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1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - As Far as this Yahweh Has Helped Us
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - As Far as this Yahweh Has Helped Us
by SPCK - John Goldingay
As Far as This Yahweh Has Helped Us 1 Samuel 7: 2- 14 “Helping” can have a variety of connotations. On one occasion a tire came off my wife’s wheelchair when we were on our way to church. As I was bending down trying to get the tire back on, with Ann still in the chair, a car dri…
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church II
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church II
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Build a Church 2 EXODUS 26: 31- 27: 21 When I was a toddler in the latter part of the Second World War, family lore says that I used to watch the “fireworks” and the “bonfires” from my second-floor bedroom. These were actually bombs falling on the RAF airstrip that is now …
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Moses' Last Song
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Moses' Last Song
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Moses’ Last Song Deuteronomy 31: 1- 32: 47 In commenting on Deuteronomy 1, I referred to a service of contrition in our Episcopal diocese concerning the way we had treated African Americans. In the early decades of the twentieth century, in different parts of greater Los Angeles …
Job for Everyone - On Accepting Your Ignorance
Job for Everyone - On Accepting Your Ignorance
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Accepting Your Ignorance Job 38 16-38 In my seminary in England we once produced a dramatic version of the story of Job; I was the screenwriter, and one of my colleagues was the director. She wanted to have God appearing on stage during the dialogues between Job and his friend…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - On Watching Your Son Die
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - On Watching Your Son Die
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Watching Your Son Die Genesis 21: 15-32 Today I read about the death of the young son of the leader of the opposition party in the U.K. parliament. The boy had been born with cerebral palsy and a severe form of epilepsy, and in a sense his parents had been watching him die all…
Psalms for Everyone - Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-II
Psalms for Everyone - Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-II
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-II Psalm 40 As usual we had a time of sharing praise and prayer concerns in church yesterday, and as usual I had more success getting people to share prayer concerns than to share reasons for thanksgiving. As far as I remember the only t…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The First Sunday of Advent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The First Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The First Sunday of Advent Luke 21.25-36 Gaze on all the climate change nightmares we read about – mountains sliding into rivers, icebergs breaking off from the Antarctic mass; rising sea levels and waves breaching sea defences, and winds that upend ancient oaks. Is this the fina…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Second Sunday Before Lent Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday Before Lent - Year A Genesis 1.1–23 Romans 8.18–25 Matthew 6.25–34 Today’s Gospel reading reminds us how important it is not simply to take all passages of Scripture and apply them directly to ourselves, as though they had no original context and no intervening …
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Sour Hour of Prayer
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Sour Hour of Prayer
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sour Hour of Prayer 1 Samuel 1: 9-11 For Hannah, too, the hour of prayer was initially sour, though eventually sweet. Presumably she prayed when she was at home in the village, as other Israelites did, but the occasion when the family went to Shiloh would be a natural time for sp…
Isaiah for Everyone - Stand Firm, Or You Won't Stand At All
Isaiah for Everyone - Stand Firm, Or You Won't Stand At All
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Stand Firm, Or You Won’t Stand At All I mentioned in an early volume of The Old Testament for Everyone receiving a call from a Jewish lawyer in Los Angeles who had self-published a book titled Twenty-six Reasons Why Jews Don’t Believe in Jesus and wanted me to make sure that his …
Job for Everyone - Sovereignty without Principle?
Job for Everyone - Sovereignty without Principle?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sovereignty without Principle? Job 12: 1-25 My wife and I were talking about Job the other day, and she told me about two different people in a church to which she had belonged who had given up their Christian faith and left the church when they went through the horrific experien…
Job for Everyone - The Awe-Inspiring Creator
Job for Everyone - The Awe-Inspiring Creator
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Awe-Inspiring Creator Job 36 26-37: 24 The window by my desk looks out over our patio, where I can see geraniums starting to bloom, blue jays coming to bathe in the fountain, and squirrels trying to remember where they stored their nuts. A plant of basil sits on a table and w…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Audacity of Hope
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Audacity of Hope
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Audacity of Hope Genesis 5: 21-32 At a lunch the weekend after Tony Blair became British prime minister in 1997, I was talking with a woman at our table. The event had reminded me of the election of Harold Wilson’s government in Britain in 1964, and I had been thinking of the…
Exodus and Leviticus - The Expiation Day
Exodus and Leviticus - The Expiation Day
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Expiation Day LEVITICUS : 16: 1-34 I climbed Mount Sinai in September 1973, near the beginning of the seventh month in the Jewish year as Leviticus computes it (counting from Passover), and thus just after the New Year on the modern Jewish calendar. It was five days before Yo…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Importance of a Game Plan
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Importance of a Game Plan
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Importance of a Game Plan JOSHUA 8: 1-21 Three weeks ago I went to my first American football game. It was also my first experience of tailgating in the warm sunshine and of eating breakfast burritos, which (accompanied by mimosas) were perhaps the highlight of the day. I was…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Last Words of David
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Last Words of David
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Last Words of David 2 Samuel 23: 1- 38 Even when one makes allowance for the way it can pour, living in Southern California of course spoils you. My son and his family from England have just stayed with us for a week, and they laughed when I apologized that it wasn’t so warm.…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Personal and The Political
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Personal and The Political
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Personal and the Political 1 Kings 17:1-24 I have just deleted an e-mail from a student in whose life I saw something of a miracle a few months ago. She had been diagnosed as having a brain tumor and was hastily scheduled for an emergency operation to try to remove it. The su…
Psalms for Everyone - Who Can I Turn To?