Psalms for Everyone - How to Pray for the Government
Psalms for Everyone - How to Pray for the Government
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Pray for the Government Psalm 72: 1-17 The phrase “It’s the economy, stupid,” played a key role in Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. Most people are not really interested in foreign policy or other such important issues but in whether they are feeling financially …
Job for Everyone - If Only Wickedness Did Get Its Reward
Job for Everyone - If Only Wickedness Did Get Its Reward
by SPCK - John Goldingay
If Only Wickedness Did Get Its Reward! Job 21: 1-34 Two or three years before I write, the United States and the Western world as a whole experienced a “great financial meltdown,” with a significant factor in the crisis being the way financial institutions lent money for mortgage…
Exodus and Leviticus - Improving on Creation
Exodus and Leviticus - Improving on Creation
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Improving on Creation LEVITICUS : 19: 19- 20:27 When a man and his wife are about to go out and the wife asks whether she looks okay, the appropriate answer is “You look lovely” (not “Maybe that dress and those shoes don’t go together”). If she then says, “Is that what you really…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - If Only...
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - If Only...
by SPCK - John Goldingay
If Only… Deuteronomy 5: 16-33 Yesterday we had the service to which I referred in connection with Deuteronomy 1, when the Episcopal Church in Los Angeles expressed its contrition for the racism that has characterized it in encouraging segregation and condoning discrimination with…
Psalms for Everyone - In the Dark of the Canyon
Psalms for Everyone - In the Dark of the Canyon
by SPCK - John Goldingay
In the Dark of the Canyon Psalm 23 In the foothills of the mountains near where we live is a retreat center where we have a faculty gathering each fall. Two years ago a new director at the center gave us some advice we had not been given before. If we met a bear on the grounds, w…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - In the Beginning
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - In the Beginning
by SPCK - John Goldingay
In the Beginning Genesis 1: 1 Our son and daughter-in-law were showing us photographs of our two grandchildren. In one of them, the two children were sitting in the back of the car looking very solemn. “I think we had just had the birds-and-the-bees talk,” our son explained. Wher…
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…
Job for Everyone - Leviathan
Job for Everyone - Leviathan
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Leviathan Job 41:1- 34 My wife is a bit apprehensive about monsters and can occasionally be scared for a moment by a shadow that might be some strange creature. For our honeymoon she was nevertheless keen to go to Scotland, from where her ancestors came, even though Scotland is a…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Leaderly Calculation and Mother Love
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Leaderly Calculation and Mother Love
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Leaderly Calculation and Mother Love 2 Samuel 19: 41- 21: 22 We care about what happens to the bodies of our loved ones. My wife and I long ago agreed that we would be cremated and then have our ashes scattered in the valley where we had spent the first night of our honeymoon. No…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Kings, Priests, Levites, Prophets
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Kings, Priests, Levites, Prophets
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Kings, Priests, Levites, Prophets Deuteronomy 17: 14- 18: 22 In the seminary where I taught in England, from time to time we would have someone delivering a prophetic message in the context of worship. Generally these messages were reassuring and general, promising people God’s l…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Last Chance to take the Torah and The Prophets Seriously
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Last Chance to take the Torah and The Prophets Seriously
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Last Chance to Take the Torah and the Prophets Seriously 2 Kings 22:1-23:24 Being the principal of a seminary occupied the middle ten years of my time as a professor. I had felt no desire to be in that position, but once it became clear that it was the right thing for a time, I r…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Land, Promises and Politics
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Land, Promises and Politics
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Land, Promises and Politics NUMBERS 33:1- 34: 29 I have several friends in Beirut, including a former student who teaches the Bible in a Christian university (actually he is the guy who once threw me into the pool, as I mentioned in connection with Numbers 28–29). He has a hard t…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Justice and Only Justice ( Absolute Faithfulness)
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Justice and Only Justice ( Absolute Faithfulness)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Justice and Only Justice Deuteronomy 16: 18- 17: 13 The last time I took a student group to Israel, among the speakers we had in the evenings was a Christian Palestinian Israeli called Naim Ateek; his son was subsequently a student at our seminary. Dr. Ateek was born in Palestine…
Exodus and Leviticus - Knowledge and Acknowledgement
Exodus and Leviticus - Knowledge and Acknowledgement
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Knowledge and Acknowledgement EXODUS 9: 1-21 Eventually Pharaoh’s ministers of state see the point and surely risk their lives with the boldness of their confrontation of Pharaoh: “Do you not yet acknowledge that Egypt is lost?” (10:7). Can he not see they are like animals caught…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Miriam the Prophet, Aaron the Priest, Moses the Teacher
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Miriam the Prophet, Aaron the Priest, Moses the Teacher
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Miriam the Prophet, Aaron the Priest, Moses the Teacher NUMBERS 12: 1-15 The movie Live and Become is the story of a boy among the Ethiopian Falasha Jews airlifted to Israel at the time of the Marxist revolution in the 1980s. Except that Schlomo (Solomon) is not a Jew but a Chris…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Genesis 1:6-19 At the weekend my wife and I like to have lunch by the ocean, and while doing so we watch the surf hurling itself at the beach. No matter how hard giant waves batter the beach, they will never climb the rocks to where we sit, still less t…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Meanwhile in Judah
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 …
Exodus and Leviticus - Making Reparation