John Goldingay
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Splendor is Gone
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Splendor is Gone
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Splendor is Gone 1 Samuel 4: 1b- 22 In his sermon yesterday, our rector (slightly apologetically) told us he had been watching a TV series about a psychopathic boy whom a police officer had adopted. The boy’s stepfather gave him a “code”: Don’t kill innocent people; make sure…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - A Summons, not a Call
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - A Summons, not a Call
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Summons, Not a Call 1 Samuel 3: 1- 4: 1a One of my friends is going through the “discernment process” whereby the Episcopal Church seeks to decide whether she is called to ordained ministry. It involves meetings with a group of people from your local church, with diocesan offic…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Not to Display Accurate Empathy II
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Not to Display Accurate Empathy II
by SPCK - John Goldingay
It Takes a Miracle 1 Samuel 1: 12-19a A little while ago a woman came to see me to talk about the way her husband was abusing her. It involved some physical abuse; he had hit her once or twice, but the background was not that he was an inherently violent person or a drunkard. The…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - It Takes a Miracle- Yahweh and Eli
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - It Takes a Miracle- Yahweh and Eli
by SPCK - John Goldingay
It Takes a Miracle 1 Samuel 1:12-19a Because she kept on pleading before Yahweh, and Eli was watching her mouth and Hannah was speaking in her heart (only her lips were quivering, and her voice was not audible), Eli thought she was drunk. Eli said to her, “How long will you behav…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - When Minister's Indulge Themselves
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - When Minister's Indulge Themselves
by SPCK - John Goldingay
When Ministers Indulge Themselves 1 Samuel 2: 11- 36 Lent has just begun. Just beforehand, over dinner, the members of our Bible study group were wondering what Lenten discipline they might take on. I argued that discipline was better understood as a matter of doing something pos…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - On Giving Up Your Son
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - On Giving Up Your Son
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Giving Up Your Son 1 Samuel 1: 25- 2: 10 As I write, two anniversaries have recently passed. Just over thirty years ago the Shah of Iran was ousted and the Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile to become the “Leader” of Iran, a more powerful position than that of the presiden…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - It Takes a Miracle
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - It Takes a Miracle
by SPCK - John Goldingay
It Takes a Miracle 1 Samuel 1:19b-24 In Joshua, Judges, and Ruth for Everyone I referred to one of my students who spent last year preparing to get married but also developed increasingly intense headaches. A month or so before her wedding date she had an MRI that suggested a bra…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Sour Hour of Prayer
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Sour Hour of Prayer
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sour Hour of Prayer 1 Samuel 1: 9-11 For Hannah, too, the hour of prayer was initially sour, though eventually sweet. Presumably she prayed when she was at home in the village, as other Israelites did, but the occasion when the family went to Shiloh would be a natural time for sp…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Not to Display Accurate Empathy I
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Not to Display Accurate Empathy I
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How Not to Display Accurate Empathy I 1 Samuel 1:1-8 I don’t very often shout out loud when I read an e-mail, but I did so a few weeks ago when a message came from a friend of mine who had returned to a country in Asia two or three years ago. She and her husband had been longing …
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Introduction
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Introduction
by SPCK - John Goldingay
INTRODUCTION As far as Jesus and the New Testament writers were concerned, the Jewish Scriptures that Christians call the “Old Testament” were the Scriptures. In saying that, I cut corners a bit, as the New Testament never gives us a list of these Scriptures, but the body of writ…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Acknowledgments
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Acknowledgments
by SPCK - John Goldingay
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The translation at the beginning of each chapter (and in other biblical quotations) is my own. I have stuck closer to the Hebrew than modern translations often do when they are designed for reading in church so that you can see more precisely what the text says. T…
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