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Isaiah for Everyone - Prophet as Crazy Man
Isaiah for Everyone - Prophet as Crazy Man
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Prophet as Crazy Man The installing of a professor in his or her “chair” is an occasion for making fun of the person as well as for making seriously congratulatory speeches. I was not surprised that when I was installed one of the people who had been asked to speak made fun of my…
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 …
Isaiah for Everyone - The Downfall of the Superpower
Isaiah for Everyone - The Downfall of the Superpower
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Downfall of the Superpower Last Sunday’s newspaper included three reviews of books on “the state of the union,” one by a Brit, two by Americans, all written by people who love the United States, but all concerned about its decline as the world’s one superpower. It’s often sai…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Mystery of Obedience and Disobedience
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Mystery of Obedience and Disobedience
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Mystery of Obedience and Disobedience Deuteronomy 29: 1- 30: 20 My wife and I often used to go for lunch on a Saturday or Sunday to a restaurant hanging over the ocean where you can watch the surf (I have simple tastes), but we would leave in the early afternoon before the pl…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Nations
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Nations
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Nations Genesis 9: 26- 10: 20 There is a movie called Antonia’s Line set in a village in the Netherlands at the end of the Second World War. A garrison of Nazi troops is stationed in the village; the village’s own men are all missing, fighting in the Allied Armies or working …
Hebrews for Everyone - Christian Suffering is God's Discipline
Hebrews for Everyone - Christian Suffering is God's Discipline
by SPCK - N T Wright
Christian Suffering is God’s Discipline Hebrews 12.4-11 Western society is in a turmoil these days about discipline. We have become very aware of the dangers of physical violence at every level. What happens when a child grows up knowing only that authority belongs to the person …
Psalms for Everyone - God Laughs on His People's Behalf
Psalms for Everyone - God Laughs on His People's Behalf
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God Laughs on His People’s Behalf Psalm 2 We watched Independence Day fireworks last night, and I recalled how people sometimes ask me, “Do you celebrate Independence Day in Britain?” I say, “Yes, of course: parents are glad when their kids grow up and take control of their own l…
Exodus and Leviticus - Knowing and Acknowledging Again
Exodus and Leviticus - Knowing and Acknowledging Again
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Knowing and Acknowledging Again EXODUS 11: 1-10 EXODUS and Leviticus for Everyone 1Yahweh said to Moses, “There is yet one more blow I shall bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will send you off from here. When he sends you off, it will be complete. He will finally thro…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Land, Promises and Politics
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Land, Promises and Politics
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Land, Promises and Politics NUMBERS 33:1- 34: 29 I have several friends in Beirut, including a former student who teaches the Bible in a Christian university (actually he is the guy who once threw me into the pool, as I mentioned in connection with Numbers 28–29). He has a hard t…
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 - Good News for People Who Are Broken and Flickering
Isaiah for everyone - Good News for People Who Are Broken and Flickering
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Good News for People Who Are Broken and Flickering In a movie we recently watched called Stuck between Stations, the protagonists, a man and a woman, tell each other stories that explicate something of who they are. The man is a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan who has watched one of …
Isaiah for everyone - High and Holy, but Present with the Crushed and Low in Spirit
Isaiah for everyone - High and Holy, but Present with the Crushed and Low in Spirit
by SPCK - John Goldingay
High and Holy, but Present with the Crushed and Low in Spirit In a recent sermon in our seminary I told students that Jesus isn’t their buddy. I’m told the air went out of the room when I said it. A friend subsequently gave me a “Buddy Christ” statuette, which I could put on my d…
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…
Isaiah for everyone - The Servant's Servant
Isaiah for everyone - The Servant's Servant
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Servant’s Servant A few weeks ago I had to preach at the ordination of a friend. She asked me to choose a passage as a Scripture reading from which I would preach. She laughed when I told her it would be the first of these two paragraphs, because (she commented) everyone knew…
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 - Who Am I?
Jeremiah for everyone - Who Am I?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Who Am I? In a poem he wrote in prison, on his way to being executed by the Nazis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer asked the question, “Who am I?” Am I one person today, and tomorrow, another? Do I look brave to other people, though before myself I’m “a contemptibly woebegone weakling”?…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Yes, Yahweh Has Begun to Reign
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Yes, Yahweh Has Begun to Reign
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Yes, Yahweh Has Begun to Reign Psalm 96 Today’s news includes a report about forces in Yemen firing on people protesting the government and killing some of them. In Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan soldiers have faced sharply increased attacks by insurgents from their base in Pakista…
Poem: By the river