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Isaiah for everyone - An Ambiguous "Because"
Isaiah for everyone - An Ambiguous "Because"
by SPCK - John Goldingay
An Ambiguous “Because” At Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, is a room dedicated to the million and a half children who were murdered in the Holocaust. It’s a hollowed out cavern with some candles whose light is reflected on the ceiling by hundreds of mirrors so tha…
Isaiah for everyone - God the Creator of Evil
Isaiah for everyone - God the Creator of Evil
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God the Creator of Evil My wife used to lead a women’s Bible Study where some women who came for a while would commonly give the existence of evil as their reason or excuse for not believing in God and not staying. Her comment is that the existence of evil surely makes it more im…
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 - 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…
Isaiah for everyone - I SEE HAWKS IN L.A.
Isaiah for everyone - I SEE HAWKS IN L.A.
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I SEE HAWKS IN L.A. One of my favorite bands is called I See Hawks in L.A., which is also the title of one of their early songs. In the song the hawks hover over the city as if they sense it’s about to be destroyed and there will be plenty of provender for them to enjoy. “What if…
Isaiah for everyone - On Following God’s Prompting
Isaiah for everyone - On Following God’s Prompting
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Following God’s Prompting We were at a singer-songwriter venue and the singer’s last song was about her mother’s death two or three years ago. The song title referred to the year of her mother’s birth, which was the same birth year of someone who was with us. She later told us…
Isaiah for everyone - God’s Strange Work
Isaiah for everyone - God’s Strange Work
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God’s Strange Work The other Sunday we were singing the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” and I was reflecting wryly that it’s a shame nobody realizes where its basic ideas come from, as is the case with the related chorus “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.” They come …
Isaiah for Everyone - Grief Brought To An End
Isaiah for Everyone - Grief Brought To An End
by SPCK - John Goldingay
GRIEF BROUGHT TO AN END In a movie called Grace Is Gone, Grace is a sergeant in the army on active service. Her husband, Stan, looks after a supply store back home. One morning the feared and terrifying visit comes from army representatives with the task of telling Stan that Grac…
Jeremiah for everyone - Not Always the Holywood Ending
Jeremiah for everyone - Not Always the Holywood Ending
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Not Always the Holywood Ending Last night we watched a French movie about a couple whose baby son developed a brain tumour. The movie focused on the way the couple coped, naturally with tensions and grief but also with determination and energy and more than a little therapeutic c…
Isaiah for everyone - Putting Down Edom, Giving the Mute Their Voice
Isaiah for everyone - Putting Down Edom, Giving the Mute Their Voice
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Putting Down Edom, Giving the Mute Their Voice As a result of multiple sclerosis, my first wife, Ann, indeed had collapsing knees, as well as weak hands. When we were relocating to the United States, as we arrived at Heathrow, I was helping her transfer into her wheelchair by usi…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Bold Miscalculation
Jeremiah for everyone - The Bold Miscalculation
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Bold Miscalculation In church this Sunday morning, the first of our three passages from Scripture was the story of God’s asking Solomon what he wanted, that most testing of questions, a test that Solomon passed magnificently…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Perilous Position of Prophet and Priest
Jeremiah for everyone - The Perilous Position of Prophet and Priest
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Perilous Position of Prophet and Priest Today we had a bumper crop of birthdays to celebrate at church; I was tempted to ask people to stand up if they were not having a birthday this week. As a wondrous coincidence, the Gospel reading was the story of a birthday party…
Isaiah for everyone - The Unexpected Fall of the Superpower
Isaiah for everyone - The Unexpected Fall of the Superpower
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Unexpected Fall of the Superpower I was born when the British Empire was about to fold. The tide was turning in the Second World War as Britain and its allies were about to defeat Nazi Germany and its allies. Yet in another sense Nazi Germany won, because war left Britain and…
Jeremiah for everyone - Truth to Power
Jeremiah for everyone - Truth to Power
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Truth to Power As I write, the Australian founder of Wikileaks is effectively a prisoner in the Ecuadorean embassy in London. If he leaves the embassy, Britain will arrest him and hand him over to authorities in Sweden that have sought his extradition…
Isaiah for everyone - Wishing and Hoping and Thinking and Praying, Planning, and Dreaming (2)
Isaiah for everyone - Wishing and Hoping and Thinking and Praying, Planning, and Dreaming (2)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Wishing and Hoping and Thinking and Praying, Planning, and Dreaming (2) When I was about eight, we went for a family holiday to stay with some friends. One morning as breakfast was about to begin I went back to our bedroom to get a sweater or something (it was an English summer) …
Isaiah for everyone - Worship That Issues from Human Instinct
Isaiah for everyone - Worship That Issues from Human Instinct
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Worship That Issues from Human Instinct The most disappointing and frustrating church service I have attended in California took place one Mother’s Day, when I played hooky from our church because I wanted to avoid a service preoccupied by the topic of mothers and went to another…
Isaiah for everyone - A Politician’s One Fatal Mistake