Jeremiah for everyone - Remains
Jeremiah for everyone - Remains
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Remains When we were children, our parents sent my sister and me off to Sunday school on a Sunday afternoon. I never asked why they did so. I imagine they appreciated an hour’s quiet after Sunday lunch, but I also suspect that though they didn’t go to church, they somehow wanted …
Isaiah for everyone - Putting Down Edom, Giving the Mute Their Voice
Isaiah for everyone - Putting Down Edom, Giving the Mute Their Voice
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Putting Down Edom, Giving the Mute Their Voice As a result of multiple sclerosis, my first wife, Ann, indeed had collapsing knees, as well as weak hands. When we were relocating to the United States, as we arrived at Heathrow, I was helping her transfer into her wheelchair by usi…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Rich and Poor Meet
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Rich and Poor Meet
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Rich and Poor Meet Getting dressed this morning, I noticed there was no change in my pocket. I remembered giving my change to someone in the street and wondering whether I was helping him get a meal or just get another drink…
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…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Sell Your Tongue, and Buy a Thousand Ears
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Sell Your Tongue, and Buy a Thousand Ears
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sell Your Tongue, and Buy a Thousand Ears 1Watch your steps as you go to God’s house. Drawing near to listen is better than the giving of a sacrifice by stupid people, because they don’t acknowledge that they are doing something evil…
Isaiah for everyone - Straight-Talking Meets Straight-Talking
Isaiah for everyone - Straight-Talking Meets Straight-Talking
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Straight-Talking Meets Straight-Talking I sometimes have a hard time persuading people that prayer is an act of communication between us and God and that there’s a mutuality about this communication. The idea has got around that prayer is really more like a form of reflection and…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Students in Four Flavours
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Students in Four Flavours
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Students in Four Flavours My students come in several flavours. Some begin their papers with an apology for the fact that before the class they had never read the Pentateuch or the Prophets (or whatever is the subject)…
Isaiah for everyone - The Ambiguous Hezekiah
Isaiah for everyone - The Ambiguous Hezekiah
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Ambiguous Hezekiah The other week we heard a Los Angeles priest who works with ex-gang members tell of going to a university to talk about his work. He took with him an ex-gang member called Juan. During the day they went to classes and spoke to students and in the evening ad…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Arrogance of Power
Jeremiah for everyone - The Arrogance of Power
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Arrogance of Power As we drank our morning tea my wife told me that some foreign banks had announced that they were pulling out of Greece during its economic crisis, and we wondered what this meant for people who had accounts at those banks…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Big One
Jeremiah for everyone - The Big One
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Big One One time when my elder son and his family visited us in California, there was an earthquake of the kind that you can feel but that doesn’t cause much damage, though it causes some unease if you’re used to the stability of London…
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…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Distressing Dynamics of Wisdom and Power
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Distressing Dynamics of Wisdom and Power
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Distressing Dynamics of Wisdom and Power Several days a week I find myself reporting to my wife something from the news with the explicit or implicit comment, “How can people be so stupid?” This week it’s the fact that Western forces in Afghanistan had burned some copies of t…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Grimmest Scene in the Old Testament
Jeremiah for everyone - The Grimmest Scene in the Old Testament
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Grimmest Scene in the Old Testament I hate this story about Jerusalem’s fall and its aftermath, and I hate the fact that it comes more than once in the Old Testament (indeed, more than once in Jeremiah alone, for goodness’ sake)…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Misleading Scholars
Jeremiah for everyone - The Misleading Scholars
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Misleading Scholars Yesterday a student asked me whether a particular book would be taken seriously by the wide majority of Old Testament scholars. The response I forgot to make was that whatever is the consensus of scholars today won’t be the consensus in a decade’s time…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Mouth of the Faithful Person is Fruitful