SPCK
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - God’s Time and Our Time
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - God’s Time and Our Time
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God’s Time and Our Time Psalm 90 My first mother-in-law used to say that time went faster the older you got, and I used to tell myself that really she was simply afraid of the approach of death. As I have gotten older, I have realized that she was right, and I see that my realiza…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Amen Anyway
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Amen Anyway
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Amen Anyway Psalm 89:52 There is a play by Elie Wiesel called The Trial of God, set in a concentration camp and based on something the author witnessed at the end of the trial, God is found guilty of crimes against creation and humankind. After a period of silence, a Talmudic sch…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Facing the Other Set of Facts
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Facing the Other Set of Facts
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Is Anything Stable? Psalm 89: 1-37 My wife once lived in a house on the side of a canyon in California that seemed capable of tumbling into the ocean if there was an earthquake, and after one worrying quake not far away she took to checking the weekly earthquake reports. Apparent…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Is Anything Stable?
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Is Anything Stable?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Is Anything Stable? Psalm 89: 1-37 My wife once lived in a house on the side of a canyon in California that seemed capable of tumbling into the ocean if there was an earthquake, and after one worrying quake not far away she took to checking the weekly earthquake reports. Apparent…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - A Cry from the Grave
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - A Cry from the Grave
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Cry from the Grave Psalm 88 Last night we watched a movie called Incendies about a family caught in an intracommunity conflict in Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s. It was a fictional movie, but much of the story could be replicated in factual accounts of what happened to people d…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, Zion
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, Zion
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, Zion Psalm 87 A few weeks ago, we had a visit from friends in London who told us exciting tales about developments in their parish, where they have a rector who is full of ideas for reaching out into the community and a church that is growing. …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - A Servant Leans on His Master
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - A Servant Leans on His Master
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Servant Leans on His Master Psalm 86 The media report that two days ago Christians in Egypt undertook a demonstration related to obstacles put in the way of building a church. The demonstration then became an expression of dissatisfaction with military rule in Egypt, so Muslims…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Restore Us Again
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Restore Us Again
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Restore Us Again Psalm 85 It is easy for me as a Brit to be resentful of the U.S. media’s critiques of Britain and Europe. “Why do they think it’s their business to criticize when the United States can’t solve its own problems?” I wonder. “Are the British media so critical of the…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The One Day and the Thousand Days
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The One Day and the Thousand Days
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The One Day and the Thousand Days Psalm 84 Each of the churches to which I belonged as a minister in England used to have something like a retreat each year—not a business-focused retreat (the connotation that often attaches to the word retreat in the United States) but a weekend…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Choose Your Fate
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Choose Your Fate
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Choose Your Fate Psalm 83 Biblical scholar Michael V. Fox has what you might call a typical Jewish background. At the beginning of the twentieth century his grandfather had a narrow escape from pogroms in Russia, when hundreds of Jews were killed and thousands raped, mutilated, a…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Challenging the Gods and God
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Challenging the Gods and God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Challenging the Gods and God Psalm 82 Two friends who live in the Philippines had lunch with us a week or so ago while on a visit home in the United States. One of them, a Chinese American, told us that in the Philippines he had a sense of the presence of evil spirits that he …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On the Relationship between Worship and Sermon
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On the Relationship between Worship and Sermon
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On the Relationship between Worship and Sermon Psalm 81 We went to the first regular seminary chapel service of the quarter yesterday, and there was lots of resounding singing, (tuneful) shouting, and melodious guitar and piano (equivalent to the harp?). There were no horns this …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Bring Back! Come Back!
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Bring Back! Come Back!
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Bring Back! Come Back! Psalm 80 It’s nearly three hundred years since the First Great Awakening, a revival of religious life in Britain and even more in the British colonies in America a few decades before the War of Independence. This First Great Awakening was mostly a movement …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - One Way to Evade Compassion Fatigue
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - One Way to Evade Compassion Fatigue
by SPCK - John Goldingay
One Way to Evade Compassion Fatigue Psalm 79 The expression “compassion fatigue” has been around for a while. The nature of modern communications media means that we become instantly aware of suffering in different parts of the world, but we cannot deal with all that suffering or…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - People Who Are Standing Need to Watch Lest They Fall
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - People Who Are Standing Need to Watch Lest They Fall
by SPCK - John Goldingay
People Who Are Standing Need to Watch Lest They Fall Psalm 78: 38-72 A few months ago one of the members of our church, a lively lady in her nineties who always had something to contribute, suddenly became less consistent in coming to church, and then didn’t appear for two or thr…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Subtle Link between God’s Grace and People’s Response
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Subtle Link between God’s Grace and People’s Response
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Subtle Link between God’s Grace and People’s Response Psalm 78: 1-37 Yesterday in church the Old Testament reading was the giving of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, and we followed that reading with some congregational discussion of which of these commands seem most import…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Has God Changed?
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Has God Changed?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Has God Changed? Psalm 77 One of our students came to see me to ask me to meet with another student whose life seemed to be falling apart and who was talking about suicide. The woman had been married for twenty years; her first husband had been “the love of her life.” Then he bec…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Fear or Reverence