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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Is It the End, or Is There Hope
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Is It the End, or Is There Hope
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Is It the End, or Is There Hope? 2 Kings 24:17-25:30 On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was sitting on my patio when one of my neighbors passed and told me that a plane had flown into one of the Twin Towers in New York. I went indoors and watched transfixed for a while (I di…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How to Undo a Reform
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How to Undo a Reform
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Undo a Reform 2 Kings 22:1-23:24 The first time I visited the United States, I came to give a week’s guest lectures in a seminary. People must have thought the lectures were OK, because they were then interested in offering me a job, but it wasn’t a moment when I could thi…
Isaiah for everyone - Beautiful Feet
Isaiah for everyone - Beautiful Feet
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Beautiful Feet My feet went all nasty a few years ago in Jerusalem. Visiting Jerusalem was the only occasion when I got to wear sandals continually for two weeks, and the skin on my heels frayed. One result was that it became impossible to keep them clean…
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 - 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 - 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…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Mindfulness, God’s and Ours
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Mindfulness, God’s and Ours
by SPCK - John Goldingay
His Commitment Is Forever Psalm 136 A former student of mine served as an armed forces chaplain in Iraq for two years after graduating from seminary. One week he called me from there. He had felt compelled to preach on the idea of God’s steadfast love. He remembered my explaining…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Sunday
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Sunday
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sunday Genesis 1:2-5 I have heard one or two people describe how they make records, and I have come to realize that there are two different approaches. Some people have worked it all out systematically before they go anywhere near a recording studio. They know how many songs they…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Election
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Election
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Election Deuteronomy 7: 7-15 In a newsy e-mail, a former student included the following information (I have disguised the material, of course, as usual): “I have developed an embarrassingly silly crush on the postdoctoral fellow who teaches some of the Semitic languages here. …
Exodus and Leviticus - Promises and Warnings and Promises
Exodus and Leviticus - Promises and Warnings and Promises
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Promises and Warnings and Promises LEVITICUS 26: 3- 46 Yesterday a student from a two-thirds-world country came to see me to talk about wealth and poverty, about the idea that God exercised a preferential option for the poor, about whether it was okay for us to enjoy the wealth w…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Roots; or, Home Is Where Your Share Is
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Roots; or, Home Is Where Your Share Is
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Roots; or, Home Is Where Your Share Is JOSHUA 17:12- 19:21 Waiting for the jazz to start last night, I was reading a book about the opening chapters of Matthew’s Gospel (other people who are on their own stare at their iPhones). It noted how the list of names occupying the bulk o…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Attraction of Images
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Attraction of Images
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Attraction of Images Deuteronomy 4: 1-49 Two or three weeks ago I went for a few days holiday and drove from Los Angeles up the coastal highway to Monterey. I had always heard it was a beautiful drive, and it is. The second night I stopped at a motel and noticed as I checked …
Exodus and Leviticus - The First Spiritual Gifting
Exodus and Leviticus - The First Spiritual Gifting
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The First Spiritual Gifting EXODUS 31: 1-18 An amazing experience of parenthood is your children’s ability to do things you cannot do. Whereas I can just about play three chords on the guitar but have to think through where to put my fingers at each chord change, our younger son …
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Peril of Other People's Faiths
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Peril of Other People's Faiths
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Peril of Other People’s Faiths JOSHUA 23:1- 16 In the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. State Department financed visits to universities and seminaries in the United States by Muslim scholars from abroad as part of efforts to foster mutual understanding between “the Muslim World” a…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - In the Beginning
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - In the Beginning
by SPCK - John Goldingay
In the Beginning Genesis 1: 1 Our son and daughter-in-law were showing us photographs of our two grandchildren. In one of them, the two children were sitting in the back of the car looking very solemn. “I think we had just had the birds-and-the-bees talk,” our son explained. Wher…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Genesis 1:6-19 At the weekend my wife and I like to have lunch by the ocean, and while doing so we watch the surf hurling itself at the beach. No matter how hard giant waves batter the beach, they will never climb the rocks to where we sit, still less t…
Isaiah for everyone - The People Who Know What’s Best