemon 1–21 Luke 14.25–33 Luke 14 has more than its fair share of ‘hard sayings’. Hate your family; give up your possessions. A nice clear message for the end of the summer holidays. And, to back it up, a solemn warning: such carrying the cross requ…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Servant
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Servant
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Servant Matthew 12.15-21 The bishop sat at his desk and put his head in his hands. Another three letters had just arrived complaining at the way in which a particular parish had changed its style of music. The director of finance had just reported that unless people in the di…
Simply Good News - The Problem with Progress
Simply Good News - The Problem with Progress
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Problem with Progress Doctrine – isn’t that a strong, almost Christian word for a philosophical teaching? Yes, and that is exactly how progress is used. I spoke two chapters ago about the way the scientific discoveries and political innovations of the eighteenth century gave …
Simply Good News - Can we Trust the Gospels?
Simply Good News - Can we Trust the Gospels?
by SPCK - N T Wright
Can we Trust the Gospels? Let’s start with the obvious problem. Can we trust the Gospels? Answering that properly would take another whole book, and indeed I’ve written one or two on that topic. Despite a continuing chorus of scepticism, I and many other scholars who have studied…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Trinity Sunday Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Trinity Sunday Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Trinity Sunday - Year A Isaiah 40.12–17, 27–31 2 Corinthians 13.11–13 Matthew 28.16–20 The doctrine of the Trinity used to be caricatured as a piece of irrelevant theory: learned people using human philosophy to make simple things overly complex. The charge often rebounds on …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fifth Sunday of Lent (Passiontide begins) Jeremiah 31.31–34 Hebrews 5.5–10 John 12.20–33 Imagine the simple request echoing along the corridors of church bureaucracy. It is passed from office to office, from secretary to secretary. It is left on voice-mails and e-mails, faxed…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday of Advent - Year A Isaiah 7: 10-16 Romans 1: 1-7 Matthew 1: 18-25 We were taught in college, and many repeat in the pulpit, that the word ’almah' in Isaiah 7.14 doesn’t mean ‘virgin’, but ‘young woman’. It’s not that easy, actually: the word is rare, and the oth…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Advent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Advent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First Sunday of Advent - Year A Isaiah 2:1-5 Romans 13:11–14 Matthew 24:36–44 With the lectionary’s new year comes St Matthew, with warnings about the days of Noah. Noah’s solitary gospel cameo; he doesn’t feature much in the epistles, either. Why not? The point about Noah’s …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday of Epiphany - Year A Isaiah 49: 1-7 1 Corinthians 1: 1-9 John 1: 29-42 Our question to Isaiah is always, ‘Who is the Servant?’ Israel, replies the prophet (Isaiah 49.3). But the far harder question is, ‘Who is Israel?’ To this, Isaiah gives three concentric answ…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 1 Year A