John Goldingay

Lord of the Flies 2 Kings 1:2-18 There are more positive and less positive understandings of human nature. The word zebub means fly, so the title “Master Zebub” or “Lord Zebub” would mean “Lord Fly” or “Lord of the Fly.” Now Lord of the Flies was a mid-twentieth-century novel by …

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - You Can Disguise, but You Can't Hide

by SPCK - John Goldingay

You Can Disguise, but You Can’t Hide 1 Kings 22:24- 2 Kings 1:1 A friend of mine recently became attracted to a woman I also know, and he arranged to have lunch with her last week, taking with him his mental list of questions he felt he needed to ask of a potential wife. Being sm…

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Who Will Entice Ahab?

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Who Will Entice Ahab? 1 Kings 22:1-23 I’ve recently started rewatching the television drama series The West Wing from the beginning, and last night I saw a couple of episodes about the Democrat-run White House offering a job to a lawyer who is a totally convinced Republican who h…

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Capital of Corruption

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Capital of Corruption 1 Kings 21:8-29 Sitting on the subway on the way home last night, I overheard a conversation between two young men about the candidates for our upcoming gubernatorial elections. (Isn’t that a great word, gubernatorial? We don’t have it in British English…

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - In the World And Also of The World

by SPCK - John Goldingay

In the World and Also of the World 1 Kings 20:1-21: 7 I am getting ready for a task force that is meeting next week to discuss the use of the Bible in the Anglican Communion worldwide. The meeting will be complicated because we include members of the Episcopal Church in the Unite…

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Low Murmuring Sound

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Low Murmuring Sound 1 Kings 19:1-21 I am inclined to think that nothing I do in seeking to fulfill my vocation achieves anything. My vocation is to help people understand the Old Testament and let their thinking and their lives be shaped by it. I am passionately committed to …

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - There are Times When You Have to Choose

by SPCK - John Goldingay

There Are Times When You Have to Choose 1 Kings 18:19-46 The soccer World Cup is about to start in South Africa, and I have just had a letter about it from a friend in Lebanon. Lebanon doesn’t have a team playing in the World Cup, so people in that country choose a foreign team t…

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - On Rendering to Caesar and Rendering to God

by SPCK - John Goldingay

On Rendering to Caesar and Rendering to God 1 Kings 18:1-18 Two friends of mine work in a Middle Eastern country where it is illegal to seek to get people to come to believe in Christ. Their own position is secure because they work in the expatriate church in the capital, and it …

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Personal and The Political

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Personal and the Political 1 Kings 17:1-24 I have just deleted an e-mail from a student in whose life I saw something of a miracle a few months ago. She had been diagnosed as having a brain tumor and was hastily scheduled for an emergency operation to try to remove it. The su…

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Two Weeks, Three Kings in Ephraim

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Two Weeks, Three Kings in Ephraim 1 Kings 15:25-16:34 Yesterday, as usual, we began our faculty meeting by sharing topics for prayer, and then as it happened I had to try to pray a prayer that covered them all. The sharing referred to someone’s health needs, to someone who had lo…

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Meanwhile in Judah

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Meanwhile in Judah 1 Kings 14:21-15:24 A couple of weeks ago a student asked me with some anxiety whether there was any evidence that any of the events in the Old Testament actually happened. Were there any records from surrounding peoples that people such as Abraham or Moses or …

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - When the Apostate King's Son Gets Sick

by SPCK - John Goldingay

When the Apostate King’s Son Gets Sick 1 Kings 13:33-14:20 Last night a friend of mine was blowing a fuse concerning the sermon at her church a couple of Sundays ago. The preacher was talking about Jesus’ healing of the man who had been lying sick by the Pool of Siloam for thirty…

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Prophets and When to Ignore Them

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Prophets, and When to Ignore Them 1 Kings 12:33-13:32 When I look back over the leadership of the various bosses I have had (present company excepted, in case he reads this) and reflect on my own time as a boss, I can see various ways in which proven ability and divine guidance p…

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Chance to be a Servant Leader

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Chance to Be a Servant leader 1 Kings 12:1-32 One of my faculty colleagues was asked to become director of the chapel in the seminary, and she loved to relate how she needed to go and talk to the provost of the seminary (vice principal in Brit-speak) about her role, and how h…

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Wives and Adversaries

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Wives and Adversaries 1 Kings 11:1-43 When my sister was abandoned by her husband just after the birth of their son, she moved back to live with our parents for a while to find a way of getting her life back together, and eventually met a nice young man (also called John, as is h…

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Enter the Queen of Sheba

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Enter the Queen of Sheba 1 Kings 10:1-29 The news yesterday reported on one of the unbreakable rules of capitalism: whatever regulations are put in place to control capitalism, people will find a way around them. Interestingly, one of its examples was the Old Testament ban on len…

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Desires and Choices

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Desires and Choices 1 Kings 9:1-28 In connection with 1 Kings 7 I mentioned the work Joe is doing on my bathroom. Yesterday he finished the work. The fixtures look as if they were designed in the twenty-first century rather than somewhat before; the rusty cupboards are gone; the …

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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - A Few More

by SPCK - John Goldingay

A Few More 1 Kings 8:41-66 I can still picture myself sitting in Sunday School as a little boy of nine or ten, and I can still hear the voice of the stern Sunday School superintendent exhorting us to bow our heads, put our hands together, and close our eyes to pray. I suspect I c…

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