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Exodus and Leviticus - More Prayer, More Flip-Flop
Exodus and Leviticus - More Prayer, More Flip-Flop
by SPCK - John Goldingay
More Prayer, More Flip-Flop EXODUS 10: 1-29 I’ve just been reading a paper by one of my students titled “Prayer in the Scriptures.” The student astonished me first by reporting a poll indicating that 72 percent of people in the United States pray at least several times a week. Th…
Exodus and Leviticus - Moses and Miriam Sing and Dance
Exodus and Leviticus - Moses and Miriam Sing and Dance
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Moses and Miriam Sing and Dance EXODUS 15: 1-21 A few weeks before my disabled wife died, we were in a restaurant where they have a live band, one of my absolute favorites, playing swing, blues, and rockabilly. My feet and hands were tapping, or perhaps thumping and stomping (I c…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Not with Our Parents
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Not with Our Parents
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Not with Our Parents Deuteronomy 5: 1-15 This week I read an e-mail from a student now doing graduate work elsewhere: “I quit my job on Monday as I was averaging four hours of sleep a night and came down with two colds in the first two weeks of school. Best decision of the year.”…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Not You but God
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Not You but God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Not You But God Genesis 45:1-28 Last night we had a group of students in our home for dessert after class. One of them asked what is my favorite book in the Bible (the answer is Ecclesiastes) and then what is my disabled wife’s favorite book. I am not aware that she ever had one,…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Now I Know
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Now I Know
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Now I Know Genesis 22: 11- 19 In 1969, as the Vietnam war reached its peak, the Canadian Jewish poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen recorded a song about “The Story of Isaac.” The first two verses imaginatively retell the story from Isaac’s angle, but then the song ricochets into a…
Job for Everyone - On Birth and Death
Job for Everyone - On Birth and Death
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Birth and Death Job 10: 1-22 Yesterday a girl in her twenties was telling me about the death of her grandmother a day or two before. Like many people of her generation, she was very close to her grandmother, and the loss is a significant one. And yesterday another young woman …
Exodus and Leviticus - Now I will Seal a Covenant
Exodus and Leviticus - Now I will Seal a Covenant
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Now I Will Seal a Covenant EXODUS 34: 1-26 Visiting Jerusalem brings many striking experiences for sober-minded Westerners. The celebration of a bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah at the Western Wall is an occasion of enthusiastic rejoicing, dancing, and singing as Torah scrolls are carr…
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…
Exodus and Leviticus - Praying for the Enemy
Exodus and Leviticus - Praying for the Enemy
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Praying for the Enemy EXODUS 8: 8- 32 I think it’s easier for my church to pray for the present U.S. president than it was to pray for his predecessor. They like the present president; they find it easy to identify with him (he is African American and so are most of them); and th…
Exodus and Leviticus - Pharaoh Flip-Flop
Exodus and Leviticus - Pharaoh Flip-Flop
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Pharaoh Flip-Flop EXODUS 9: 22-35 In the rough and tumble of U.S. politics, you have to be very careful about changing your mind, or you may be accused of flip-flopping. It’s appropriate that there should be a term for an unprincipled change of mind or change of policy, one that …
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…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Real Life Is More Complicated
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Real Life Is More Complicated
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Real Life Is More Complicated JUDGES 1:1- 36 This week Barack Obama made what might be the most fateful decision of his young presidency in sending thirty thousand more soldiers into Afghanistan. By the time you read this commentary, we may know whether this produces the desired …
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Prophets and When to Ignore Them
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Prophets and When to Ignore Them
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Prophets, and When to Ignore Them 1 Kings 12:33-13:32 When I look back over the leadership of the various bosses I have had (present company excepted, in case he reads this) and reflect on my own time as a boss, I can see various ways in which proven ability and divine guidance p…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Provision and Purification
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Provision and Purification
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Provision and Purification NUMBERS 18: 1-19: 22 The other day I was visiting a big church in another city. It made for an extraordinary contrast with my little church, where the pastor is the only paid person and the building feels very full if there are seventy people present. T…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Provision for the Sanctuary
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Provision for the Sanctuary
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Provision for the Sanctuary NUMBERS 7: 1-8: 4 We want to build a “proper chapel” at our seminary. We outgrew the original chapel decades ago, and for services we use an auditorium or a church adjacent to the campus. Now, one of the great cultural strengths of the United States is…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Save First, Spend Afterward
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Save First, Spend Afterward
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Save First, Spend Afterward Genesis 41:25-57 Writers and TV producers have noted that the cell phone and other technological devices have undermined some of the staple plot devices that make novels and movies work. In Casablanca, Rick need not have been in any doubt as to why Ils…
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…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Shoot The Messenger