Search Results
Job for Everyone - What Are Human Beings That You Pay Them So Much Attention?
Job for Everyone - What Are Human Beings That You Pay Them So Much Attention?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
What Are Human Beings That You Pay Them So Much Attention? Job 7: 1-21 I have an odd life compared with many of the people who live in the same city as I do. I never cease being grateful for the fact that I can work at home much of the time and that when I go to the seminary, it …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Weeping and Insomnia
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Weeping and Insomnia
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Weeping and Insomnia Psalm 126-127 Like anybody else, when I am worried, anxious, or preoccupied, I can’t sleep. Sometimes I don’t even know what it is that is preoccupying me. While I found sleep problematic for a while after my first wife died, in general I have this difficulty…
Job for Everyone - Where Could I Go But to the Lord?
Job for Everyone - Where Could I Go But to the Lord?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Where Could I Go But to the Lord? Job 5: 1-27 The story goes that sometime in the 1930s a Mississippi music teacher and Baptist deacon named James Coats was at the bedside of one of his neighbors, whose name was Joe Keyes. Joe was dying, and James asked him if he knew where he wo…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Wise Advice Treated as Folly
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Wise Advice Treated as Folly
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Wise Advice Treated as Folly 2 Samuel 17: 1- 19: 40 In the 1990s there was a political crisis in the state of Israel over King David’s good name. The Foreign Minister had been accused of slandering David in a parliamentary debate, and his words prompted three motions of no confid…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Words that Cannot Be Undone
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Words that Cannot Be Undone
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Words That Cannot Be Undone Genesis 27:34- 28:5 In lots of ways, words are powerful things. We can say things and wish we had not said them yet be unable to get out of their implications. A woman I know stood at the front of church and made her marriage vows, then subsequently di…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Your Name Will Be Abraham
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Your Name Will Be Abraham
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Your Name Will Be Abraham Genesis 17: 1-6 Names are important. My middle name is Edgar, which was my father’s first name. When I was being baptized, family legend says my grandmother leaned over to my mother and asked why it was not also to be my first name. My mother allegedly r…
friends, FOES and families - But we have the mind of Christ
friends, FOES and families - But we have the mind of Christ
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
But we have the mind of Christ 1 Corinthians 1—2; Luke 6, 12 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (1 Corinthians 1.20)...
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Advent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Advent Luke 3.1-6 Gazing on the Gospels year C Gaze on a lone hiker, setting out on a long distance walk in the Lake District, or Scottish highlands, perhaps. Imagine it’s you, dressed in the latest Gore-Tex® to keep out the wind and rain, waterproof trousers…
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 8 Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - Proper 8 Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Lectionary reflections - Year A Ordinary Time Proper 8 Jeremiah 28.5–9 Romans 6.12–23 Matthew 10.40–42 Ours is an age with a great deal of interest in ‘spirituality’. We have rediscovered that ‘spirituality’ is good for us and, like exercise and a low-fat diet, we pursue it, but …
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A
Lectionary Reflections Year A - The Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fifth Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 7.55–60 1 Peter 2.2–10 John 14.1–14 What are we Christians supposed to feel about the world we live in? All three of today’s readings suggest that, at the very least, the world is not our home. Stephen dies as though death is irrelevant, w…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 3 Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Proper 3 Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Proper 3 Genesis 45.3–11, 15 1 Corinthians 15.35–8 Luke 6.27–38 These verses in Luke mark a shift in tone from the preceding verses. The ‘blessings and woes’ section that comes immediately before this passage is about what is ‘now’, it is about results. But now Jesus moves from t…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Lent Joshua 5.9–12 2 Corinthians 5.16–21 Luke 15.1–3, 11b–32 Luke, the expert writer, puts the prodigal son as the third of a set of stories about losing and finding. All of the stories emphasize God’s joy at finding what had been lost, but the story of the p…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Ezekiel 43.27—44.4 1 Corinthians 13.1–13 Luke 2.22–40 Today’s reading from Ezekiel is chosen, presumably, because it connects well to the account in Luke of Jesus’ presentation in the temple. Both talk about the proper fulfilment of the law, and the …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Trinity Sunday Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Trinity Sunday Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Trinity Sunday Proverbs 8.1–4, 22–31 Romans 5.1–5 John 16.12–15 From very early on in the life of the Church, Christians read the figure of ‘Wisdom’ in Proverbs as a reference to Jesus. They assumed that God had already shown, in hints, characters and patterns of relating, what h…
The Pastoral Letters - Commands to Households
The Pastoral Letters - Commands to Households
by SPCK - N T Wright
Commands to Households Titus 2.1-10 I was at a meeting yesterday of the governors of a local school. The head teacher was presenting his annual report. With pardonable pride he described how the school choir had gone on a tour around three Canadian cities, singing in cathedrals, …
John for Everyone part 2 - Breakfast by the Shore
John for Everyone part 2 - Breakfast by the Shore
by SPCK - N T Wright
Breakfast by the Shore John 21.9-14 I don’t know much about mental health, and the therapy that can produce it. But I do know a little about the healing of memories, and the finding of a forgiveness that can go back to a buried hurt, fear, failure or sin and deal with it. I have …
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Born of God
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Born of God
by SPCK - N T Wright
Born of God 1 John 3.1-10 There are many stories about people who are blind who then receive the gift of sight. One of the most remarkable, of course, is found in chapter 9 of John’s gospel, where Jesus heals a man who had been born blind. But there are plenty more such stories i…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Christianity Declared Legal in Achaea