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Early Christian Letters for Everyone - False Prophets
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - False Prophets
by SPCK - N T Wright
False Prophets 2 Peter 2.1-10a ‘I told you it was easy to get lost.’ Our host stood on the doorstep with a wry smile on his face. We had assumed we more or less knew the way. We have a good sense of direction. We had even been there before; surely we would remember the route once…
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath
Luke for Everyone - Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath Luke 13.10-21 Let’s, for a change, imagine that you are on the edge of the crowd that has followed Jesus so far. You haven’t heard everything and haven’t understood all you’ve heard, but you think you’ve got the general drift of it all …
2 Corinthians - No, They are False Prophets!
2 Corinthians - No, They are False Prophets!
by SPCK - N T Wright
No, They Are False Apostles! 2 CORINTHIANS 11.7-15 The door to my study was open when the telephone rang in the hall, so I couldn’t help overhearing the conversation, or rather this end of it. And what I heard was quite disturbing. ‘How could you think I imagined that . . .?’ ‘Bu…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Peter's Denial
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Peter's Denial
by SPCK - N T Wright
Peter’s Denial Matthew 26.69-75 In his novel Thinks . . . , the English writer David Lodge tells the story of a woman who discovers, after his death, that her husband, whom she had loved and trusted, had been regularly unfaithful to her for several years. At the same time, she me…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Creation Asserts Itself
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Creation Asserts Itself
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Creation Asserts Itself Genesis 3: 1-3 A talking snake? But this is a parable, remember. In Julia Bolden’s version of the story, the tempter is a parrot, and God’s ban concerns television; Adam and Eve are not to watch the good and- bad-knowledge channel. A parrot flies in throug…
John for Everyone part 2 - The Spirit and the World
John for Everyone part 2 - The Spirit and the World
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Spirit and the World John 16.1-11 I once saw a film based on one of Charles Dickens’s novels. The film was about poverty and the degrading effect it has on people. One of the most depressing scenes was in a lawyer’s office, as the relatives of a man imprisoned for debt were d…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Scandal and Judgment
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Scandal and Judgment
by SPCK - N T Wright
Scandal and Judgment 1 Corinthians 5.1-5 When I was a boy, studying Greek and Latin classics, the texts we were given to study often had bits cut out. There were lines missing from poems, and sometimes entire sections; in one case (in the Roman writer Juvenal, I recall) a whole p…
2 Corinthians - Time to Forgive
2 Corinthians - Time to Forgive
by SPCK - N T Wright
Time to Forgive 2 CORINTHIANS 2.5-11 ‘What can I do for you, then?’ The doctor smiled over his spectacles. ‘It’s my memory,’ said the patient. ‘I just can’t remember things like I used to.’ ‘How long has this problem been going on?’ asked the doctor. The patient looked puzzled. ‘…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - A First Monster
Lectionary Reflection Year C - A First Monster
by SPCK - N T Wright
A First Monster Revelation 13.1-10 He wasn’t acting alone. That was the conclusion the enquiry reached after a long investigation into the background of a strange murder in a city street. A foreign diplomat had been stabbed by a young man who ran away, but was caught. At his tria…
Revelation for Everyone - Final Judgement
Revelation for Everyone - Final Judgement
by SPCK - N T Wright
Final Judgement Revelation 20.7-15 John was not the first to suppose that after God’s great act of rescue and restoration there might be a further challenge, a final fling of the powers of evil against the already-redeemed people of God. In one of his favourite books of scripture…
Revelation for Everyone - A Dragon is Angry
Revelation for Everyone - A Dragon is Angry
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Dragon Is Angry Revelation 12.7-18 A happy argument took place in the changing-room after the end of the match. Who had scored the winning goal? There had been a big scramble in the goalmouth; the ball was bouncing to and fro; two of the attacking players had both swung a foo…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus and Beelzebul
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus and Beelzebul
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus and Beelzebul Matthew 12.22-32 ‘How did they do it?’ We stood looking up at the west front of one of France’s great medieval cathedrals. It was massive, majestic and awe-inspiring. At the same time, the overall shaping of the stone was so beautifully worked that it seemed t…
Revelation for Everyone - The Monster and the Whore
Revelation for Everyone - The Monster and the Whore
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Monster and the Whore Revelation 18.9-18 I remember my excitement when, as a boy, I learned to read a map. Someone had given me a ‘maps made easy’ sort of book, which explained how all the symbols worked. I remember being especially fascinated by the contour lines. Growing up…
Revelation for Everyone - The Monster Defeated
Revelation for Everyone - The Monster Defeated
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Monster Defeated Revelation 19.11-21 People used to write books and articles about ‘the messianic expectation’ in the time of Jesus. Ancient Jewish sources were combed and sifted to yield every fragment of information about what Jesus’ contemporaries were waiting for when the…
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Warning Signs on the Wrong Road
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Warning Signs on the Wrong Road
by SPCK - N T Wright
Warning Signs on the Wrong Road Ephesians 2.1-7 Many years ago, I was staying for a few days in Cape Town, South Africa. Among the people I wanted to meet was an elderly man who lived on the edge of the city, in one of the outer suburbs. We arranged by telephone that I should dri…
LWPT Meditations - Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
LWPT Meditations - Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
by Susan Thorne
Meditation - 24thSunday in Ordinary Time Yr B Proverbs 1: 20-33 Psalm 19 James 3: 1-12 Mark 8: 27-38 They are some of the angriest words spoken by Jesus, and directed at a greatly loved and well-intentioned disciple; “Get behind me, Satan” (Mark 8 v 33)– almost the same words he…
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - The Kindness that Imitates God Himself
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - The Kindness that Imitates God Himself
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Kindness that Imitates God Himself Ephesians 4.25-5.2 The best-known literary figure in eighteenth-century England was Dr Samuel Johnson. A native of Lichfield in Staffordshire, he spent most of his adult life in London. He wrote many works, especially his famous Dictionary a…
Revelation for Everyone - The Letter to Smyrna