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Jeremiah for everyone - The Big One
Jeremiah for everyone - The Big One
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Big One One time when my elder son and his family visited us in California, there was an earthquake of the kind that you can feel but that doesn’t cause much damage, though it causes some unease if you’re used to the stability of London…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Bold Miscalculation
Jeremiah for everyone - The Bold Miscalculation
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Bold Miscalculation In church this Sunday morning, the first of our three passages from Scripture was the story of God’s asking Solomon what he wanted, that most testing of questions, a test that Solomon passed magnificently…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Distressing Dynamics of Wisdom and Power
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Distressing Dynamics of Wisdom and Power
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Distressing Dynamics of Wisdom and Power Several days a week I find myself reporting to my wife something from the news with the explicit or implicit comment, “How can people be so stupid?” This week it’s the fact that Western forces in Afghanistan had burned some copies of t…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Mouth of the Faithful Person is Fruitful
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Mouth of the Faithful Person is Fruitful
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Mouth of the Faithful Person is Fruitful I rode to my mother’s funeral with our rector, who told me a funny, poignant story about her. Being a mother, she had an exaggerated sense of her son’s significance…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Perilous Position of Prophet and Priest
Jeremiah for everyone - The Perilous Position of Prophet and Priest
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Perilous Position of Prophet and Priest Today we had a bumper crop of birthdays to celebrate at church; I was tempted to ask people to stand up if they were not having a birthday this week. As a wondrous coincidence, the Gospel reading was the story of a birthday party…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Wicked Play on Words in a King's Name
Jeremiah for everyone - The Wicked Play on Words in a King's Name
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Wicked Play on Words in a King's Name Names often matter. When we married eighteen months ago, I encouraged my wife to keep her name as it was so that in seminary and church circles it signalled that she continued to be a person in her own right and not simply my wife…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Things Complicated and Back to Front
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Things Complicated and Back to Front
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Things Complicated and Back to Front The time of our move to the United States in 1997 happened to be the moment when my disabled first wife, Ann, became totally wheelchair-bound. When I had been offered a job here a few months previously, she could still get about a little with …
Jeremiah for everyone - Things can only get worse
Jeremiah for everyone - Things can only get worse
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Things Can Only Get Worse As a newly ordained minister I was required to take part in “post-ordination training,” irreverently known as “potty training.” It’s no criticism of it that decades later I remember little about it, but I do have one vivid memory…
Isaiah for everyone - Three Ways a Prophet Speaks
Isaiah for everyone - Three Ways a Prophet Speaks
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Three Ways a Prophet Speaks It’s Pentecost Sunday. I came home from church with some mixed feelings. There were fewer people in church than usual (it happens also to be a holiday weekend), but the day had a sense of celebration, including red balloons flying from the pews. People…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Under the Sun, Where Randomness Rules
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Under the Sun, Where Randomness Rules
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Under the Sun, Where Randomness Rules There will be no remembering on their part, among the people who will be after them. I noted in connection with Proverbs 11 that I am inclined to think that nothing I do has any effect…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Yahweh Tests Minds
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Yahweh Tests Minds
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Yahweh Tests Minds A year after we came to California, one Sunday evening my son called to tell us that they had just had their first child on Monday morning in London. When Monday morning came in California, I rushed to book an air ticket to go back to London for the next weeken…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Yahweh's Name Is a Refuge
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Yahweh's Name Is a Refuge
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Yahweh's Name Is a Refuge We recently went for nine days to a country we had not previously visited. For some time beforehand, my wife was apprehensive because she had a sense that demonic spirits were active in this country. Kathleen doesn’t often talk in these terms, and neithe…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Condemnation of Scribes and Pharisees (2)
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Condemnation of Scribes and Pharisees (2)
by SPCK - N T Wright
Condemnation of Scribes and Pharisees (1) Matthew 23.13-22 I once preached a sermon in a church in America. I spoke particularly of the way in which the ancient pagan gods and goddesses were starting to infiltrate our culture once more, and how as Christians we should learn to re…
Isaiah for everyone - A Politician’s One Fatal Mistake