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Acts for Everyone part 1 - Peter's Vision
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Peter's Vision
by SPCK - N T Wright
Peter’s Vision Acts 10.1-16 When I went off to university it was much more of an awesome experience than it is for many today. I had scraped into Oxford by the skin of my teeth, having spent too much of my teenage years doing everything else, particularly sport and music, rather …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Peter's Rescue and Rhoda's Mistake
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Peter's Rescue and Rhoda's Mistake
by SPCK - N T Wright
Peter’s Rescue and Rhoda’s Mistake Acts 12.6-19 One of the sure touches of a master writer is knowing how to create a seriously funny scene in the middle of an extremely serious one. Think of Shakespeare’s subplots, with the gravedigger scene in Hamlet providing dark humour when …
John for Everyone part 2 - Peter Denies Jesus
John for Everyone part 2 - Peter Denies Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Peter Denies Jesus John 18.15-27 There is a part of the human brain which seems to be closed off for much of the time, but which can be reached at once through the sense of smell. You can be walking down the street, thinking of something completely different, when a single sniff …
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…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Problems of Family Living
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Problems of Family Living
by SPCK - N T Wright
Problems of Family Living Acts 6.1-7 Late one night there was a knock at the door. It was a good friend of ours. His hat was on crooked and he had wild excitement in his face. ‘It’s twins!’ he shouted as we ushered him in. ‘We had no idea! Two girls! The doctors hadn’t spotted it…
Luke for Everyone - Prediction of Peter's Betrayal
Luke for Everyone - Prediction of Peter's Betrayal
by SPCK - N T Wright
Prediction of Peter’s Denial Luke 22.24-38 Imagine a football manager trying to prepare his squad for the match of their lives. They are facing their greatest opponents, with a major trophy at stake. He needs them to be totally focused on the task in hand. He has just outlined to…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 17 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 17 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 17 Jeremiah 2.4–13 Hebrews 13.1–8, 15–16 Luke 14.1, 7–14 Don’t sit at the top table, declares Jesus; start at the bottom and see what happens. If this is a parable, as Luke says, it isn’t advice about behaviour at dinner parties. In Luke’s wider context, its meaning is cog…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 18 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 18 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 18 Jeremiah 18.1–11 Philemon 1–21 Luke 14.25–33 Luke 14 has more than its fair share of ‘hard sayings’. Hate your family; give up your possessions. A nice clear message for the end of the summer holidays. And, to back it up, a solemn warning: such carrying the cross requ…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Stephen Becomes a Target
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Stephen Becomes a Target
by SPCK - N T Wright
Stephen Becomes a Target Acts 6.8-15 Without in any way wishing to complain, I do have a fellow feeling with Stephen in this passage. He has only just been appointed a ‘deacon’, with particular responsibility for helping organize the daily distribution of food to the community …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Stephen and Moses
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Stephen and Moses
by SPCK - N T Wright
Stephen and Moses Acts 7.17-34 Where do you get your sense of national identity? In America, people often look back to three great moments. First, there was the arrival in America of the first settlers from Europe, particularly from Britain. Second, there was the glorious revolut…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Stay the Way You Were Called
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Stay the Way You Were Called
by SPCK - N T Wright
Stay the Way You Were Called 1 Corinthians 7.17-24 I once sat in an entranced audience as one of the leading comedians of the day told a very long, very funny, story. The story itself was clever, witty, and amusing in all sorts of ways; but what fascinated me was the way he would…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Speaking Clearly in Church
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Speaking Clearly in Church
by SPCK - N T Wright
Speaking Clearly in Church 1 Corinthians 14.6-12 Two days ago I went to a meeting where seven or eight different languages were used in quick succession. There was a large crowd being addressed, including people from many parts of the world. One by one the speakers got up and spo…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Taking Root- and a Name!- in Antioch
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Taking Root- and a Name!- in Antioch
by SPCK - N T Wright
Taking Root - and a Name! - in Antioch Acts 1.19-30 The other day I had to go to Cambridge once more, just for a few hours. Looking for a particular shop, I walked up King’s Parade, and was reminded of someone once saying that if there’s anybody in the world you want to meet, you…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Suffering as the Messiah Did
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Suffering as the Messiah Did
by SPCK - N T Wright
Suffering as the Messiah Did 1 Peter 2.18-25 Not long ago, at the height of a snowstorm, our house, and two nearby villages as well, were without electric power for fourteen hours. Our heating system is controlled by electricity, so the house became very cold. We could burn logs …
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Taming the Tongue
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Taming the Tongue
by SPCK - N T Wright
Taming the Tongue James 3.1-12 Some while ago I was asked to give a talk about my early life and why I had chosen the path I did. I was surprised, when preparing the talk, to discover how many of the key moments in my first fifteen years were to do with my teachers. Like many oth…
2 Corinthians - Super Apostles?
2 Corinthians - Super Apostles?
by SPCK - N T Wright
Super-Apostles 2 CORINTHIANS 11.1-6 Many movies have as a stock theme the marriage service that goes wrong at the last minute. The famous 1960s movie, The Graduate, ended up with the hero dashing into the church where his true love was about to marry someone else, and snatching h…
Luke for Everyone - The Boy Jesus
Luke for Everyone - The Boy Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Boy Jesus Luke 2.41-52 When I was a child, I walked a mile to the bus stop every morning, by myself or with my sister. At the other end of the trip, I walked by myself to school. In the evening, I came back the same way. I never felt unsafe, even in the dark winter days. Now,…
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Blind Man's Parents