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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…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - You Could Suddenly Break, and There Could Be No Healing
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - You Could Suddenly Break, and There Could Be No Healing
by SPCK - John Goldingay
You Could Suddenly Break, and There Could Be No Healing The news is full of the story of a soldier in the U.S. army who ran amok and killed sixteen people in Afghanistan. When we discussed it at our Lent group last night as we prayed a psalm for him and for his victims, one of th…
Isaiah for everyone - A Politician’s One Fatal Mistake
Isaiah for everyone - A Politician’s One Fatal Mistake
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Politician’s One Fatal Mistake When I was the principal of a seminary, I would get lots of mail. Usually my assistant would open it, but on Saturday I would do so, and thus would get first sight of the tricky pieces of correspondence, ones that raised worrying issues or asked q…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Discipline Your Teenagers If You Can
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Discipline Your Teenagers If You Can
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Discipline Your Teenagers If You Can A mother recently told me how Christian parenting experts had urged her to start spanking her children; some said to continue only until the children become verbal, others at any sign of willful rebellion regardless of age…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Even in Laughter a Heart May Hurt
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Even in Laughter a Heart May Hurt
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Even in Laughter a Heart May Hurt A friend of mine told me last week about a dinner he and his wife had had with another couple. The other wife was my friend’s ex, but both couples are happily married so it seemed that this piece of history would not be a problem, and the couples…
Jeremiah for everyone - If You Can Find Anyone
Jeremiah for everyone - If You Can Find Anyone
by SPCK - John Goldingay
If You Can Find Anyone Last night we watched a Woody Allen movie called Match Point about a man who commits adultery and murder but by pure luck gets away with it. The last shots of the movie make clear that he’ll always live with the burden of what he’s done…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Love Is as Fierce as Death
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Love Is as Fierce as Death
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Love Is as Fierce as Death A recent movie tells the story of Edward VIII, who reigned as king of the United Kingdom for 325 days in 1936. Before coming to the throne he had fallen for a woman called Wallis Simpson who had not only committed the sin of being an American but also h…
Jeremiah for everyone - No Shrugging of God’s Shoulders
Jeremiah for everyone - No Shrugging of God’s Shoulders
by SPCK - John Goldingay
No Shrugging of God’s Shoulders Christians sometimes think that Jews believe they’re “justified by works.” I just came across a quotation from a Jewish commentary on Exodus from a thousand years ago, which undermines that assumption. Why do the Ten Commandments not appear at the …
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - On Heaping Coals
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - On Heaping Coals
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Heaping Coals Like many Libyans involved in the rebellion against Colonel Mu‘ammar al-Gadhafi’s government, Abdul Ghani Aboughreis, a worship leader in a Tripoli mosque, could reasonably have felt bitter against Gadhafi’s supporters…
Isaiah for everyone - An Invitation to Imagination and Hope
Isaiah for everyone - An Invitation to Imagination and Hope
by SPCK - John Goldingay
An Invitation to Imagination and Hope I was exchanging messages with a Pentecostal friend yesterday, the Feast of Pentecost, and was amused when he observed that oddly “we don’t really celebrate Pentecost in the Assemblies of God.” I don’t know whether his Pentecostal church has …
Jeremiah for everyone - More a Summons than a Vocation
Jeremiah for everyone - More a Summons than a Vocation
by SPCK - John Goldingay
More a Summons than a Vocation Last week I took part in a conference on God, the church, and disability. One participant was a woman who has been ordained a priest, but she has a speech impediment that makes it hard to understand what she says, and she has had difficulty finding …
Isaiah for everyone - What Will We Do When God’s Servant Is Deaf and Blind?
Isaiah for everyone - What Will We Do When God’s Servant Is Deaf and Blind?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
What Will We Do When God’s Servant Is Deaf and Blind? One of our bishops came to visit our church last Sunday. She recently moved to California from Maryland, and I asked her whether she missed the East Coast. Basically, she said, she was too busy enjoying the new things here, bu…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - It Takes a Miracle- Yahweh and Eli