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Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Out of his Own Mouth
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Out of his Own Mouth
by SPCK - N T Wright
Out of His Own Mouth Acts 22.12-22 In British football, the ‘manager’, or head coach, is often the most important character in the whole unit. Players come and players go, but if the manager is good he can make things happen, win tournaments, put on excellent performances no matt…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Opening the door of Faith
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Opening the door of Faith
by SPCK - N T Wright
Opening the Door of Faith Acts 14.21-28 I stood at the back of the exhibition, and chatted with the artist. He was a local man, and we were glad to support him. We had even bought one of his paintings, a marvellous study of a bird in flight. ‘What does it feel like,’ I asked, ‘se…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Pentecost Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Pentecost Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Day of Pentecost - Year A Numbers 11.24–30 Acts 2.1–21 John 7.37–39 Jesus, quoting Scripture, says that rivers of living water will flow out of the believer’s heart. But no Old Testament text says exactly that. Which Scripture is he referring to, then? Isaiah 55, of course, i…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Peace and Hope
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Peace and Hope
by SPCK - N T Wright
Peace and Hope ROMANS 5.1-5 I recently heard of a famous comedian who had been a familiar figure on radio and television for many years. His quick wit and endless supply of jokes guaranteed him a big audience. But when he died, the published obituaries told a darker story as well…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - People of the Lie
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - People of the Lie
by SPCK - N T Wright
People of the Lie 1 John 2. 15-29 The late psychotherapist M. Scott Peck once wrote a book called People of the Lie. It wasn’t, perhaps, as famous as his remarkable (though still controversial) book The Road Less Travelled, but I found it more thought-provoking. In People of the …
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul. You're Mad
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Paul. You're Mad
by SPCK - N T Wright
“Paul, You’re Mad”Acts 26.24-32 I was once lecturing to a group of students in Oxford. We were just getting to the point at the centre of the lecture – I think it was dealing with Romans 8.3 – where I wanted to explain as clearly as I could the full Pauline meaning of the death…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 11 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 11 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 11 Genesis 28.10–19a Romans 8.12–25 Matthew 13.24–30, 36–43 To get the full flavour of the Pauline passage, hold in your mind the story of the children of Israel on their way through the wilderness, having left Egypt but not …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 1 Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - Proper 1 Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 1 Isaiah 6.1–13 1 Corinthians 15.1–11 Luke 5.1–11 ‘The holy seed is its stump.’ Isaiah’s vision in the Temple leaves him with a dreadful commission, to inform God’s people of inevitable exile. The nation will be like a tree felled and burnt. But when the worst has occurred…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 2 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 2 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Proper 2 - Year A Deuteronomy 30.15–20 1 Corinthians 3.1–9 Matthew 5.21–37 A real choice with real consequences. The great temptation today is not so much to cast off all moral restraint – few would actually advocate that, though many act from time to time as though that were the…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 9 Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Proper 9 Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
Twelve Months of Sundays – Year A Ordinary Time Proper 9 Genesis 24.34–38, 42–49, 58–67 Romans 7.15–25a Matthew 11.16–19, 25–30 An American sent me a strange book the other day. Jesus, he argued, was an alcoholic. Roused from his drunkenness by the preaching of John the Baptist, …
Mark for Everyone - Questions about Fasting
Mark for Everyone - Questions about Fasting
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 2.18–22 Questions about Fasting... ...When I was a boy there was a craze for ginger-beer plants. An uncle gave us the starter kit, including the bacteria that, by a process I never understood, produced the secret ingredient that gave the homemade brew its f…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Prophecy Made Sure
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Prophecy Made Sure
by SPCK - N T Wright
Prophecy Made Sure 2 Peter 1.12-21 I am writing this in the middle of winter. First thing in the morning, when I get up, there is no sunlight visible at all. The sky is dark. But, if the clouds are not too thick, there is a light which from ancient times has been seen as an early…
Mark for Everyone - Signs of the End
Mark for Everyone - Signs of the End
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 13.1–13 Signs of the End... ...The place to start to understand this passage is in the middle, at verse 8: ‘These are the beginnings of the birthpangs.’ Jesus’ disciples would have known more about birthpangs than most modern men. I watched three of my four…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - The Call to the World, and the Father of Israel
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - The Call to the World, and the Father of Israel
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Call to the World, and the Failure of Israel ROMANS 10.14-21 Not long ago, some friends of ours came into possession of a large old house, and decided to do a first-class job of restoring it. To make sure all the details were taken care of, they hired a consultant to oversee …
Mark for Everyone - The Calling of the Disciples
Mark for Everyone - The Calling of the Disciples
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 1.14–20 The Calling of the Disciples... ...The poet John Betjeman describes in his verse autobiography how his father put pressure on him to follow him into the family business. The young John had no desire to do so; he wanted to be a poet. That’s just a st…
Mark for Everyone - The Burial of Jesus
Mark for Everyone - The Burial of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 15.40–47 The Burial of Jesus... ...Yesterday a friend came to see me in great excitement. He had been in Jerusalem a few weeks earlier, and had happened to be present when an archaeologist stumbled upon a previously unknown first-century tomb, just outside …
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Canaanite Woman