Jeremiah for everyone - I Don't Trust You
Jeremiah for everyone - I Don't Trust You
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Don't Trust You In the latter years of my first wife’s life, from time to time I’d attempt to confront God about the way she was increasingly affected by her multiple sclerosis. God was inclined to be equally confrontational in his response (I could get away with a cry of pain …
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - I Have Not Found A Woman
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - I Have Not Found A Woman
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Have Not Found A Woman I just had a message from a young friend who will be in town next week and wants to come to see us. It’s only a few months since she emailed to tell us that she had maybe found the man of her dreams, a man whose instincts about Christian ministry match he…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - I Belong to My Love, and His Desire Is toward Me
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - I Belong to My Love, and His Desire Is toward Me
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Belong to My Love, and His Desire Is toward Me I once had to review a commentary on the Song for a journal. The author assumed that the Song is about the relationship between a man and a woman and dismissed the idea that under the surface it’s about the relationship between Chr…
Jeremiah for everyone - In the Interests of the living
Jeremiah for everyone - In the Interests of the living
by SPCK - John Goldingay
In the Interests of the living A woman recently inherited a diary her mother kept during the last months of her life. It showed a side of her mother she hadn’t seen before—angry, afraid, self-recriminatory. It was upsetting to read…
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 - Looking for Spiritual Resources
Jeremiah for everyone - Looking for Spiritual Resources
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Looking for Spiritual Resources I just read about a couple who travelled to India because they couldn’t have a baby. The British medics were puzzled about the reasons, as both husband and wife seemed to be physiologically OK…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - My Love Is Mine, and I Am His
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - My Love Is Mine, and I Am His
by SPCK - John Goldingay
My Love Is Mine, and I Am His One of my best friends when I was a teenager, having exhausted the dating possibilities in our youth fellowship, started going out with a girl from another church, and I commented that she was rather plain compared with some of the girls he had gone …
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…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - On Trust
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - On Trust
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Trust A senior member of our congregation died last week. Joe had fought in the Second World War and was then one of the first African Americans to graduate from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - One Ecclesiastes Is Good, but One Is Enough
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - One Ecclesiastes Is Good, but One Is Enough
by SPCK - John Goldingay
One Ecclesiastes Is Good, but One Is Enough Yesterday a student came to see me because he’s having a hard time with my course on the Psalms and with his academic work in general. He wasn’t concerned to make excuses but just wanted me to understand what was going on…
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 - Pottery Smashed
Jeremiah for everyone - Pottery Smashed
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Pottery Smashed In Hanoi there’s an embassy that gives visas to people who want to find the bodies of relatives who died in Vietnam’s wars. The family wants to be able to give them a proper burial to avoid their becoming angry ghosts rather than guardian spirits…
Jeremiah for everyone - Pharaoh the Windbag
Jeremiah for everyone - Pharaoh the Windbag
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Pharaoh the Windbag That passage from Ephesians 6 to which I referred in connection with Jeremiah 45 begins by talking about the fight that the church is engaged in and by reminding us of the enemy we are fighting and the armor (mostly if not entirely defensive) that we need to w…
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…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Remember You Are Going to Die, and it May Be Sooner than You Think