Search Results
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Appointing a New Leader
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Appointing a New Leader
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Appointing a New Leader NUMBERS 27:12-23 The rector of a church I know has announced that she intends to retire in a few months, and the church is in the midst of the process for appointing a new rector. The present rector has been there for twenty years and has led the church…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - On the Unimportance of Spiritual Insight
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - On the Unimportance of Spiritual Insight
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On the Unimportance of Spiritual Insight JUDGES 5:31b- 6: 24 I have just been talking to a couple I have not seen for a year or two, exchanging news about our children and their marriages and their families. This other couple has several daughters. The last of these was almost th…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Third Sunday of Advent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Third Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Third Sunday of Advent Luke 3.7-18 Gaze on all these people arriving at last by the river where John is busy baptizing the penitents. They run on eagerly, but when they get within earshot, they rock back on their heels, as he explodes ‘You brood of vipers!’ Is it for this tha…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 1 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 1 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 1 Isaiah 6.1–8 (9–13) 1 Corinthians 15.1–11 Luke 5.1–11 The question of the correct posture for worship – should we sit or should we kneel – is a perennial one. Well, if anything can make us less sedentary, it should be today’s readings. They are none of them conducive to …
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 20 Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - Proper 20 Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 20 Jeremiah 11.18-20 James 3.13-4.3, 7-8a Mark 9.30-37 What an emotional roller-coaster ride the disciples are on by this stage of Jesus’s ministry. Not that life with Jesus had ever been boring, exactly, but at least they had known what they were doing. Or they had though…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 2 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 2 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 2 Jeremiah 17.5–10 1 Corinthians 15.12–20 Luke 6.17–26 Paul’s discussion of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 has fascinated scholars and Christians alike. It shows clearly that the earliest preaching of the gospel contained the witness to the risen Christ. This is, as …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Saturday
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Saturday
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Saturday Genesis 1: 31- 2: 3 At the end of a week, many people wish they could look back over the week’s work and smile in satisfaction because they have a sense of a worthwhile job completed. But instead, they simply think with relief, “Thank God it’s Friday!” or wish, as Mark K…
Job for Everyone - Same Old, Same Old
Job for Everyone - Same Old, Same Old
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Same Old, Same Old Job 11: 1-20 As I write it is Holy Week, and last Sunday we read the passion story from Matthew with its exotic account of tombs opening in Jerusalem so that people came out and wandered around after Jesus’ death and in anticipation of his resurrection. It’s an…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Complications of Surrogacy
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Complications of Surrogacy
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Complications of Surrogacy Genesis 16: 4b-7 Establishing whether a couple’s problem in having children lies in the man or the woman involves stressful processes of medical investigation. When a woman who had gone through such procedures told me her husband had a zero sperm co…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The God Who Intervenes
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The God Who Intervenes
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The God Who Intervenes Genesis 11: 3- 7 I was talking to a young man training to be a counselor. The program involves undertaking a chaplaincy in a trauma unit and working with people with brain or spinal cord injuries as a result of a sporting accident, car crash, gunshot wound,…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Stairway to Heaven
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Stairway to Heaven
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Stairway to Heaven Genesis 28:6-15 When I would occasionally remember a dream and report it, my wife would say that she didn’t dream. Really she knew she did, because everyone does; it’s one reason why we sleep. But we don’t usually remember our dreams, maybe partly because t…
Job for Everyone - THe Way I Have Walked (III)
Job for Everyone - THe Way I Have Walked (III)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Way I Have Walked (III) Job 31 24-40 A year or two ago, a friend of mine lost his wife after she had been ill for a while, and to my horror I was aware of feeling something like satisfaction at this event because my wife had recently died after being ill for many years. Someh…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - To Be a Blessing
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - To Be a Blessing
by SPCK - John Goldingay
To Be a Blessing Genesis 12: 2b When my grandmother died, she left her legacy to be divided among her grandchildren. Her legacy was about two hundred pounds (about three hundred dollars), and we got about twenty pounds each. I bought two prints with it: one sits behind me as I wr…
Psalms for Everyone - We've Probably All Been Rescued from Death a Few Times
Psalms for Everyone - We've Probably All Been Rescued from Death a Few Times
by SPCK - John Goldingay
We’ve Probably All Been Rescued from Death a Few Times Psalm 18: 1-24 Between us my wife and I have had four or five illnesses that would have left us dead had we lived in most contexts in human history. We have both had appendicitis that might have killed us without medical inte…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Which Side Are You On? Neither
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Which Side Are You On? Neither
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Which Side Are You On? Neither JOSHUA 5: 2-15 We were discussing the book of Job in a class this week. I have abandoned giving a set lecture on the book because when students have read it as part of their preparatory homework, they come to class with many questions and issues the…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Where Are You?
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Where Are You?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Where Are You? Genesis 3: 4-13 “I can resist everything except temptation.” I am writing on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States. It’s the greatest shopping day of the year, popularly assumed to be called by that name because it’s when stores hope to get …
Job for Everyone - Why Are Times Not Kept by Shadday?
Job for Everyone - Why Are Times Not Kept by Shadday?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Why Are Times Not Kept By Shadday? Job 24: 1-25 Some time ago I used to follow a set of daily scriptural readings called Daily Light on the Daily Path that included verses on different topics for each morning and evening. The verses were printed on the main body of the page, and …
Job for Everyone - Who Moved?