THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD - 1 Introduction
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD - 1 Introduction
by SPCK - N T Wright
Chapter One Introduction The land of Israel is a small country. You can walk its length, north to south, in a few days, and from its central mountains you can see its lateral boundaries, the sea to the west and the river to the east…
Isaiah for everyone - (Un)spiritual Practices
Isaiah for everyone - (Un)spiritual Practices
by SPCK - John Goldingay
(Un)spiritual Practices I was talking with a friend about the way Christians in our culture have got interested in “spiritual practices” such as meditation, silence, and fasting. This development is taking place in a context where Christians don’t have as much sense of God as the…
Jeremiah for everyone - A Complicated Neighbourly and Family Relationship
Jeremiah for everyone - A Complicated Neighbourly and Family Relationship
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Complicated Neighbourly and Family Relationship The London Olympics have just finished. I didn’t watch, but I did check the news each day because I was concerned not with the number of medals that Britain had won (I didn’t expect it to be many, though I was wrong) but with what…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - A Gentle Response Turns Back Wrath
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - A Gentle Response Turns Back Wrath
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Gentle Response Turns Back Wrath Shortly I must attempt a third draft of a reply to a message concerning our congregation’s terminating the employment of our long-time gardener, who is getting elderly and was finding it harder to do the work that needed doing…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Acquire Truth Don't Sell It
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Acquire Truth Don't Sell It
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Acquire Truth Don't Sell It As we were walking toward our car after a concert, we passed a store front where a man was working a Heidelberg letterpress printing machine. It was odd because it was 10 p.m. and because I didn’t think anyone printed that way nowadays and because the …
Jeremiah for everyone - An Ambassador in Chains
Jeremiah for everyone - An Ambassador in Chains
by SPCK - John Goldingay
An Ambassador in Chains When Paul was apparently in prison in Rome, he wrote letters to a number of churches. In church today I was struck by a passage in which he describes himself as an ambassador in chains and asks the Christians in Ephesus to pray for him so that he’d be bold…
Isaiah for everyone - Beautiful Feet
Isaiah for everyone - Beautiful Feet
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Beautiful Feet My feet went all nasty a few years ago in Jerusalem. Visiting Jerusalem was the only occasion when I got to wear sandals continually for two weeks, and the skin on my heels frayed. One result was that it became impossible to keep them clean…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Be Realistic
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Be Realistic
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Be Realistic Reading the line in Ecclesiastes 4 about a triple cord not breaking quickly, I remembered an occasion in seminary when I gave our professor of preaching a hard time for using that line to support the idea that a sermon ought to have three points…
Isaiah for everyone - Blown Over and Anointed
Isaiah for everyone - Blown Over and Anointed
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Blown Over and Anointed This week I’m meeting with a young man considering ordination in the Episcopal Church who wants to “seek my advice regarding my vocation.” There are aspects of the Episcopal Church about which he is uneasy—how will he cope with those? Should he ask his rec…
Isaiah for everyone - Comfort My People
Isaiah for everyone - Comfort My People
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Comfort My People A week ago we had dinner with two clergy friends from England, one of whom commented in passing that on present trends the Church of England would be functionally non-existent in twenty years. I discovered that the comment was echoing speeches at the Church of E…
Jeremiah for everyone - Clay in the Potter's Hand
Jeremiah for everyone - Clay in the Potter's Hand
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Clay in the Potter's Hand There’s a neat Christian song that expresses our commitment to being “clay in the potter’s hand.” It’s a suggestive image. It means that we are malleable, open to being formed into what God wants us to be…
Jeremiah for everyone - Compassion Has the Last Word
Jeremiah for everyone - Compassion Has the Last Word
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Compassion Has the Last Word A variant on whether you see the glass as half full or half empty is whether you look to the future with hope or anxiety. I’m a mildly anxious person myself—I don’t worry much about particular threats or problems, but I’m susceptible to a vague unease…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Drink Is a Brawler
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Drink Is a Brawler
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Drink Is a Brawler A friend who is a recovering alcoholic sometimes comments with dark humour on the process whereby drinking ruins people’s lives. It all but ruined his life, and it has ruined the lives of people he knows…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Enjoy Your Life Mindful of Your Creator
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Enjoy Your Life Mindful of Your Creator
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Enjoy Your Life Mindful of Your Creator I remember the first time I heard Ray Charles perform. Having been blind for many years, he had to be guided toward the piano, but he needed much more help than his blindness alone would have required…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Faithful Are the Wounds of a Friend
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Faithful Are the Wounds of a Friend
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Faithful Are the Wounds of a Friend Austin Farrer, the warden (that is, president) of my undergraduate college, was one of the great preachers of the day, though more for the wisdom and insight of his content than for the singsong style of his delivery…
Jeremiah for everyone - How Do You Get People to Change?
Jeremiah for everyone - How Do You Get People to Change?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How Do You Get People to Change? In the 1960s a man called Arthur Blessitt moved from Louisiana to Hollywood in order to preach to hippies, runaways, addicts, bikers, prostitutes, flower children, and would-be actors and rock stars; he became known as the minister of Sunset Strip…
Isaiah for everyone - I SEE HAWKS IN L.A.