John Goldingay
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Start and End the Day
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Start and End the Day
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Start and End the Day EXODUS 29: 38- 30: 37 When my wife died, we “celebrated” her life and marked her death at a memorial service where we burnt lots of incense, not something we regularly do in our church. One striking aspect of the burning of incense is the smell, which…
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Ordain a Priest
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Ordain a Priest
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Ordain a Priest EXODUS 28: 1- 29: 37 I shall shortly have completed forty years teaching in seminary, and a bit longer than this in being a priest and pastor. A few years after I started seminary teaching, I became embarrassed to realize that I no longer believed that with…
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church II
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church II
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Build a Church 2 EXODUS 26: 31- 27: 21 When I was a toddler in the latter part of the Second World War, family lore says that I used to watch the “fireworks” and the “bonfires” from my second-floor bedroom. These were actually bombs falling on the RAF airstrip that is now …
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Build a Church 1 EXODUS 25: 1- 26: 30 At our church we have just begun inviting ourselves to make offerings for work that needs to be done to the buildings. We have a list of priorities, like the replacement of some wooden beams that have rotted in the rains (it is Califor…
Exodus and Leviticus - Seeing God
Exodus and Leviticus - Seeing God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Seeing God EXODUS 24: 1- 18 A Christian song by Michael W. Smith called “Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord” declares, “I want to see You; to see You high and lifted up, shinin’ in the light of Your glory.” Another song, “I Want to Know You,” by Andy Park, several times repeats the …
Exodus and Leviticus - How to get to the Promised Land
Exodus and Leviticus - How to get to the Promised Land
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Get to the Promised Land EXODUS 23: 20- 33 Modern people get concerned about the Israelites annihilating the Canaanites. As far as one can tell, it only became an issue in modern times. Although Christians explain their concern by referring to Jesus’ exhortation to love on…
Exodus and Leviticus - You Know the Feelings of an Alien
Exodus and Leviticus - You Know the Feelings of an Alien
by SPCK - John Goldingay
You Know the Feelings of an Alien EXODUS 22: 15- 23: 19 There are aliens who freely choose to live in a foreign country, and there are aliens who felt they were driven to do so (and then there are the aliens who come on spaceships). I am an alien and that occasionally causes me a…
Exodus and Leviticus - Coping with Crises
Exodus and Leviticus - Coping with Crises
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Coping with Crises EXODUS 20: 22- 22: 14 When I worked as a pastor, the Inland Revenue treated me as self-employed rather than as an employee. I am not sure why this was, and I didn’t feel self-employed. I had a boss (my rector) who made it clear that he was my boss, and I had em…
Exodus and Leviticus - A Rule of Life
Exodus and Leviticus - A Rule of Life
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Rule of Life EXODUS 20: 1- 21 As a seminary professor in England, it was my task to ask the students who were my particular pastoral responsibility about their rule of life. The idea of a rule of life had become popular, though maybe the idea was more popular than actually keep…
Exodus and Leviticus - Two Kinds of Preparation for Meeting God
Exodus and Leviticus - Two Kinds of Preparation for Meeting God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Two Kinds of Preparation for Meeting God EXODUS 19: 1- 25 When the Israelites arrived at Sinai, they first had a morally challenging experience—or perhaps one should call it a relationally challenging one. It marks a new stage in the covenant relationship between God and Israel. …
Exodus and Leviticus - The First Enemy and The First Convert
Exodus and Leviticus - The First Enemy and The First Convert
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The First Enemy and the First Convert EXODUS 17: 22- 18: 27 We just watched a movie called The Reader. One of its central characters is a German girl who in about 1940 worked as an S.S. guard in Auschwitz, had been living ever since with the guilt of that, and to the very end nev…
Exodus and Leviticus - Surviving in the Wilderness
Exodus and Leviticus - Surviving in the Wilderness
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Surviving in the Wilderness EXODUS 15: 22- 17: 7 A former colleague of mine used sometimes to say of a seminary student, “He [I don’t remember it ever being a she] needs to learn to love the church.” The comment would be aroused by the student’s reaction to some piece of apparent…
Exodus and Leviticus - Moses and Miriam Sing and Dance
Exodus and Leviticus - Moses and Miriam Sing and Dance
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Moses and Miriam Sing and Dance EXODUS 15: 1-21 A few weeks before my disabled wife died, we were in a restaurant where they have a live band, one of my absolute favorites, playing swing, blues, and rockabilly. My feet and hands were tapping, or perhaps thumping and stomping (I c…
Exodus and Leviticus - One Kind of Fear Turns to Another
Exodus and Leviticus - One Kind of Fear Turns to Another
by SPCK - John Goldingay
One Kind of Fear Turns to Another EXODUS 13: 17- 14: 31 This weekend our rector is on a discernment retreat, and next weekend he is away preaching at a church in another city. I was a bit slow on the uptake, and someone else had to whisper to me that this is code for his wonderin…
Exodus and Leviticus - The 3a.m. Scream
Exodus and Leviticus - The 3a.m. Scream
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The 3 a.m. Scream EXODUS 12: 28- 13: 16 It was midnight, not 3 a.m., but in the Western world where we organize our own time rather than following nature’s time, midnight is not the middle of the night; it is about the time I put out the light. So think of yourself as having been…
Exodus and Leviticus - Anticipatory Celebration
Exodus and Leviticus - Anticipatory Celebration
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Anticipatory Celebration EXODUS 12: 1-27 I am sometimes asked, “What do you miss about England?” One of my joke replies is that I miss a magnificent chocolate-and- cream pastry called an “elephant’s foot” that they sell at a bakery where we often had Saturday lunch. Another reply…
Exodus and Leviticus - Knowing and Acknowledging Again
Exodus and Leviticus - Knowing and Acknowledging Again
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Knowing and Acknowledging Again EXODUS 11: 1-10 EXODUS and Leviticus for Everyone 1Yahweh said to Moses, “There is yet one more blow I shall bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will send you off from here. When he sends you off, it will be complete. He will finally thro…
Exodus and Leviticus - More Prayer, More Flip-Flop