Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Peak of Rebellion
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Peak of Rebellion
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Peak of Rebellion Genesis 6: 1-4 We had a friend in England who had been sexually abused on an ongoing basis by her uncle, who was a minister. The abuse had happened when she was a little girl (she was then in her forties), but all her life she had been trying to come to term…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Power of Forgetting
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Power of Forgetting
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Power of Forgetting JUDGES 2:1- 3: 4 Last night I went to the first performance in Los Angeles of the musical version of The Color Purple, a fabulous concoction of music, dance, and drama vividly bringing to life the tough reality of many women’s experience (and not just in t…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Peril of Other People's Faiths
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Peril of Other People's Faiths
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Peril of Other People’s Faiths JOSHUA 23:1- 16 In the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. State Department financed visits to universities and seminaries in the United States by Muslim scholars from abroad as part of efforts to foster mutual understanding between “the Muslim World” a…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Peak of David's Achievement
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Peak of David's Achievement
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Peak of David’s Achievement 2 Samuel 8: 1- 10: 19 I’ve just started reading a social history of Britain since the end of the 1939–1945 war. It thus begins with the celebration of the allies’ victory over Nazi Germany, personalized as Winston Churchill’s victory over Adolf Hit…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Problem of Insight
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Problem of Insight
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Problem of Insight Genesis 30:4-21 A number of my students are training to be family therapists, and they are often intrigued by these stories in Genesis. They are excited to find how dysfunctional these families are because in their own way they match our dysfunctional famil…
Psalms for Everyone - The Secret of Life
Psalms for Everyone - The Secret of Life
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Secret of Life Psalm 16 As a result of a routine physical exam I was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. Quite likely it would not develop into something actually life-threatening before I died of something else, and I might have decided to do nothing about it, but the d…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Price the Family Begin to Pay
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Price the Family Begin to Pay
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Price the Family Begins to Pay 2 Samuel 12: 15b- 13: 14 At a concert last night a singer was telling us the background to a song about her grandfather. He was French-Canadian, spoke mostly in French, and died when she was a child. For both reasons she feels she never really g…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Rhythm of Pilgrimage
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Rhythm of Pilgrimage
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Rhythm of Pilgrimage Deuteronomy 15: 19- 16: 17 Five or six miles from where I live is an Episcopal church whose leadership and congregation recently decided to withdraw from its identification with the Episcopal Church in the United States, while staying Anglican in a broade…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Struggle for Power
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Struggle for Power
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Struggle for Power 2 Samuel 3: 1- 4: 12 One of my colleagues holds a Bible study at his house for men he got to know through an organization that seeks to provide accommodation for homeless people in our city; they are typically people who have prison records and/or who have …
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Story Reaches Its Lowest Point (I)
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Story Reaches Its Lowest Point (I)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Story Reaches Its Lowest Point (I) JUDGES 19:1-30 One of the Oscar contenders at the time I write is the movie Precious, the story of a teenager whose life is characterized by systematic abuse in the context of her family, including rape and incest on the part of her father a…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Stairway to Heaven
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Stairway to Heaven
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Stairway to Heaven Genesis 28:6-15 When I would occasionally remember a dream and report it, my wife would say that she didn’t dream. Really she knew she did, because everyone does; it’s one reason why we sleep. But we don’t usually remember our dreams, maybe partly because t…
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…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Sin of Sodom
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Sin of Sodom
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Sin of Sodom Genesis 19: 1-14 I have a number of friends and acquaintances who are attracted to members of the same sex or are in long-term, committed, quasi-marital or actually marital relationships with members of the same sex. I don’t take the view that same-sex relationsh…
Job for Everyone - The Silence of Friends
Job for Everyone - The Silence of Friends
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Silence of Friends Job 2: 9-13 The day my first wife died, we were planning to go to the beach, so I went on my own the next day. This may sound weird, but it seemed to make sense at the time, and when I got home I was glad I had gone, because there were twelve messages on th…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Story Reaches Its Lowest Point (II)
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Story Reaches Its Lowest Point (II)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Story Reaches Its Lowest Point (II) JUDGES 20:1-48 For some years now there has been ongoing tension between Russia and Georgia. Sometimes it seems open to being characterized as a little comical; Russia banned the import of Georgian wine on the grounds that it did not meet p…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Tale of Two Women
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Tale of Two Women
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Tale of Two Women 2 Kings 4:1-44 Among my friends are a number of young couples who have been hoping to have children, and it has never happened. They then go in for medical examinations of various kinds and for treatment of various kinds. One couple had eggs implanted, but the…
Job for Everyone - The Way I Have Walked (I)