Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - A Spy Story
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - A Spy Story
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Spy Story NUMBERS 13: 1-14: 38 I like to raise student eyebrows by pointing out occasions when God has abandoned segments of the church. In the first Christian centuries, the eastern Mediterranean (Turkey, the Levant, Egypt, North Africa) was full of lively Christian churches, …
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Appoint Us a King
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Appoint Us a King
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Appoint Us a King 1 Samuel 7: 15- 8: 20 Almost every day, television and the newspapers report the cost that ordinary people pay for their government. Sometimes the cost lies in expenditure that may be inevitable. Representatives have to be paid salaries and expenses and need bui…
Exodus and Leviticus - Be Holy as I am Holy
Exodus and Leviticus - Be Holy as I am Holy
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Be Holy as I am Holy LEVITICUS : 19: 1- 18 Today’s newspaper reports on the release from a detention center in Iraq of a twenty-seven-year-old man, after eighteen months there. He was given a letter to say that his case had been concluded and the occupation authorities had decide…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - As Far as this Yahweh Has Helped Us
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - As Far as this Yahweh Has Helped Us
by SPCK - John Goldingay
As Far as This Yahweh Has Helped Us 1 Samuel 7: 2- 14 “Helping” can have a variety of connotations. On one occasion a tire came off my wife’s wheelchair when we were on our way to church. As I was bending down trying to get the tire back on, with Ann still in the chair, a car dri…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Babylon Becomes Babble-on
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Babylon Becomes Babble-on
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Babylon Becomes Babble-on Genesis 11: 8- 30 In England I had an Egyptian colleague whose first language was Arabic. When we were going to Morocco for a holiday, I asked him to teach me a few phrases of Arabic so I could at least say, “Good morning” and “Thank you” to people, but …
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Attitudes to Egyptians (and Others)
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Attitudes to Egyptians (and Others)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Attitudes to Egyptians (and Others) Deuteronomy 23: 1-25 I have recently been to two concerts where the band included musicians from British towns within an hour or two of my own hometown—singer Graham Nash and guitarist Slash. Both have lived in Los Angeles for decades, and I do…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - At Last
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - At Last
by SPCK - John Goldingay
At Last Genesis 20: 14- 21: 14 My parents married later in life than was usual in their day, and I previously mentioned that it was some years before I was born. My mother used to tell me she couldn’t imagine there was a baby more welcomed into the world than I was. A generation …
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Coveting Can Kill
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Coveting Can Kill
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Coveting Can Kill JOSHUA 7: 16-26 Today (as I am writing this) is Black Friday, when the stores hope to get their books into the black as the year draws toward an end. People will have been lining up all night or will have got up at crazily early hours to get a plasma TV for a hu…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Curses and Blessings and Curses
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Curses and Blessings and Curses
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Curses and Blessings and Curses Deuteronomy 27: 1- 28: 68 Last night I had a lovely dinner with some students. I accepted a second helping of pasta and a second glass of wine, and ate a magnificent brownie dessert with strawberries and ice cream. When it came to coffee, I decline…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - David on the Run
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - David on the Run
by SPCK - John Goldingay
David on the Run 1 Samuel 22: 1- 23: 24 The other day, a student was discussing his future plans with me. He believed God was telling him that he should stay at the seminary for another year to do further courses to improve his chances of getting into a doctoral program, that he …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Creation Asserts Itself
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Creation Asserts Itself
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Creation Asserts Itself Genesis 3: 1-3 A talking snake? But this is a parable, remember. In Julia Bolden’s version of the story, the tempter is a parrot, and God’s ban concerns television; Adam and Eve are not to watch the good and- bad-knowledge channel. A parrot flies in throug…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Do We Ever Learn?- Take Two
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Do We Ever Learn?- Take Two
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Do We Ever Learn? Take Two Genesis 26: 6- 33 A few weeks ago, the great U.S. novelist John Updike died. I think I had tried to read one of his novels years ago but failed. In light of the eulogies, I thought I should try again, so I started with Too Far to Go, over which one of t…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Do People Change?
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Do People Change?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Do People Change? Genesis 35:1-29 We used to meet each week for dinner with a group of friends, including a pastor or two, a therapist or two, and a missiologist or two, and one of the topics we used to come back to was transformation. Mission is concerned with it; ministry is co…
Job for Everyone - Does Job Dispute the Moral Foundation of the World?
Job for Everyone - Does Job Dispute the Moral Foundation of the World?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Does Job Dispute the Moral Foundation of the world? Job 18: 1- 21 Last night we were watching the great movie Dogma, which is full of bad language, violence, and scatological humor. It is not a movie for the sensitive or fainthearted or squeamish, but it is one of the most theolo…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Don't Look Back
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Don't Look Back
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Don’t Look Back Genesis 19: 15-38 The English make jokes about the Irish and use the word Irish as a term of opprobrium; it is a way of saying something is stupid. Other ethnic groups behave in similar ways; Portuguese people and Brazilians make jokes about each other. The Irish …
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Do We Ever Learn?
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Do We Ever Learn?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Do We Ever Learn Genesis 20: 1-13 There was a man who used to come to talk to me from time to time when he had gotten into a mess with a woman (well, he came at other times, too). He was married and ought to have known better, but he didn’t. He would blame the women: they were at…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Friday Afternoon
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Friday Afternoon
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Friday Afternoon Genesis 1: 27-30 My wife and I have friends who used to keep an animal or two, and when we stayed with them for the weekend we were introduced to a calf called Jeremy. It was at Sunday lunch that we met him. They brought Jeremy up, had him slaughtered and cut up,…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Get Yourself Outta Here