SPCK
Revelation for Everyone - The Day is Coming!
Revelation for Everyone - The Day is Coming!
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Day Is Coming! Revelation 6.9-17 There are three ways of ending a game of chess. The first is that one player or the other simply wins the game. There is no question: this is checkmate, and that’s the end of it. The second is that both players realize the game is unwinnable, …
Revelation for Everyone - Four Horsemen
Revelation for Everyone - Four Horsemen
by SPCK - N T Wright
Four Horsemen Revelation 6.1-8 All doctors, and all pastors, know that when someone comes to them with a problem, the problem they talk about may not be the only problem they have. The pain that gets someone into the doctor’s surgery may well be only a symptom of much deeper ills…
Revelation for Everyone - Worthy is the Lamb!
Revelation for Everyone - Worthy is the Lamb!
by SPCK - N T Wright
Worthy is the Lamb! Revelation 5.8-14 Think of it as another visit to the theatre. You are sitting in the dark when the drum begins. A slow, steady rhythm. It’s telling you something. It’s going somewhere. It builds up, louder and louder. Then the voices join in. Wild, excited si…
Revelation for Everyone - The Lion, The Lamb
Revelation for Everyone - The Lion, The Lamb
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Lion, the Lamb Revelation 5.1-7 We stood and stared at the letter as it lay on the doormat. It was a smart envelope, good quality paper, with clear, bold typewritten name and address. And at the top, in even larger letters, we saw the words: TO BE OPENED BY ADDRESSEE ONLY. An…
Revelation for Everyone - Praise to the Creator
Revelation for Everyone - Praise to the Creator
by SPCK - N T Wright
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 us. They can work out answers to all kinds of questions that woul…
Revelation for Everyone - In the Throne Room
Revelation for Everyone - In the Throne Room
by SPCK - N T Wright
In the Throne Room Revelation 4.1-6a We were walking into the cathedral as part of a great procession. My companion, a senior clergyman, was looking at the service paper we had been given. ‘Ah!’ he said. ‘I see we have Revelation chapter 4 as the second reading.’ He smiled. ‘One …
Revelation for Everyone - The Letter to Laodicea
Revelation for Everyone - The Letter to Laodicea
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Letter to Laodicea Revelation 3.14-22 At the beginning of the year 2011, there were extraordinary floods in Australia. To begin with it was part of Queensland, the vast state in the north-east of the country. Then it was more of the state, and still more. Then the floodwaters…
Revelation for Everyone - The Letter to Philadelphia
Revelation for Everyone - The Letter to Philadelphia
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Letter to Philadelphia Revelation 3.7-13 I have been sitting here trying to imagine what it’s like to find yourself in an earthquake. I was once in a hotel in Los Angeles, a few dozen floors up, and was alarmed to find detailed instructions in the room on what I should do if …
Revelation for Everyone - The Letter to Sardis
Revelation for Everyone - The Letter to Sardis
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Letter to Sardis Revelation 3.1-6 You might be surprised to know that, in some parts of England, ‘The Wars of the Roses’ still live on. These wars were fought between the Houses of York (the white rose) and Lancaster (the red rose) in the fifteenth century. But, ever since, t…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 11 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 11 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 11 Genesis 18.1–10a Colossians 1.15–28 Luke 10.38–42 From the beginning, human beings have been image-makers, instinctively, compulsively making sense of their world through imagining it. In lives governed by the harshest necessity just to survive, primitive people still…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 10 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 10 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 10 Deuteronomy 30.9–14 Colossians 1.1–14 Luke 10.25–37 Does God actually make things too easy for us? Do we keep looking around for the catch, trying to work out what we are missing, when really the truth is as simple as can be? Our human religious instincts tend to go in …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 9 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 9 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 9 Isaiah 66.10–14 Galatians 6.1–16 Luke 10.1–11, 16–20 Luke 8—10 sets out a very interesting mission strategy. In chapter 8, Jesus himself goes through towns and villages, curing people, and gathering huge crowds to hear his stories and see his miracles. Then in chapter 9,…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 8 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 8 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 8 1 Kings 19.5–16, 19–21 Galatians 5.1, 13–25 Luke 9.51–62 St Teresa of Avila spent many years travelling on God’s business, founding and reforming convents. Journeys were both unsafe and uncomfortable in those days, but she was never daunted. But one day, when she was nea…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 7 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 7 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 7 Isaiah 65.1–9 Galatians 3.23–9 Luke 8.26–39 The people in today’s reading from Isaiah have apparently got bored with the true God. The chapter opens with God waiting patiently, almost passively, for his people to come looking for him. When they don’t, God begins to call …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 6 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 6 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 6 2 Samuel 11.26—12.10, 13–15 Galatians 2.15–21 Luke 7.36—8.3 Nathan the prophet is a good story-teller and a brave man. Though he obviously knows the character of his king well enough to guess David’s reaction to his story, yet this is, after all, the king he is talking t…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 4 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 4 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 4 1 Kings 18.22–3, 41–3 Galatians 1.1–12 Luke 7.1–10 This opening section of Galatians has Paul in a very combative frame of mind. Even his formal greetings at the beginning are perfunctory and pointed. Something very dear to Paul is under threat here, and he is riding to …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Trinity Sunday Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Trinity Sunday Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Trinity Sunday Proverbs 8.1–4, 22–31 Romans 5.1–5 John 16.12–15 From very early on in the life of the Church, Christians read the figure of ‘Wisdom’ in Proverbs as a reference to Jesus. They assumed that God had already shown, in hints, characters and patterns of relating, what h…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Day of Pentecost Year C