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God who has called us
God who has called us
by Marjorie Dobson
Prayer: God who has called us Proper 25 year A 1 Thessalonians 2: 1-8 God who has called us, through Jesus, to be your disciples, you send us out among your people with your message of hope and love, forgiveness and reconciliation. But we are not always confident about speaking o…
Earthquake, wind and fire
Earthquake, wind and fire
by Marjorie Dobson
Prayer: Earthquake, wind and fire Proper 14 year A 1 Kings 19: 9-18 Into the hurricane of life – the rush, the chaos, the bewilderment, the anxiety, uncertainty, the fear of loss, the birth of pain, the failures and fractures of life – God of the still, small voice, whisper your …
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - Abraham's Two Families
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - Abraham's Two Families
by SPCK - N T Wright
Abraham’s Two Families ROMANS 9.6-13 When you walk or drive through unfamiliar territory, you have to rely on the map. It is the bottom line. If you find yourself somewhere you didn’t expect, you scratch your head, get out the map again, and figure out where you went wrong. You m…
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - God's Love, God's Power - In Us
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - God's Love, God's Power - In Us
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Love, God’s Power – In Us Ephesians 3.14-21 Love and power, power and love: these are the themes of perhaps two-thirds of the novels, plays and poems ever written. The love of power has laid waste continents and empires. The power of love has driven weak people to do powerf…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - God's New Commandment
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - God's New Commandment
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s New Commandment 1 John 2. 3-14 Sometimes when we sing hymns, the hymns tell a story. They move from one idea to another, in a linear fashion. There is something satisfying about this. We all like stories, and even when the ‘story’ is a sequence of ideas, it makes sense to u…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Greetings and Thanksgiving
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Greetings and Thanksgiving
by SPCK - N T Wright
Greetings and Thanksgiving 2 Thessalonians 1.1-7a When our four children were younger, we had to spend Christmas Day taking notes. Once the four of them began to open presents from friends and relatives, there was so much paper and string around, and so many toys, books and games…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus Calls the Disciples
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus Calls the Disciples
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Calls the Disciples Matthew 4.18-25 If you go to Galilee today they will show you a boat that might have belonged to Andrew and Peter, or perhaps the Zebedee family. In one of the most remarkable archaeological finds anywhere in the Holy Land (which is full of them), a boat…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Jesus Mocked and Crucified
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Jesus Mocked and Crucified
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Mocked and Crucified Matthew 27.27-38 Almost the whole world is now a tourist trap. Countries compete with each other to attract visitors, particularly from the richer parts of the world, and to give them a memorable vacation while drawing money into the local economy. The …
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Leaven of the Pharisees
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Leaven of the Pharisees
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Leaven of the Pharisees Matthew 16.1-12 Our generation is bombarded with signs. Drive along a city street, especially at night, and your eyes will be dazzled with signs of all sorts. Some of them are necessary to tell you where to go and where not to go: if you ignore red and…
Luke for Everyone - The Miraculous Catch of Fish
Luke for Everyone - The Miraculous Catch of Fish
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Miraculous Catch of Fish Luke 5.1-11 ‘When Christ calls a person,’ declared Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ‘he tells them to come and die.’ Bonhoeffer, of course, did exactly that, hanged by the Nazis for resistance to Hitler. But when Simon Peter first met Jesus, he didn’t realize thi…
Luke for Everyone - The Parable of the Rich Fool
Luke for Everyone - The Parable of the Rich Fool
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Parable of the Rich Fool Luke 12.13-34 The modern Western world is built on anxiety. You see it on the faces of people hurrying to work. You see it even more as they travel home, tired but without having solved life’s problems. The faces are weary, puzzled, living with the un…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Question of the Resurrection
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Question of the Resurrection
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Question of the Resurrection Matthew 22.23-33 I once sat on a college committee where two older members had a regular tactic for stopping any change that might have been proposed. When one of the younger members (myself, for instance) proposed doing something that would reall…
Luke for Everyone - The Rich Young Ruler
Luke for Everyone - The Rich Young Ruler
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Rich Young Ruler Luke 18.15-30 Luke, ever the artist, is building up his great picture with colour after colour, layer after layer of paint, until he draws the eye towards the great scene he has in mind when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem. He has given us Jesus’ lessons on humili…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Transfiguration
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Transfiguration
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Transfiguration Matthew 17.1-8 Mount Tabor is a large, round hill in central Galilee. When you go there today with a party of pilgrims, you have to get out of your bus and take a taxi to the top. They say that God is especially pleased with the Mount Tabor taxi-drivers, becau…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Absalom's Coup
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Absalom's Coup
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Absalom’s Coup 2 Samuel 14: 25- 16: 23 When I was an assistant pastor, a leading political figure in the Church of England came to speak at a conference at our church, and talked about policies for which he was working in the Church of England. It was clear that the man was a ski…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Coping With the Aftermath
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Coping With the Aftermath
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Coping with the Aftermath 1 Kings 2:1-46 As an undergraduate, I often walked past the Martyrs Memorial, standing where Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer were burned at the stake in Oxford in 1555 and 1556, caught in the conflict between different Christian groups.…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Fear
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Fear
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Fear Genesis 31:55- 32:24a There is something to be said for fear. On one seminary study tour to Israel and Palestine, we were on our way back from Beersheba to Jerusalem. The Israeli authorities were advising groups to follow a route that stayed in Israeli territory rather than …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Facing the Other Set of Facts