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John for Everyone part 2 - No King but Caesar
John for Everyone part 2 - No King but Caesar
by SPCK - N T Wright
No King but Caesar John 19.8-16a From our seats, high in the stands, we watched as the football match swung this way and that. Our team was doing well and scored a couple of early goals. We were delighted; surely they could hang on to a lead like that? When the opposition scored …
Luke for Everyone - Peter's Declaration of Jesus' Messiahship
Luke for Everyone - Peter's Declaration of Jesus' Messiahship
by SPCK - N T Wright
Peter’s Declaration of Jesus’ Messiahship Luke 9.18-27 ‘When did you first know’, I asked my friend, ‘that you wanted to be a philosopher?’ (He was at this time already a senior professor of philosophy.) ‘Oh, that’s easy,’ he replied. ‘I knew when I was sitting in my first lectur…
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Coming Judgment
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Coming Judgment
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Coming Judgment John 5.19-29 I spent two hours this morning reading part of my oldest son’s doctoral dissertation. It isn’t on a subject I know anything about, but I was checking to see if I could catch any last minute typographical mistakes, and to get the feel of how the se…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Coming of the Son of Man
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Coming of the Son of Man
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Coming of the Son of Man Matthew 24.29-35 A friend of mine is a composer. (It’s something I would like to have been myself, had things worked out differently, so I take a particular interest in what he does.) I watched one day as he worked on a particular piece he was writing…
Luke for Everyone - The Coming of The Kingdom
Luke for Everyone - The Coming of The Kingdom
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Coming of the Kingdom Luke 17.20-37 What does the word ‘apocalypse’ conjure up to you? Hollywood fantasies? Stars falling from the sky, volcanoes and earthquakes? People in terror, panicking and rushing this way and that? The Bible has plenty of apocalypses, and sometimes the…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Sign of Jonah
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Sign of Jonah
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Sign of Jonah Matthew 12.33-42 We all like to play at being amateur detectives. Every year another crop of novels appears, and sometimes plays and movies as well, in which a wicked deed has been performed and nobody can figure out who did it. Some of the greatest names in fic…
John for Everyone part 2 - Washing the Disciples' Feet
John for Everyone part 2 - Washing the Disciples' Feet
by SPCK - N T Wright
Washing the Disciples’ Feet John 13.1-11 I had never washed anyone else’s feet (bathing my own children doesn’t really count) until I went to work in a church where they acted out this scene every Holy Week. On the Thursday, the day before Good Friday, many churches arrange a ser…
Revelation for Everyone - Worthy is the Lamb!
Revelation for Everyone - Worthy is the Lamb!
by SPCK - N T Wright
Worthy is the Lamb! Revelation 5.8-14 Think of it as another visit to the theatre. You are sitting in the dark when the drum begins. A slow, steady rhythm. It’s telling you something. It’s going somewhere. It builds up, louder and louder. Then the voices join in. Wild, excited si…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Lent Joshua 5.9–12 2 Corinthians 5.16–21 Luke 15.1–3, 11b–32 Luke, the expert writer, puts the prodigal son as the third of a set of stories about losing and finding. All of the stories emphasize God’s joy at finding what had been lost, but the story of the p…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Born of God
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Born of God
by SPCK - N T Wright
Born of God 1 John 3.1-10 There are many stories about people who are blind who then receive the gift of sight. One of the most remarkable, of course, is found in chapter 9 of John’s gospel, where Jesus heals a man who had been born blind. But there are plenty more such stories i…
John for Everyone Part 1 - From Below of from Above
John for Everyone Part 1 - From Below of from Above
by SPCK - N T Wright
From Below or from Above John 8.21-29 ‘The house is on fire! Get up at once!’ She burst into the dormitory where several of the other girls were sleeping. She dashed to the nearest bed and shook the sleeper violently. ‘Come on! There’s no time! You’ll be burnt alive!’ ‘Go back to…
Luke for Everyone - Jesus' Baptism and Genealogy
Luke for Everyone - Jesus' Baptism and Genealogy
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus’ Baptism and Genealogy Luke 3.21-38 When I visited New Zealand some years ago, I was taught how to greet an audience in the traditional Maori fashion. I much enjoyed and appreciated the welcome I was given by this ancient people, many of whom are now devout Christians, and …
John for Everyone Part 1 - Philip and Nathanael
John for Everyone Part 1 - Philip and Nathanael
by SPCK - N T Wright
Philip and Nathanael John 1.43-51 Jacob was a schemer and twister. All his early life he had one eye on the main chance, especially if it meant getting one up on his older twin, Esau. In fact, even the story of how they were born included the telling detail: he’d been holding on …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 14 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 14 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 14 Isaiah 1.1, 10–20 Hebrews 11.1–3, 8–16 Luke 12.32–40 Stories about a master going away and returning would have been interpreted in Jesus’ world as stories about Israel’s God, YHWH. He had ‘gone away’ at the exile, as Ezekiel describes graphically. At no point in the ‘p…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 5 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 5 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 5 1 Kings 17.8–24 Galatians 1.11–24 Luke 7.11–17 Luke has, fairly obviously, told the story of the widow’s son at Nain in such a way as to evoke the similar story of Elijah and the widow’s son at Zarephath – who, interestingly, was already referred to in Jesus’ ‘Nazareth m…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Temptation in the Wilderness
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Temptation in the Wilderness
by SPCK - N T Wright
Temptation in the Wilderness Matthew 4.1-11 Jennifer went for a long walk in the woods. It had been an exhausting six months, and she needed time to think. She had concentrated on the campaign. Ever since her local party had told her, to her surprise, that they wanted her to be t…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The First and the Last
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The First and the Last
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First and the Last Matthew 19.23-30 ‘I’m telling you the truth,’ Jesus replied. ‘In God’s great new world, when the son of man sits on his glorious throne, all of you who have followed me will sit on twelve thrones – yes, you! – and rule over the twelve tribes of Israel. 29An…
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Healing of the Cripple