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Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 12 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 12 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 12 Hosea 1.2–10 Colossians 2.6–19 Luke 11.1–13 Part of the prophetic vocation seems to have been to carry the pain of the message in one’s own soul. Thus it was, at least, with Hosea. Married to a prostitute, he felt not only the pain of Israel but also the pain of God, se…
Luke for Everyone - Questions about Table-Company and Fasting
Luke for Everyone - Questions about Table-Company and Fasting
by SPCK - N T Wright
Questions about Table-Company and Fasting Luke 5.27-39 Technology advances so fast that most of us can’t keep up. If you buy a computer today, by tomorrow it will be getting out of date. Within a year or two you won’t be able to get spare parts for it. Teams of engineers are work…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Puffed Up or Powerful
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Puffed Up or Powerful
by SPCK - N T Wright
Puffed Up or Powerful 1 Corinthians 4.14-21 We all know the difference between talk and power. Imagine you are driving along a road, without worrying too much about how fast you’re going. All of a sudden a large car with flashing lights overtakes you and motions you to pull over.…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 9 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 9 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 9 2 Kings 5.1–14 Galatians 6.1–16 Luke 10.1–11, 16–20 Going out like lambs amid wolves hardly makes sense in any culture. Only Jesus could propose something so apparently hare-brained yet strangely powerful. Only he, knowing himself to be utterly vulnerable, yet protected …
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Riot in the Temple
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Riot in the Temple
by SPCK - N T Wright
Riot in the Temple Acts 21.27-36 On the news every day, as I write this, there is footage of American and British soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. Like many others, I was of the opinion that we were wrong to start what we did in that part of the world, and I haven’t changed that…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Rich and Poor at the Table of the Lord
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Rich and Poor at the Table of the Lord
by SPCK - N T Wright
Rich and Poor at the Table of the Lord 1 Corinthians 11.17-22 The school groundsman was working to get the sports field ready for the big match the next day. The same pitch had been used for both hockey and football, and he needed to be sure that it was now marked out afresh with…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Resurrection Gives Meaning to Present Christian Life
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Resurrection Gives Meaning to Present Christian Life
by SPCK - N T Wright
Resurrection Gives Meaning to Present Christian Living 1 Corinthians 15.29-34 We stood in the great Coliseum in Rome, and stared at the chambers and passages underneath where the floor would have been. ‘This is where they kept the wild animals,’ our guide said. ‘They used ropes a…
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…
The Pastoral Letters - Slaves, Masters and Sound Teaching
The Pastoral Letters - Slaves, Masters and Sound Teaching
by SPCK - N T Wright
Slaves, Masters and Sound Teaching 1Timothy 6.1-5 Supposing the world goes on for another thousand years, and the Christians alive at that time look back at our generation, what will shock them most? We could each, no doubt, draw up our list of (other people’s) failings and fault…
Hebrews for Everyone - So - Come to Worship
Hebrews for Everyone - So - Come to Worship
by SPCK - N T Wright
So- Come to Worship! Hebrews 10.19-25 I watched as my mother came in from shopping, carrying several bulging bags. She called me to help get the rest from the car. I couldn’t think why she’d bought so much food, but I fetched and carried and unloaded as best I could. Then I remem…
Luke for Everyone - Simeon and Anna
Luke for Everyone - Simeon and Anna
by SPCK - N T Wright
Simeon and Anna Luke 2.21-40 I watched as the craftsman went about his task. He carefully set the lead into the window to be the framework for the beautiful glass he had been staining. Now came the moment: where before was a plain window, now there was a riot of colour and shape,…
2 Corinthians - The Battle for the Mind
2 Corinthians - The Battle for the Mind
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Battle for the Mind It was pitch dark, and the prickles from the bush I was hiding behind were sticking through my clothes and into my skin. I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear, very faintly, someone coming along the path. All chance of reaching my own goal had disappea…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - The "Rights" of an Apostle
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - The "Rights" of an Apostle
by SPCK - N T Wright
The “Rights” of an Apostle 1 Corinthians 9.1-12a One of the great moral gains of the second half of the twentieth century is the belief, shared by most people around the world, that all people are to be respected and valued. All people, not just some. Weak people, poor people, li…
Luke for Everyone - The Beatitudes
Luke for Everyone - The Beatitudes
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Beatitudes Luke 6.12-26 Let us imagine that you are a schoolteacher. One day, you go out into the school playground, where there are dozens of children kicking footballs around. You go over to where they are, and call for them to gather round. Then you begin, slowly but surel…
The Pastoral Letters - The Battle of Faith
The Pastoral Letters - The Battle of Faith
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Battle of Faith 1Timothy 1.18-20 In the days before ships could navigate by satellite, the compass was the most crucial item on board. Whether it was sunny or snowing, whether it was day or night, whether the ship was on course or off course, the compass was the vital sign th…
Luke for Everyone - The Celebration of Jesus
Luke for Everyone - The Celebration of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Celebration of Jesus Luke 10.17-24 What was it like being Jesus? That’s one of the hardest questions for anyone reading the gospels, but this passage gives us some clues. It’s all too easy for Christians to make the mistake of thinking that he just sailed through life with ea…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Calming of the Storm
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Calming of the Storm
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Calming of the Storm Matthew 8.23-27 The sea has always been a symbol of wild, untamable power. You only have to stand beside the ocean, even on a calm day, to sense something of it. There is so much of it, for a start; when the tide comes in, up a beach, imagine how many gal…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Double "Law" and the Miserable "I"