Search Results
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
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 1 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 1 - Year A Isaiah 58.1–12 1 Corinthians 2.1–16 Matthew 5.13–20 Isaiah’s stinging rebuke contains the seeds of the Sermon on the Mount. True piety must be part of the outward movement to share your blessing with the world. Fasting is useless if injustice goes unchecked. L…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Tuesday: Fourth Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Tuesday: Fourth Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 4: TUESDAY Matthew 20; focused on 20.1–16 The game was nearly over, and neither side had scored a goal. The spectators were getting angry, and the players were exhausted. One player on the home team, in particular, had worked tirelessly the whole game, running from end to en…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: Fourth Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: Fourth Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 4: THURSDAY Matthew 21.23 – 46; focused on 21.33 – 45 I was taking a service in a local church when this passage was the second reading. Over at the side of the church was a family with a three-year-old boy who appeared to be playing with his toys, taking no notice of the se…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Easter Saturday Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Easter Saturday Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
EASTER SATURDAY Matthew 22.34 – 40 ‘So what’s your all-time favourite song, then?’I listened as John put his friend on the spot. They had been discussing music of various sorts and styles. This was a way of getting to the heart of the matter. ‘Let me play safe,’ the friend rep…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Easter Day Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Easter Day Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Easter Day- Year A Jeremiah 31.1–6 Colossians 3.1–4 John 20.1–18 Again you shall plant vineyards; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy the fruit. Jeremiah echoes Deuteronomy’s promise of covenant renewal, and points forward to John’s Easter garden. Mary was on the right trac…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Easter Monday Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Easter Monday Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
ASTER MONDAY Matthew 28.11–15 One of the things people have often said about the early Christians’ belief in Jesus’ resurrection is that they were obviously so devastated by the failure of their dreams and hopes that they found a way of saying it was all right after all. A grand-…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fourth Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.42–47 1 Peter 2.19–25 John 10.1–10 A student of mine spent a long vacation working with local churches in central Africa. Next term, the College Head asked him, in my presence, what he wanted to do with his degree. ‘Work in third world …
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Third Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.14a, 36–41 1 Peter 1.17–23 Luke 24.13–35 Today’s readings bubble over with the excitement of the new moment that has dawned in Israel’s story, in the world’s story, with the resurrection. It isn’t merely that God is offering a new kind o…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Third Sunday of Advent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Third Sunday of Advent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Third Sunday of Advent - Year A Isaiah 35: 1-10 James 5: 7-10 Matthew 11: 2-11 One of the recently edited Dead Sea Scrolls (no. 521 of the Cave 4 collection, if anyone out there wants the reference) contains a portrait of the coming Messiah that, like Matthew 11, looks back to Is…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Saturday: Week 3 in Lent Year A