1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The God Who Can't Resist the Temptation to Be Merciful
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The God Who Can't Resist the Temptation to Be Merciful
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The God Who Can’t Resist the Temptation to Be Merciful 2 Kings 13:1-14:29 Yesterday in church, the person who was doing the first Scripture reading, from the Prophets, said as she came up to the lectern, “I don’t really want to read this passage.” After she had read it, our recto…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Importance of a Game Plan
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Importance of a Game Plan
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Importance of a Game Plan JOSHUA 8: 1-21 Three weeks ago I went to my first American football game. It was also my first experience of tailgating in the warm sunshine and of eating breakfast burritos, which (accompanied by mimosas) were perhaps the highlight of the day. I was…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Intentional and the Unintentional
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Intentional and the Unintentional
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Intentional and the Unintentional NUMBERS 14: 39-15: 41 In our church we usually douse the candles during the final hymn, before the ministers process down the aisle and walk outside into the main street, back into the outside world, to say goodbye to the congregation. One Su…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Last Words of David
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Last Words of David
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Last Words of David 2 Samuel 23: 1- 38 Even when one makes allowance for the way it can pour, living in Southern California of course spoils you. My son and his family from England have just stayed with us for a week, and they laughed when I apologized that it wasn’t so warm.…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Journey Actually Begins
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Journey Actually Begins
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Journey Actually Begins NUMBERS 9: 15-10: 36 Although I make decisions easily (though this does not mean I make them wisely), when it was a question of deciding to take my disabled wife six thousand miles from Britain to California to a place we had visited only once and wher…
Exodus and Leviticus - The Jubilee
Exodus and Leviticus - The Jubilee
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Jubilee LEVITICUS 25: 1- 26: 2 The other day, I heard a story about a couple who have just had their home repossessed. Part of the story’s sadness was that it is not only the house where the wife had been born but the house where her father had been born. The couple had inher…
Exodus and Leviticus - The Life Is in the Blood
Exodus and Leviticus - The Life Is in the Blood
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Life Is In the Blood LEVITICUS : 17: 1- 18: 30 A month ago a woman came to see me to talk about the general difficulties of her life. Her mother had died some time previously. She was barely on speaking terms with her father. She certainly was not on speaking terms with her m…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Lord of The Flies
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Lord of The Flies
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Lord of the Flies 2 Kings 1:2-18 There are more positive and less positive understandings of human nature. The word zebub means fly, so the title “Master Zebub” or “Lord Zebub” would mean “Lord Fly” or “Lord of the Fly.” Now Lord of the Flies was a mid-twentieth-century novel by …
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Lord Bless You and Keep You
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Lord Bless You and Keep You
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Lord Bless You and Keep You NUMBERS 6: 1-27 “Bless you,” we say when someone sneezes. “Blessings,” we put at the end of e-mails. “God bless,” my father would say as we went to bed. “It was a time of blessing,” someone may say at the end of a service. “Bless my soul,” we may s…
Job for Everyone - The Man of Integrity
Job for Everyone - The Man of Integrity
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Man of Integrity Job 1: 1-5 Seminary chapel this morning focused on a devotional study of Psalm 23 that involved our asking which phrase in the psalm especially spoke to us. The phrase that leapt out for me was “my cup runs over.” I have been married for four months, and I lo…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Man Who Drives Like a Madman
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Man Who Drives Like a Madman
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Man Who Drives Like a Madman 2 Kings 9:1-37 My parents so loved movie star Bette Davis that they named my sister after her. They married in 1938, the year Bette Davis won an Oscar for her central role in the film Jezebel. As “Jezebel” she is Julie Marsden, a powerful, proud, …
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Man Who Would be King
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Man Who Would be King
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Man Who Would Be King JUDGES 9: 1-57 In connection with Joshua 20, I mentioned a woman in my class who apparently had a brain tumor. In an e-mail a couple of weeks ago, she talked about ways God had been speaking to her through classes she had taken over the summer and fall a…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Mark of Cain
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Mark of Cain
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Mark of Cain Genesis 4: 14-17 Our church shows up at a local homeless shelter to make dinner for the residents there once a month or so. Homeless “shelter” could give a false impression. Before I went there, I imagined something rather makeshift, almost like the shelters in w…
Exodus and Leviticus - The Migrant Returns
Exodus and Leviticus - The Migrant Returns
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Migrant Returns EXODUS 4: 24-31 The last two people I had helping me care for my disabled wife were from the Philippines. Although both were the wives of students at our seminary, it is no coincidence that both were Filipinas. There are many Filipina caregivers in the United …
Joshua, judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Man Whose Promise Makes the Blood Run Cold
Joshua, judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Man Whose Promise Makes the Blood Run Cold
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The man Whose Promise Makes the Blood Run Cold JUDGES 11:30- 12:15 There was a story in the news recently about a man who was reversing his car in his drive and accidentally ran over his child who was playing there. Another story related how a mother who had apparently been drink…
Exodus and Leviticus - The Magnificent Presence
Exodus and Leviticus - The Magnificent Presence
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Magnificent Presence EXODUS 34: 27- 40: 38 When I sit in my ancient recliner aware that God is there with me, in the way I described in connection with Exodus 32:30– 33:11, I do not have experiences that leave my face radiating in such a way that later in the day students are…
Job for Everyone - The Mysteries of Nature
Job for Everyone - The Mysteries of Nature
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Mysteries of Nature Job 38 39- 39: 30 Often the first thing I hear in the morning is the squawking of a group of parrots who wander around our city, the descendants (says the urban legend) of pet birds that escaped from or were released by their owners. When I sit at my desk,…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Mystery of Obedience and Disobedience