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Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 5 Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - Proper 5 Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 5 1 Samuel 8.4-11 [12-15] 16-20 [11.14-15] 2 Corinthians 4.13-5.1 Mark 3.20-35 So: did God want Israel to have a king, or didn’t he? The question haunts not only this passage in 1 Samuel but much of the rest of the account of the monarchy, from the ill-fated Saul right dow…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Stephen Tells the Story
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Stephen Tells the Story
by SPCK - N T Wright
Stephen Tells the Story Acts 7.1-16 One of the most obvious differences between cricket and baseball is the way the ball is projected towards the person who is trying to hit it. As most people will know, the person who ‘pitches’ in baseball stands on a single spot, where he (or s…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - The Clash of Loyalties
Acts for Everyone part 1 - The Clash of Loyalties
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Clash of Loyalties Acts 4. 13-22 Jennifer was teaching some basic geography to a class of eight- year-olds. They were studying Australia. They had just drawn a rough map together, and had worked out where the main cities were. Then Jennifer asked the class if anyone could say…
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - The Mystery and The Victory
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - The Mystery and The Victory
by SPCK - N T Wright
5 THE RENEWAL OF THE WORLD THE MYSTETY AND THE VICTORY 1 Corinthians 15: 50-58 He stood there in baggy jeans, trainers, and an old sweater. ‘You can’t come in like that,’ I said. ‘This is a smart lunch, and we’re the guests. We’ve got to get it right.’ ‘No problem,’ he replied, a…
Mark for Everyone - The Rich Young Ruler
Mark for Everyone - The Rich Young Ruler
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 10.17–31 The Rich Young Ruler... ...When I was a boy, grown-ups used to divide their history into two periods: Before the War, and After the War (or Since the War). The Second World War had torn a hole in their world. Everything was different now: a differe…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Sixth Sunday of Easter Acts 10.44-48 1 John 5.1-6 John 15.9-17 ‘His commandments are not burdensome.’ Hard to take, that, in a world where all commandments are burdensome, where anybody telling anyone else what to do – even God telling his creatures what to do – is felt as an…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Third Sunday before Advent Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The Third Sunday before Advent Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday Before Advent Jonah 3.1-5, 10 Hebrews 9.24-28 Mark 1.14-20 ‘Once, only once, and once for all.’ The hymn that starts thus withdraws with the left hand some of what it gives with the right, hinting that Christ’s unique sacrifice is still somehow present in the e…
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Tuesday Holy Week Year B
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Tuesday Holy Week Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B HOLY WEEK TUESDAY... ...Two generations ago, J. B. Phillips (best known for his translation of the New Testament) published a little book called Your God Is Too Small. It was a moving appeal for ordinary Christians to lift up their eyes and imaginati…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Sundays Before Advent The Fourth Sunday Before Advent Micah 3.5–12 1 Thessalonians 2.9–13 Matthew 24.1–14 ‘That was a really depressing morning,’ said one disciple to another, leaning back in the sparse shade of the olive tree to keep out of the mi…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 6 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 6 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 6 Exodus 19.2–8a Romans 5.1–8 Matthew 9.35—10.8 Christians know that, through the work of God in Christ, made real to them by the Holy Spirit, the world is a different place. We are, to use Paul’s characteristic phrase, ‘justif…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Mark of Cain
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Mark of Cain
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Mark of Cain Genesis 4: 14-17 Our church shows up at a local homeless shelter to make dinner for the residents there once a month or so. Homeless “shelter” could give a false impression. Before I went there, I imagined something rather makeshift, almost like the shelters in w…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 11 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 11 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 11 Mark 6.30–34, 53–56 Gaze at the crush as people lean forward and grab the cloak that wraps around the shoulders of one extraordinary man. They stretch out to touch it, they push and shove to get near the front, to stroke his tunic and finger the hem. It is almost as if …
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 9 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 9 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 9 Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20 Gaze on yourself as you arrive in a town for the first time. Have you booked your hotel room ahead, or are you leaving it to chance? Recall the strange street signs, the one-way system that confuses and traps you, and the difficulty in finding a plac…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 23 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 23 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 23 Amos 5.6-7, 10-15 Hebrews 4:12-16 Mark 10.17-31 Is it just me, or are the readings actually getting harder at this time of year? Not only more difficult to understand, but also more sombre? Certainly, today’s reading from Hebrews has taken large quantities of caffeine, …
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Creation Renewed
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Creation Renewed
by SPCK - N T Wright
5 THE RENEWAL OF THE WORLD CREATION RENEWED 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…
Mark for Everyone - David’s Son and the Widow’s Mite
Mark for Everyone - David’s Son and the Widow’s Mite
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 12.35–44 David’s Son and the Widow’s Mite... ...The final scene in the Temple courtyards takes us to a dense and difficult riddle which Jesus himself puts to his hearers (and which they cannot answer), and to a small but striking incident by the Temple trea…
Revelation bible study guide - Getting the Most Out of Revelation
Revelation bible study guide - Getting the Most Out of Revelation
by SPCK - N T Wright
Getting the Most Out of Revelation Many people today regard Revelation as the hardest book in the New Testament. It is full of strange, lurid, and sometimes bizarre and violent imagery. You might have thought that in a world of clever movies and DVDs, stuffed full of complex imag…
Mark for Everyone - Jesus' Baptism