John Goldingay
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Never Again
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Never Again
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Never Again Genesis 8: 21b- 9: 4 A few years ago, a couple who were friends of mine left the seminary and moved to another part of the country; he, to be a pastor; she, to be a counselor. We kept in occasional touch through e-mail, and it eventually emerged that their marriage wa…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - But God Remembered Noah
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - But God Remembered Noah
by SPCK - John Goldingay
But God Remembered Noah Genesis 8: 1-22a There are several restaurants and clubs where I take my wife in her wheelchair and where they invariably both remember us and are mindful of us. When I call to make a reservation, they remember us (it’s partly the odd accent), and when we …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - And God Shut Him In
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - And God Shut Him In
by SPCK - John Goldingay
And God Shut Him In Genesis 7: 1-24 One of my sons works for the U.K. Environment Agency in the department concerned with flood control, where he oversees projects designed to avoid flooding. In the past there have been occasions when terrible storms have caused the sea to flood …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Filled with Violence
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Filled with Violence
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Filled with Violence Genesis 6: 9-22 At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Ottoman Empire undertook a systematic attempt to annihilate the Armenian people in Turkey. One to one and a half million people were killed. In the middle of the twentieth century, the Nazi govern…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Grace Found Noah
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Grace Found Noah
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Grace Found Noah Genesis 6: 5-8 Early in our marriage, we adopted the mantra that the most destructive phrase in the English language was “you should have,” as in “You should have done this or that,” or “You shouldn’t have done this or that.” The phrase “you should,” as in “You s…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Peak of Rebellion
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Peak of Rebellion
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Peak of Rebellion Genesis 6: 1-4 We had a friend in England who had been sexually abused on an ongoing basis by her uncle, who was a minister. The abuse had happened when she was a little girl (she was then in her forties), but all her life she had been trying to come to term…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Audacity of Hope
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Audacity of Hope
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Audacity of Hope Genesis 5: 21-32 At a lunch the weekend after Tony Blair became British prime minister in 1997, I was talking with a woman at our table. The event had reminded me of the election of Harold Wilson’s government in Britain in 1964, and I had been thinking of the…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Then He Died
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Then He Died
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Then He Died Genesis 5: 1-20 Three years ago, a friend of ours died. When he was about thirty, he developed a brain tumor. He had surgery and recovered, he fell in love, and I preached at his wedding. Then, within weeks the tumor reappeared. He died before he and his bride finish…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - A New Start
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - A New Start
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A New Start Genesis 4: 23-26 Why does anyone want to have a child? A year or so after the birth of our first son, Ann had a miscarriage, and she was deeply grieved about that, as happens especially to a woman (it is easier for a man—at least it was for this man—to shrug his shoul…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Bigamy, Music, Technology, Murder
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Bigamy, Music, Technology, Murder
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Bigamy, Music, Technology, Murder Genesis 4: 18-22 A few weeks ago my wife and I were in an Italian restaurant and jazz club, listening to jazz or blues, and a woman came up and said she was a nurse and was glad to see that I took Ann there, silent and immobile in her wheelchair.…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Mark of Cain
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Mark of Cain
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Mark of Cain Genesis 4: 14-17 Our church shows up at a local homeless shelter to make dinner for the residents there once a month or so. Homeless “shelter” could give a false impression. Before I went there, I imagined something rather makeshift, almost like the shelters in w…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Blood Cries Out
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Blood Cries Out
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Blood Cries Out Genesis 4: 10-13 I write the week after bombings and attacks in Mumbai that killed hundreds of people. “This is our 9/11,” many Indians said. They did not merely mean that these were attacks on a vast and savage scale, carried out with unprecedented sophistication…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Why Did It Happen to Me?
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Why Did It Happen to Me?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Why Did It Happen to Me? Genesis 4: 5b-9 I was talking to a woman who was angry with God. It was a strangely unfocused anger. She was a homemaker of the old-fashioned kind. She had been faithful to her husband, and as far as she knew he had been faithful to her. But he was only r…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The First Family, the First Worship, the First Acceptance, the First Rejection
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The First Family, the First Worship, the First Acceptance, the First Rejection
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The First Family, the First worship, the First Acceptance, the First Rejection Genesis 4: 1-5a I once went through quite a long period of time (several years, I think) when God did not seem very real. I didn’t exactly doubt whether God was there; it was just that I didn’t feel Go…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Expulsion and Its Consequences
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Expulsion and Its Consequences
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Expulsion and Its Consequences Genesis 3: 23-24 I was once walking through the seminary campus when I spotted a former student, whom I had known quite well, sitting in a patio area with rather a disconsolate look. When I asked him if he was OK, he replied, “I’ve made a train …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Work Becomes Toil
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Work Becomes Toil
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Work Becomes Toil Genesis 3: 17-22 As I cycle to the seminary to give an evening lecture, I pass a particular bus stop where there are always a number of people waiting for the bus to take them home, and I am always struck by how weary they look. Whatever they have been doing all…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - To Love and to Cherish, to Desire and to Dominate
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - To Love and to Cherish, to Desire and to Dominate
by SPCK - John Goldingay
To Love and to Cherish, to Desire and to Dominate Genesis 3: 16b There is a Jewish story about the first human couple. Often such a Jewish midrash takes up a puzzling aspect of the biblical text and seeks to explain it or imagine something it might imply, using other scriptural m…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Pain of Motherhood