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Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year A Ezekiel 37.1–14 Romans 8.6–11 John 11.1–45 ‘Resurrection’ began as a metaphor for the return from exile. Ezekiel’s surreal vision was an image of Israel, ‘dead’ in Babylon, being restored to her own land. It goes with the promises of the previou…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Lent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The First Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First Sunday of Lent - Year A Genesis 2.15–17; 3.1–7 Romans 5.12–19 Matthew 4.1–11 Students set to translate Romans 5 often despair: some of its ‘sentences’ have neither subjects nor verbs nor objects, but are just collocations of indirect phrases. Paul at his most obliqu…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday of Lent Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - The Second Sunday of Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday of Lent - Year A Genesis 12.1–4a Romans 4.1–5, 13–17 John 3.1–17 ‘Leave country, kin and home, and go.’ And Abram went. The call was like that other word, to leave and cleave, spoken before the Fall: a marriage vow, a challenge and a pledge of loyalty. Like,…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Saturday: Second Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Saturday: Second Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 2: SATURDAY Matthew 13; focused on 13.31–33, 44 – 46 An earthly story with a heavenly meaning.’ I used to think that that old Sunday- school definition of a parable was a harmless comment. I now think it’s more likely to be dangerous nonsense. Jesus didn’t tell parables to p…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Friday: Week 2 in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Friday: Week 2 in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 2: FRIDAY Matthew 12.22–50; focused on 12.27–32 27 Just in case anyone thought that the vision of a gentle, humble Messiah meant that he would be a pushover for every evil power that came along, the present passage sets the balance straight. One of the things everybody knew …
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: First Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Sunday: First Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 2: SUNDAY Psalm 121 1 I must have sung this Psalm a hundred, perhaps a thousand, times before I stopped to think about the famous first verse. (I have seen it carved above doors and mantelpieces in mountainous parts of the country, sometimes in Latin.) ‘I lift my eyes to …
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: First Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: First Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 1: THURSDAY Matthew 8; focused on 8.23 –34 Let’s go on that boat and think what it was like. It’s a small lake, as lakes go, but sudden storms come sweeping down from the hills. All of us in the boat know of people who’ve been drowned there, of whole boats that have been swa…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: Second Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Thursday: Second Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 2: THURSDAY Matthew 12.1–21; focused on 12.15 –21 To get the full flavour of what’s going on here, you should really read not just Matthew 12, but Isaiah 42 as a whole. Actually, even that isn’t really enough, because Isaiah 42 is a key passage within a much larger unity, Is…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Tuesday: First Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Tuesday: First Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 1: TUESDAY Matthew 6; focused on 6.5 –15 At the very heart of Jesus’ vision of the kingdom – of heaven’s kingdom coming on earth – we have a picture of one person, secretly in their own room, praying. Prayer is a mystery. I’ve often heard people saying, with a sneer, ‘It doe…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Wednesday: First Week in Lent Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Wednesday: First Week in Lent Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
WEEK 1: WEDNESDAY Matthew 7; focused on 7.15 –23 One of the great lies of our time is to suppose that because Jesus brings forgiveness, and urges us to be forgiving people, meek and gentle, there is no sharp edge to his message. To hear some people, you’d think the whole of the C…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Maundy Thursday Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Maundy Thursday Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
OLY WEEK: MAUNDY THURSDAY Matthew 27.1–32 27 A few years ago there was a great railway disaster. Two trains, approaching London, speeded on to the same bit of track. Many were killed, several injured. There was a long official enquiry. At the end of it, after countless hours of a…
Mark for Everyone - On Paying Taxes to Caesar
Mark for Everyone - On Paying Taxes to Caesar
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 12.13–17 On Paying Taxes to Caesar... ...I have on my desk one of the tribute-pennies from the reign of Tiberius Caesar. It is almost certainly the type that features in this story. It’s about the size of my thumbnail, but you can make out the writing quite…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul Before Agrippa
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul Before Agrippa
by SPCK - N T Wright
Paul Before AgrippaActs 26.1-11 One of the great, though controversial, bishops of Durham in the first half of the twentieth century was Hensley Henson. He was a brilliant speaker and writer, a much loved (though sharp-tongued) pastor, and a great campaigner on all kinds of soc…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul Before the Sanhedrin
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul Before the Sanhedrin
by SPCK - N T Wright
Paul Before the Sanhedrin Acts 23.1-11 Ever since the French Revolution, politics has been seen in terms of a left–right spectrum. The further Left you go (it is assumed), the more you will favour freedom from constricting and aristocratic authority, loose structures, plenty of v…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Paul's Appeal to His Children
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Paul's Appeal to His Children
by SPCK - N T Wright
Paul’s Appeal to His Children Galatians 4.12-20 The French teacher was a strict disciplinarian. We weren’t allowed to speak a word of English during the classes, and neither did he. Everything, even trivial comments or requests, had to be made in French. He was determined that we…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul in Ephesus
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul in Ephesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Paul in Ephesus Acts 19.1-10 The response of the disciples Paul met at Ephesus has passed into common parlance, at least among theologians. Not long ago I was helping to organize a conference, and was inviting distinguished speakers from various parts of the world to attend and r…
New Testament Prayer for Everyone - Praise the the Creator
New Testament Prayer for Everyone - Praise the the Creator
by SPCK - N T Wright
PART 2 PRAYERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT OTHER EARLY CHRISTIAN PRAYERS PRAISE TO THE CREATOR Revelation 4:6b-11 Scientists and anthropologists have often asked themselves, ‘What is it that humans can do that computers can’t do?’ Computers, after all, can play chess better than most of…
Revelation bible study guide - Praise to the Creator