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Exodus and Leviticus - One Kind of Fear Turns to Another
Exodus and Leviticus - One Kind of Fear Turns to Another
by SPCK - John Goldingay
One Kind of Fear Turns to Another EXODUS 13: 17- 14: 31 This weekend our rector is on a discernment retreat, and next weekend he is away preaching at a church in another city. I was a bit slow on the uptake, and someone else had to whisper to me that this is code for his wonderin…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - One Fatal Mistake
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - One Fatal Mistake
by SPCK - John Goldingay
One Fatal Mistake NUMBERS 20: 1-13 A few years ago a bright young church leader in England whom I knew slightly made one mistake, and his ministry was finished. It must have been devastating for him; it was devastating for people who had set their hopes on him as a symbol of some…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Holy Wind
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Holy Wind
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Holy Wind Psalm 135 Two nights ago, we had a huge windstorm in our city, with gusts up to ninety-seven miles per hour. The wind felled hundreds of trees, including century-old oaks and tall palms. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power, and many still lack power. Schools and …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - What to Do When God’s Promises Fail
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - What to Do When God’s Promises Fail
by SPCK - John Goldingay
What to Do When God’s Promises Fail Psalm 108 I was talking the other day with a friend who has been an associate pastor in a flourishing Pentecostal church for a year. He did not have a Pentecostal background, but this fact had not seemed to matter, because nothing very Pentecos…
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 - How to Deal with Unfulfilled Promises
Psalms for Everyone - How to Deal with Unfulfilled Promises
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Deal with Unfulfilled Promises Psalm 60 Yesterday in church the Gospel reading from Matthew 18 included Jesus’ promise that where two people agree on anything, our heavenly Father will do it for them. Yet lots of people have the experience of God’s not doing something that…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Aliens and Strangers
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Aliens and Strangers
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Aliens and Strangers Genesis 17: 7-8 There is a world of difference between being an alien and being a citizen. The New York Times has an ethical agony page where the columnist discusses some dilemma. Last week a reader was taking his family on vacation in Holland, where smoking …
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Beautiful Tents, Jacob
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Beautiful Tents, Jacob
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Beautiful Tents, Jacob NUMBERS 23: 25 24: 25 As a boy I sang in a cathedral choir. One of my favorite anthems was “How Goodly Are Thy Tents, O Jacob,” composed by a Victorian composer called Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley, a professor of music at Oxford, a prolific composer …
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Ensuring justice
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Ensuring justice
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Ensuring Justice NUMBERS 35:1- 36: 13 A Florida lawyer commented this month that it is becoming more and more common to hear news accounts of people convicted of first-degree murder, sentenced to death, then released many years later after it is determined (usually through DNA te…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Five Pushy Women
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Five Pushy Women
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Five Pushy Women NUMBERS 26:52- 27: 11 I just came across someone’s list of the five feminist biblical scholars who had most influenced him. The idea of “feminist” biblical scholars is that these are people who in their study of Scripture are conscious of their particular identit…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - It Never Rains in Southern California
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - It Never Rains in Southern California
by SPCK - John Goldingay
It Never Rains in Southern California Deuteronomy 11: 1- 32 “It never rains in southern California,” the song says, though it goes on to comment that they don’t warn you how it pours. It’s raining this morning. It is several months since it rained, and that is no problem to me as…
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 …
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - A Spy Story
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - A Spy Story
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Spy Story NUMBERS 13: 1-14: 38 I like to raise student eyebrows by pointing out occasions when God has abandoned segments of the church. In the first Christian centuries, the eastern Mediterranean (Turkey, the Levant, Egypt, North Africa) was full of lively Christian churches, …
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Curses and Blessings and Curses
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Curses and Blessings and Curses
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Curses and Blessings and Curses Deuteronomy 27: 1- 28: 68 Last night I had a lovely dinner with some students. I accepted a second helping of pasta and a second glass of wine, and ate a magnificent brownie dessert with strawberries and ice cream. When it came to coffee, I decline…
Exodus and Leviticus - From Guerrilla to Fugitive
Exodus and Leviticus - From Guerrilla to Fugitive
by SPCK - John Goldingay
From Guerrilla to Fugitive EXODUS 2: 11- 25 There is a special kind of irregular verb (popularized by the British TV series Yes Minister) that describes the same action differently according to who speaks and who is being referred to. A well-known example is “I am firm; you are o…
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Check Things out with God
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Check Things out with God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Check Things Out with God EXODUS 32: 30-33: 11 Throughout most of my life, I have had a particular place where I pray each day. At the moment it is an ancient recliner chair sitting in front of my desk. Next to it is a little table where I keep a Bible and a prayer noteboo…
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Build a Church 1 EXODUS 25: 1- 26: 30 At our church we have just begun inviting ourselves to make offerings for work that needs to be done to the buildings. We have a list of priorities, like the replacement of some wooden beams that have rotted in the rains (it is Califor…
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Celebrate