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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…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Life's Just Not Fair
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Life's Just Not Fair
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Life’s Just Not Fair 2 Kings 12:1-21 The man who would have been my boss in my present job, David Hubbard, first interviewed me over lunch in a hotel in London in 1981. He was one of the most creative, innovative leaders in theological education in the United States and took the …
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 …
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - On Rendering to Caesar and Rendering to God
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - On Rendering to Caesar and Rendering to God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Rendering to Caesar and Rendering to God 1 Kings 18:1-18 Two friends of mine work in a Middle Eastern country where it is illegal to seek to get people to come to believe in Christ. Their own position is secure because they work in the expatriate church in the capital, and it …
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Prophets and When to Ignore Them
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Prophets and When to Ignore Them
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Prophets, and When to Ignore Them 1 Kings 12:33-13:32 When I look back over the leadership of the various bosses I have had (present company excepted, in case he reads this) and reflect on my own time as a boss, I can see various ways in which proven ability and divine guidance p…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Shoot The Messenger
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Shoot The Messenger
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Shoot the Messenger 2 Kings 6:24-7:20 I muse from time to time on why it is that many Christians today fret about war more than Christians in previous ages. It’s not simply because they are following Jesus—at least, most previous generations of Christians did not think this way, …
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Temples and Churches
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Temples and Churches
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Temples and Churches 1 Kings 6: 1-38 The little church building where I worship each Sunday holds only fifty or sixty people, but it divides into three parts. The congregation sits in the main body of the church; there is a little step up to the choir stalls; and finally there is…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Temples and Palaces
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Temples and Palaces
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Temples and Palaces 1 Kings 7:1-8:9 Intriguingly interwoven with the story of the temple building is the brief account of Solomon’s spending thirteen years building his house; he spent seven years building God’s house. Is that a sign that God’s house had priority, that he focused…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Bird in a Cage
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Bird in a Cage
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Bird in a Cage 2 Kings 18:1-37 When my sons were babies, we would play trust exercises with them, though I’m not sure whether we or they realized this was what we were doing. They would leap from some height, such as a wall, knowing that father or mother would catch them. As …
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Capital of Corruption
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Capital of Corruption
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Capital of Corruption 1 Kings 21:8-29 Sitting on the subway on the way home last night, I overheard a conversation between two young men about the candidates for our upcoming gubernatorial elections. (Isn’t that a great word, gubernatorial? We don’t have it in British English…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Chance to be a Servant Leader
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Chance to be a Servant Leader
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Chance to Be a Servant leader 1 Kings 12:1-32 One of my faculty colleagues was asked to become director of the chapel in the seminary, and she loved to relate how she needed to go and talk to the provost of the seminary (vice principal in Brit-speak) about her role, and how h…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Cloak and the Power of Elijah
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Cloak and the Power of Elijah
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Cloak and the Power of Elijah 2 Kings 2:1-3:3 I once had to change a flat tire by the Dead Sea. I jacked the car up and in the process of changing the tire or loosening or tightening the wheel nuts, I lay on the sandy but hard ground. It was summer and hot, and when I got up …
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Fall of the Northern Kingdom
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Fall of the Northern Kingdom
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Fall of the Northern Kingdom 2 Kings 17:1-41 I suspect that people think I am an upright kind of guy, and they are not exactly wrong, but I have stories in my past of which I am ashamed and about which they don’t know, and I am not about to tell you these either. They still c…
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…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Great Sacrifice Baal
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Great Sacrifice Baal
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Great Sacrifice for Baal 2 Kings 10:1-35 Each August 30 in my home city of Birmingham, England, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the martyrdom of a woman called Margaret Ward. In the reign of Elizabeth I, when it was against English law to practice the Roman Catholic fait…
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 …
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Low Murmuring Sound
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Low Murmuring Sound
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Low Murmuring Sound 1 Kings 19:1-21 I am inclined to think that nothing I do in seeking to fulfill my vocation achieves anything. My vocation is to help people understand the Old Testament and let their thinking and their lives be shaped by it. I am passionately committed to …
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Man Who Drives Like a Madman