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Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - A Story about Several Asses
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - A Story about Several Asses
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Story about Several Asses NUMBERS 22: 1- 23:4 I was once assistant minister in a flourishing suburban church that had a history of having notable rectors, one of whom was by then rector of one of the most high-profile churches in the country. I have never forgotten hearing him …
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - David on the Run
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - David on the Run
by SPCK - John Goldingay
David on the Run 1 Samuel 22: 1- 23: 24 The other day, a student was discussing his future plans with me. He believed God was telling him that he should stay at the seminary for another year to do further courses to improve his chances of getting into a doctoral program, that he …
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - I Have Kept Yahweh's Ways
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - I Have Kept Yahweh's Ways
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Have Kept Yahweh’s Ways? 2 Samuel 22: 21- 51 Last night I was talking to one of our students who served in the U.S. forces in Iraq as an antiterrorism operative. Like many soldiers, he came home with trauma that he has subsequently had to try to talk through over a period of ye…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - In the World And Also of The World
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - In the World And Also of The World
by SPCK - John Goldingay
In the World and Also of the World 1 Kings 20:1-21: 7 I am getting ready for a task force that is meeting next week to discuss the use of the Bible in the Anglican Communion worldwide. The meeting will be complicated because we include members of the Episcopal Church in the Unite…
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 - 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 …
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fifth Sunday of Lent Luke 12.1-8 Gaze on this cosy domestic setting, spruced up for a special celebration. It seems that this house is the nearest Jesus came to an adult family home. Martha is being Martha again – the carer in the kitchen. Mary is being Mary as ever – impetuo…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Third Sunday of Lent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Third Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Lent Luke 13.31-35 Gaze on Jerusalem today, in greater need than ever of her children being gathered together in harmony. It is a city divided between Jew and Muslim, Jew and Christian, with no-go areas armed by guns. Churches are locked. Doubt and suspicion …
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Shoot The Messenger
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Shoot The Messenger
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Shoot the Messenger 2 Kings 6:24-7:20 I muse from time to time on why it is that many Christians today fret about war more than Christians in previous ages. It’s not simply because they are following Jesus—at least, most previous generations of Christians did not think this way, …
Job for Everyone - The Mysteries of Nature
Job for Everyone - The Mysteries of Nature
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Mysteries of Nature Job 38 39- 39: 30 Often the first thing I hear in the morning is the squawking of a group of parrots who wander around our city, the descendants (says the urban legend) of pet birds that escaped from or were released by their owners. When I sit at my desk,…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Peril of Other People's Faiths
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Peril of Other People's Faiths
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Peril of Other People’s Faiths JOSHUA 23:1- 16 In the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. State Department financed visits to universities and seminaries in the United States by Muslim scholars from abroad as part of efforts to foster mutual understanding between “the Muslim World” a…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Problem of Insight
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Problem of Insight
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Problem of Insight Genesis 30:4-21 A number of my students are training to be family therapists, and they are often intrigued by these stories in Genesis. They are excited to find how dysfunctional these families are because in their own way they match our dysfunctional famil…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Tale of Two Women
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Tale of Two Women
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Tale of Two Women 2 Kings 4:1-44 Among my friends are a number of young couples who have been hoping to have children, and it has never happened. They then go in for medical examinations of various kinds and for treatment of various kinds. One couple had eggs implanted, but the…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Unfinished Business
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Unfinished Business
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Unfinished Business NUMBERS 31:1- 34 Two or three years ago, out of the blue, I received a phone call from a Jewish lawyer in Los Angeles. He had self-published a book called Twenty-six Reasons Why Jews Don’t Believe in Jesus, and he wanted me to make sure that his statements abo…
Exodus and Leviticus - Vocation
Exodus and Leviticus - Vocation
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Vocation EXODUS 3: 11- 4: 17 In my seminary in England, most students had already been accepted as candidates for ordination, but in my seminary in California many more people come not sure what ministry they may seek or even what denomination they belong to. So we have an Office…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Welcome to the Wild Wild West