John Goldingay
Jeremiah for everyone - The Bold Miscalculation
Jeremiah for everyone - The Bold Miscalculation
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Bold Miscalculation In church this Sunday morning, the first of our three passages from Scripture was the story of God’s asking Solomon what he wanted, that most testing of questions, a test that Solomon passed magnificently…
Jeremiah for everyone - On Witnessing by Your Obedience to Your Special Vocation
Jeremiah for everyone - On Witnessing by Your Obedience to Your Special Vocation
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Witnessing by Your Obedience to Your Special Vocation Fortuitously, I completed the translation of Jeremiah 35:1–19 just as the moment arrived when we often have a glass of wine before dinner…
Jeremiah for everyone - Expect Great Things
Jeremiah for everyone - Expect Great Things
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Expect Great Things In the 1780s a shoemaker and part-time Baptist preacher near Northampton in England named William Carey used to do his work with a world map on the wall in front of him, and while he worked he’d pray for the nations of the world, many of whom knew little or no…
Jeremiah for everyone - Is Anything Too Extraordinary for Yahweh?
Jeremiah for everyone - Is Anything Too Extraordinary for Yahweh?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Is Anything Too Extraordinary for Yahweh? I have to preside over a funeral today and then over a memorial next week for someone who has already been cremated. Whether your body dissolves gradually in the ground or burns up quickly in the fire, the idea that we are all going to be…
Jeremiah for everyone - On Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
Jeremiah for everyone - On Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is When we came to California, we were buying a house for the first time—we had always lived in church or seminary housing. It felt as if we were growing up. Two or three years ago, a friend of mine was wondering about buying a house, but pr…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Power of Being Forgiven
Jeremiah for everyone - The Power of Being Forgiven
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Power of Being Forgiven Last night we listened to one of our favorite singer-songwriters performing an upbeat song with a downbeat account of her life (well, a downbeat account of a life—one mustn’t imagine that every song is autobiographical)…
Jeremiah for everyone - Rachel Weeps for Her Children
Jeremiah for everyone - Rachel Weeps for Her Children
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Rachel Weeps for Her Children North of Bethlehem on the Jerusalem road is the traditional site of the tomb of Rachel, the great love of Jacob’s life and the mother of Joseph (and thus grandmother of Ephraim and Manasseh); she died in giving birth to Benjamin…
Jeremiah for everyone - Compassion Has the Last Word
Jeremiah for everyone - Compassion Has the Last Word
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Compassion Has the Last Word A variant on whether you see the glass as half full or half empty is whether you look to the future with hope or anxiety. I’m a mildly anxious person myself—I don’t worry much about particular threats or problems, but I’m susceptible to a vague unease…
Jeremiah for everyone - Settle Down
Jeremiah for everyone - Settle Down
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Settle Down When I first moved to California, people would ask how long I’d be here, thinking it might be just for an academic quarter or year. They’d be a bit taken aback when I said, “I want to die here,” so I would add, “but not too soon,” yet they’d still be taken aback, so I…
Jeremiah for everyone - Things can only get worse
Jeremiah for everyone - Things can only get worse
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Things Can Only Get Worse As a newly ordained minister I was required to take part in “post-ordination training,” irreverently known as “potty training.” It’s no criticism of it that decades later I remember little about it, but I do have one vivid memory…
Jeremiah for everyone - Not Always the Holywood Ending
Jeremiah for everyone - Not Always the Holywood Ending
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Not Always the Holywood Ending Last night we watched a French movie about a couple whose baby son developed a brain tumour. The movie focused on the way the couple coped, naturally with tensions and grief but also with determination and energy and more than a little therapeutic c…
Jeremiah for everyone - Bad News or Good News?
Jeremiah for everyone - Bad News or Good News?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Bad News or Good News? It’s possible to be pretty gloomy about the future. Today’s news includes a white gunman killing six Sikh worshipers in a temple in Milwaukee, which other worshipers took as a hate crime reflecting the assumption that people dressed in Sikh fashion were Mus…
Jeremiah for everyone - Lucky Figs and Unlucky Figs
Jeremiah for everyone - Lucky Figs and Unlucky Figs
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Lucky Figs and Unlucky Figs We walked past a supermarket last night and marveled at the size of the truck delivering produce, and we wondered how quickly the supermarket would empty if there were a big earthquake (answer: about two hours)…
Jeremiah for everyone - Another Wicked Play on Words
Jeremiah for everyone - Another Wicked Play on Words
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Another Wicked Play on Words For a while I was the faculty representative on the president’s cabinet in our seminary, which means I had to get up early once a month for a meeting of people in the administration to discuss big policy questions (but not so much their ongoing implem…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Wicked Play on Words in a King's Name