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Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Sacred Inefficiency
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Sacred Inefficiency
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Sacred Inefficiency Deuteronomy 24: 1-22 Just once in my life I had to give someone the sack because we needed to economize in the seminary and we saw a post we could terminate without too much loss to the enterprise’s efficiency. The person had worked for the seminary for man…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Little Thing Can Have Terrible Consequences and Foreshadow Tragedy
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Little Thing Can Have Terrible Consequences and Foreshadow Tragedy
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Little Things Can Have Terrible Consequences and Foreshadow Tragedy 2 Samuel 6: 1- 23 I write this during Holy Week. In my Bible study group this week someone was expressing his unease with the way we speak of God’s sending his Son to be crucified. Is God some sort of masochist? …
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Snakes, and Progress and Another Attitude to War
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Snakes, and Progress and Another Attitude to War
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Snakes and Progress and Another Attitude to War NUMBERS 21: 4- 35 Yesterday in church I was aware, as I sometimes am, that many people make the sign of the cross at certain points in the service. I was never taught to do that, and I would feel self-conscious about trying to do it…
Job for Everyone - A Whimper and a Whisper
Job for Everyone - A Whimper and a Whisper
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Whimper and a Whisper Job for Everyone Job 25: 1- 26: 14 1 Bildad the Shuhite replied: 2 Rule and awe are with him; he brings about peace in his heights. 3 Is there any numbering of his troops, or on whom does his light not shine? 4 Or how can a mortal be right with God; how ca…
Job for Everyone - A Witness in the Heavens?
Job for Everyone - A Witness in the Heavens?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Witness in the Heavens? Job 16: 18- 17: 16 When I was a young assistant pastor in London (what would now be called a youth pastor, but youth pastors hadn’t been invented yet), one of the prize members of our largely middleclass youth group was a teenager from the local projects…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - A Strange Prohibition and a Surprising Experiment
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - A Strange Prohibition and a Surprising Experiment
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Strange Prohibition and a Surprising Experiment Genesis 2: 15-20 One of our friends has been looking and hoping for years to find the girl of his dreams, but he is getting older, and it looks less and less likely that this will ever happen. So he recently acquired a dog. At lea…
Exodus and Leviticus - Be Holy as I am Holy
Exodus and Leviticus - Be Holy as I am Holy
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Be Holy as I am Holy LEVITICUS : 19: 1- 18 Today’s newspaper reports on the release from a detention center in Iraq of a twenty-seven-year-old man, after eighteen months there. He was given a letter to say that his case had been concluded and the occupation authorities had decide…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - As Far as this Yahweh Has Helped Us
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - As Far as this Yahweh Has Helped Us
by SPCK - John Goldingay
As Far as This Yahweh Has Helped Us 1 Samuel 7: 2- 14 “Helping” can have a variety of connotations. On one occasion a tire came off my wife’s wheelchair when we were on our way to church. As I was bending down trying to get the tire back on, with Ann still in the chair, a car dri…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Babylon Becomes Babble-on
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Babylon Becomes Babble-on
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Babylon Becomes Babble-on Genesis 11: 8- 30 In England I had an Egyptian colleague whose first language was Arabic. When we were going to Morocco for a holiday, I asked him to teach me a few phrases of Arabic so I could at least say, “Good morning” and “Thank you” to people, but …
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Do People Change?
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Do People Change?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Do People Change? Genesis 35:1-29 We used to meet each week for dinner with a group of friends, including a pastor or two, a therapist or two, and a missiologist or two, and one of the topics we used to come back to was transformation. Mission is concerned with it; ministry is co…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Don't Look Back
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Don't Look Back
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Don’t Look Back Genesis 19: 15-38 The English make jokes about the Irish and use the word Irish as a term of opprobrium; it is a way of saying something is stupid. Other ethnic groups behave in similar ways; Portuguese people and Brazilians make jokes about each other. The Irish …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Friday Lunchtime
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Friday Lunchtime
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Friday Lunchtime Genesis 1: 26 We human beings are pretty self-centered creatures. For their Scripture reading, some churches (like mine) use a lectionary, a set list of passages for reading each Sunday, and when we read Genesis 1, we are inclined to jump from the opening verse (…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Honey, We Solved the Riddle
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Honey, We Solved the Riddle
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Honey, We Solved the Riddle JUDGES 14:1- 15:20 Only trivial things went wrong at our wedding. Admittedly, for Ann and me it was a narrow escape. At one stage her father said he would not come; that was the degree to which he disapproved of me. I had long hair, like Samson (being …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Grace Found Noah
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Grace Found Noah
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Grace Found Noah Genesis 6: 5-8 Early in our marriage, we adopted the mantra that the most destructive phrase in the English language was “you should have,” as in “You should have done this or that,” or “You shouldn’t have done this or that.” The phrase “you should,” as in “You s…
Psalms for Everyone - How to Dwell with God
Psalms for Everyone - How to Dwell with God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Dwell with God Psalms for Everyone Part 1 Psalms 1-72 Psalm 15 A composition. David’s. 1 Yahweh, who may stay in your tent, who may dwell on your holy mountain? 2 The person who walks with integrity, and acts with faithfulness, and speaks the truth in his heart. 3 He has n…
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church II
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church II
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Build a Church 2 EXODUS 26: 31- 27: 21 When I was a toddler in the latter part of the Second World War, family lore says that I used to watch the “fireworks” and the “bonfires” from my second-floor bedroom. These were actually bombs falling on the RAF airstrip that is now …
Isaiah for Everyone - How to frighten People into Repentance
Isaiah for Everyone - How to frighten People into Repentance
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to frighten People into Repentance A little while ago I went to preach at a new church that is part of the “emerging church” movement, which started in Australasia and the UK and spread to the United States. Its background is an awareness that the traditional churches are in …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - How to Be a Peacemaker