SPCK
Simply Jesus - The Campaign Starts here
Simply Jesus - The Campaign Starts here
by SPCK - N T Wright
The campaign starts here Keep these spectacles on, then, as we come back to Jesus and to what he was saying about God – about Israel’s God. Jesus was going about declaring, after the manner of someone issuing a public proclamation, that Israel’s God was at last becoming king. ‘Th…
Simply Jesus - God's in charge now
Simply Jesus - God's in charge now
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s in charge now The reason there were crowds with Jesus that day as he rode into Jerusalem is that there were always crowds around Jesus, from the beginning. He attracted them. The first thing most people knew about Jesus was that when he arrived in the village there was a pa…
Simply Jesus - The Hurricane
Simply Jesus - The Hurricane
by SPCK - N T Wright
The hurricane The gale of Rome and the high-pressure system of Jewish hopes. It takes one more wind to make the perfect storm. And, as in the original Massachusetts disaster, this one was of a different order altogether. To understand this great cyclone, this tropical hurricane, …
Simply Jesus - The Making of a First-Century Storm
Simply Jesus - The Making of a First-Century Storm
by SPCK - N T Wright
The making of a first-century storm A really good metaphor deserves more than one outing – as Jesus himself seems to have found, using and reusing ideas and scenes in his kaleidoscopic display of parables. Let’s have another go at the perfect storm, then, but now set in the first…
Simply Jesus - The Perfect Storm
Simply Jesus - The Perfect Storm
by SPCK - N T Wright
The perfect storm It was late October 1991. The crew of the fishing boat Andrea Gail, out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, had taken the vessel five hundred miles out into the Atlantic. A cold front moving along the Canadian border sent a strong disturbance through New England, whil…
Simply Jesus - The three puzzles
Simply Jesus - The three puzzles
by SPCK - N T Wright
The three puzzles Jesus of Nazareth, then, stands out in the middle of history. Tens of millions call him ‘Lord’ and do their best to follow him. Countless others, including some who try to ignore him, find that he pops up all over the place – a line in a song, an image in a film…
Simply Jesus - A very odd sort of king
Simply Jesus - A very odd sort of king
by SPCK - N T Wright
A very odd sort of king ‘As Jesus was going along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. When he came to the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began to celebrate and praise God at the tops of their voices’ (Luke 19.36 –37). The crowd went wild…
Simply Jesus - Preface
Simply Jesus - Preface
by SPCK - N T Wright
Preface Jesus of Nazareth poses a question and a challenge two thousand years after his lifetime. The question is fairly simple: who exactly was he? This includes the questions, What did he think he was up to? What did he do and say, why was he killed, and did he rise from the de…
Exodus and Leviticus - GLOSSARY
Exodus and Leviticus - GLOSSARY
by SPCK - John Goldingay
GLOSSARY aide A supernatural agent through whom God appears and works in the world. Standard English translations refer to them as “angels,” but this rather suggests ethereal figures with wings, wearing diaphanous white dresses. Aides are humanlike figures; hence it is possible t…
Exodus and Leviticus - Human Promises
Exodus and Leviticus - Human Promises
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Human Promises LEVITICUS 27: 1- 34 A distinctive feature of my seminary in the United States compared with my seminary in Britain is the high number of students who are “pastor’s kids” or “missionary kids.” I have wondered what lay behind this difference. It raises a question rai…
Exodus and Leviticus - Promises and Warnings and Promises
Exodus and Leviticus - Promises and Warnings and Promises
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Promises and Warnings and Promises LEVITICUS 26: 3- 46 Yesterday a student from a two-thirds-world country came to see me to talk about wealth and poverty, about the idea that God exercised a preferential option for the poor, about whether it was okay for us to enjoy the wealth w…
Exodus and Leviticus - The Jubilee
Exodus and Leviticus - The Jubilee
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Jubilee LEVITICUS 25: 1- 26: 2 The other day, I heard a story about a couple who have just had their home repossessed. Part of the story’s sadness was that it is not only the house where the wife had been born but the house where her father had been born. The couple had inher…
Exodus and Leviticus - An Eye for an Eye
Exodus and Leviticus - An Eye for an Eye
by SPCK - John Goldingay
An Eye for an Eye LEVITICUS 24: 10- 23 Two or three years ago, the Archbishop of Los Angeles was attacked one night near the cathedral as he went out to mail a letter. His assailant simply went up to him, punched him, pushed him to the ground, and kicked him. He was bruised but n…
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Celebrate
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Celebrate
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Celebrate LEVITICUS 23: 1- 24:9 When my parents could afford it, two or three times as a teenager I was able to go to “camps,” as they would be called in the United States (I am glad to say there were no tents in sight; we slept in school dormitories). It was at one of the…
Exodus and Leviticus - Some Responsibilities of Priests
Exodus and Leviticus - Some Responsibilities of Priests
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Some Responsibilities of Priests LEVITICUS 21: 1- 22:33 When you give people presents, you can get into a lot of trouble, some of which you deserve. You can spend time and money finding what you hope will be just right for someone and find it was just the wrong thing: “You think …
Exodus and Leviticus - Improving on Creation
Exodus and Leviticus - Improving on Creation
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Improving on Creation LEVITICUS : 19: 19- 20:27 When a man and his wife are about to go out and the wife asks whether she looks okay, the appropriate answer is “You look lovely” (not “Maybe that dress and those shoes don’t go together”). If she then says, “Is that what you really…
Exodus and Leviticus - Be Holy as I am Holy
Exodus and Leviticus - Be Holy as I am Holy
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Be Holy as I am Holy LEVITICUS : 19: 1- 18 Today’s newspaper reports on the release from a detention center in Iraq of a twenty-seven-year-old man, after eighteen months there. He was given a letter to say that his case had been concluded and the occupation authorities had decide…
Exodus and Leviticus - The Life Is in the Blood