SPCK - John Goldingay
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Wisdom's Dictionary
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Wisdom's Dictionary
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Wisdom’s Dictionary I turned onto the freeway near our house, built up speed down the ramp, noticed as I reached the main lanes that there was a gap in the traffic but that a bunch of cars was on its way, so I built up speed to 80 or so to get ahead of them…
Jeremiah for everyone - If Someone Disciplines You, It Implies Loving You
Jeremiah for everyone - If Someone Disciplines You, It Implies Loving You
by SPCK - John Goldingay
If Someone Disciplines You, It Implies Loving You In a television interview, the great tennis player Serena Williams was talking about an outburst she’d had at a lineswoman who claimed Serena had foot-faulted; Serena had been convinced she was wrong…
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 - Wounds Too Severe for Treatment
Jeremiah for everyone - Wounds Too Severe for Treatment
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Wounds Too Severe for Treatment Days after the publication of his memoir, the writer Christopher Hitchens was struck down by cancer. He died eighteen months later, but through his illness he kept writing because that’s what writers do…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Promise of a Future
Jeremiah for everyone - The Promise of a Future
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Promise of a Future It’s been a year since I became priest-in-charge at our church, when we could no longer afford a paid pastor. That fact was a sign that the church is getting smaller, and it wasn’t clear how long we’d be viable at all…
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 - 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…
Jeremiah for everyone - Spiritual Warfare and Shocking Sovereignty
Jeremiah for everyone - Spiritual Warfare and Shocking Sovereignty
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Spiritual Warfare and Shocking Sovereignty There’s one more aspect of the comments about warfare in Ephesians 6 that links with these chapters in Jeremiah. One big reason that Paul wants the church to take its fight seriously is that it’s not fighting mere flesh and blood…
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 - 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…
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 …
Jeremiah for everyone - Things Can't Get Worse (Can They?) (2)
Jeremiah for everyone - Things Can't Get Worse (Can They?) (2)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Things Can't Get Worse (Can They?) (2) There’s a story about a man who falls over the edge of a cliff but manages to grab the branch of a small tree and thus stop himself from falling hundreds of feet to his death. The tree saves him, but only temporarily, because he can’t get ba…
Jeremiah for everyone - Things Can't Get Worse (Can They?) (1)
Jeremiah for everyone - Things Can't Get Worse (Can They?) (1)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Things Can't Get Worse (Can They?) (1) News reports as I write (and over the past year or two) manifest a strange kind of naiveté about changes of government. A series of Middle Eastern countries have seen civil conflict and the overthrow of totalitarian regimes…
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 - Truth to Power